Full of Gratitude Jar

Keeping a gratitude jar is a great family tradition! A gratitude jar is one way for the family to think about and share what they are grateful for.

November is an especially meaningful time to make gratitude part of our daily practice. Of course, gratitude is important all year but this November I’m going to make it our family focus. It’s such an important concept to teach our children both through conversation and action. I’ve seen lots of gratitude jars on Pinterest, as I’m sure you have. I decided this month was the perfect time to take action. You could, of course, start anytime but November couldn’t be a better time.

Being grateful gives us a new perspective – it opens our eyes up to all of the many blessings around us. It always seems the more we give thanks, the more things we find to be grateful for.

Our family tradition is to have a gratitude jar. A gratitude jar can be put into practice in many different ways. We choose to use our gratitude jar to collect moments we are thankful for throughout the month.

Materials needed:

• Jar
• Leaves
• Marker

These materials were all found at Dollar Tree. We spent a grand total of $3! Now, we have a gratitude memory jar and it’s a festive fall decoration for the house!

We started our gratitude jar by writing a few things we are thankful for right now. We will continue to write small moments from each day that we are thankful for and place the leaves in the jar. A good time to reflect might be after dinner or even before putting the kiddos to bed.

This activity opens the door for a conversation about gratitude. Taking time to reflect, reminds us of the small things each day we have to be thankful for. Now imagine Thanksgiving Day. Gathering your family. Opening the jar. Pouring out all the little leaves, full of memories and sharing them just before the meal.

Why I’m Thankful

I have so much to personally be grateful for – family, friends, and good health. I love that we live close to our family. We often see my brother and sister-in-law and we really get to live life together and watch the five cousins make memories together. It’s been one of my greatest joys since moving last year. We’ve been in our new house now for a year and we couldn’t be happier! We’re also grateful that we’ve had a chance to get to know our neighbors. We see the boys making new friends and the community feel is wonderful. I continue to appreciate the opportunity to integrate my stay-at-home-mom life with sharing my motherhood joys through blogging.

When reflecting on your year, what are you thankful for?

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