Gratitude

I have enjoyed reading everyone's posts this month on the things that they are grateful for. What a wonderful tradition to devote not just one day, but an entire month, to thinking about and sharing with one another the precious gifts in our lives.

Our family has had a similar tradition for the past few years. On Thanksgiving we pull our gratitude journal out of hiding. Each night between Thanksgiving and Christmas, as part of our bedtime ritual, we record one thing that each of us is grateful for.

I started this tradition hoping that by focusing on our blessings, we would be less inclined to come down with a case of the "I wants" leading up to Christmas. By keeping our focus on what we have instead of what we want, we don't lose sight of the spirit of Christmas (or at least that is the goal, and it seems to work pretty well!)

We started this practice in 2008, when Isak had just turned 4 and Becca was about to turn 6. It is fun to go back through and read the things that we have been grateful for. I have the sweetest memories of Isak, with his fingers in his mouth, expressing his gratitude for candy, gum, cookies, snacks...you get the idea. Becca, with stars in her eyes, would give thanks for Barbies, sparkling Christmas lights, her favorite tree ornaments, etc. For Jeremy and I, our greatest treasures don't seem to change that much from year to year - home, family, friends, sleep, warmth, cooperative children...

Because I truly have the desire to blog more frequently, I have decided that taking a few minutes each day, or a couple time a week, to post what we have recorded in our gratitude journal, would be a simple way to contribute to our blog more regularly, at least for a few weeks (then maybe I'll be in the habit and keep it up!)

So, here is what we recorded last night...

Isak is grateful for the planets, because Earth is one of them.

Becca is grateful for Adam and Eve, because without them, we wouldn't be here. She is also thankful for the Church.

Mom is grateful for relaxing and productive days like today.

Dad is grateful for the DVR.

We have had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! We spent Thanksgiving day at our house with my extended family. Yesterday we had just the right combination of relaxation, fun and work, and today is turning out just as nicely. Today we are going to help Grandma Judy and Dan put up their Christmas tree and then we are going to spend some time with Jeremy's extended family. Hope everyone else (at least the handful of you who read our blog) has had a Happy Thanksgiving as well, and that we can all look forward to Christmas with an attitude of gratitude.