Challenge Your Family to Express Gratitude This Year
Need a shift in perspective for your family? Why not challenge your family to express gratitude this year. You may be surprised at the difference it can make!
Once November arrives, everyone switches into full holiday mode.
This includes the need to consider plans for Thanksgiving.
Something that I strive to do in our house is to make sure everyone recognizes our blessings and adopts an attitude of gratitude.
Even though we strive for this, the practical application can be a challenge.
This year I am getting prepared by making ‘fill-in-the-blank’ papers for each family member to use as prompts.
I’m sharing them here in case you’d like to challenge your family to express gratitude this year whether at Thanksgiving or throughout the year.
Express Gratitude
Sometimes this is simple to do.
When you receive an unexpected blessing or gift, it can pop quickly to your mind to thank the giver.
But, expressing gratitude for the people in your life who know and push all of your buttons can be difficult.
I decided to create slips to serve as prompts for my boys and am sharing them here with you.
Instructions are simple: Print out enough slips for each family member to write a note of thanks to each of the other family members.
In my family of 6, that means printing out enough for 30 slips of paper (8 sheets will give me 30.)
Place the slips in a basket with pens for writing.
Put the basket somewhere that everyone can access.
Completed slips can be folded and placed into another basket or mason jar set aside to collect them.
Once you are sitting around the dinner table, people can take turns pulling out a slip to read.
Permanent Memorial of Your Gratitude Challenge
While these are done as strips of paper, I want to add them to a bound composition book for future memories.
What better way to remember why you love someone when the going gets tough than to look back at a gratitude journal?
Your journal could be a pretty journal purchased at the store or a composition book bought during the back-to-school season.
I believe the composition book will work better for gluing or stapling the written slips of paper.
However, if your family members are older, then a pretty journal that everyone can write in would be lovely.
Personally, I would love to have one journal per family member so we can all have a way to experience an emotional lift on days when we are down.
Supplies to Help Express Gratitude More Easily
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Paper for printing the slips
Composition books or a journal to save the slips
Colorful Pens or Colored Pencils
Does your family take time at Thanksgiving or other family meals to give direct thanks?
Have you ever tried to have them write things down?
For more Thanksgiving and fall ideas, visit a few of my favorite bloggers:
- Hot Spiced Cranberry Cider by Confessions of an Overworked Mom
- Coconut Cream Pie Recipe by A Mom’s Take
- Slow Cooker Green Bean Casserole by Mom Does It All
- Pumpkin Lebkuchen Donuts by 2Boys+1Girl=OneCrazyMom
- Turkey Sweet Potato Chili by Home And Garden Cafe
- Peanut Butter Cup Cake by Simply Southern Mom
- Heaven’s Delight Pineapple Marshmallow Thanksgiving Dessert Recipe by Pretty Opinionated
- Thanksgiving Craft: “Give Thanks” Wooden Blocks by Better in Bulk
- Delicious Chocolate Genoise Recipe by OurFamilyWorld
- Easy Thanksgiving Centerpiece by Upstate Ramblings
- How to Make Pumpkin Gnocchi by Jennifer Sikora
- Fun Turkey Cupcake Idea by Kids Fun Reviewed
- Fall Harvest Pins DIY Fall Harvest Craft by Blessed Elements
- Hearty Chicken and Vegetable Soup by Sweet Lil You
- Soft Baked White Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies by Savvy Saving Couple
- Mini Fall Leaf Decorated Cookies by How Was Your Day?
- Homemade Apple Muffins by Momma D Jane
More Gratitude Focused Posts here at Day by Day in Our World
Gratitude Post Series
Series of posts on why gratitude is important and how to implement your own gratitude challenge.
It is always great to be thankful and this is such a great idea. We did place mats one year with the theme of beinging thankful.
I like the idea of placemats! That would have been great when we had multiple families under one roof as the kids could be creative and occupied.
This is such a great idea for any family! I will definitely be doing this with my family in the near future!
What a wonderful idea. It’s so easy to forget to be thankful for our family members.
That’s why it popped to mind. It can be much easier to see all the faults rather than the positives.
That is such a wonderful idea. We do something similar on Thanksgiving. This year though, I have decided to do a 30 days of gratitude scrapbook for the entire month of November. I hope it reminds me that I need to be continually thankful for the blessings in my life – not just on Thanksgiving.
I am thinking about doing the same thing, too, Jen. Although it might be ME keeping a daily journal and do a weekly one with the boys.