Thanksgiving Traditions | Thankful Chain

Holiday traditions make every holiday more fun. We have so much to be thankful for, but I love this time of year that when everyone has more gratitude in their hearts. Especially as the ponder all the things they are grateful for through the months of November and December. I am a primary teacher in my ward and a couple of weeks ago they challenged the primary kids at night when they pray, to only thank Heavenly Father for things they are grateful for. I have noticed that just in the three week time span I have noticed so many new little things I am grateful for. Things I hadn't recognized before.

I have always been a list maker since I was little. I loved all kinds of lists. To do lists, shopping lists, lists for parties, and even grateful lists. For many years my grandma would give each of her grand kids a small notebook the month of November and tell us to write down 5 different things each day we were thankful for. It was so fun to look through the list as Thanksgiving neared and see how blessed we really were.

My kids are too little to write by themselves, so I started a new tradition. The "Thankful Chain" is what we call it. Every day each member of our family writes on a slip of paper one thing we are thankful for. We place it around our door that we look at every day as we play in the living room, and walk by every time we leave the house. It is the perfect reminder each day how blessed we are to not only have each other, but everything we have listed on our thankful chain. Kenidy is only four but is able to see the blessing in her life and comes up with her own things to put on the thankful chain. Some of my favorites of hers have been:

Kenidy

-Unicorn socks

-Strong legs to run

-Primary friends

-House

-Miss Mindy (preschool teacher)

-When Vince snuggles me

-When dad comes home from work

-That mom plays with me

It had been a rough day. The kids had tore out every toy they could find, spread it across the whole house, and someone was crying most of the afternoon. Kenidy came up to me excitedly and asked "Mom, do you want to play with us?" I agreed. That night when I asked what she was thankful for without hesitation she happily told me "that you play with me!" I made me realize that those short 10 minutes that we played were her favorite moments of the day and how much I love doing the thankful chain so I remember to ask what she is thankful for.