Thankful

Our Thankful Jar, autumnal decor, and one of my favorite Thanksgiving books, a book of poems by Jack Perlutsky.

 My absolute favorite time of year is here! I live or the time between early November and New Year. The crisp air, the first snowflakes and then snow storms, Election Day (even when the results are less than desirable...), and all the fun family time, cozied up in our little house. All the very best things come during this time of year and I'm so pleased it's finally underway.

One of my favorite parts of November is our Thankful Jar tradition. I wrote a bit about this last year, but I wanted to re-share a bit this year and show you this year's word cloud. 

You see, what we've done each year since 2009 (!) is fill our lovely glass pumpkin jar with something we're thankful for each day. On Thanksgiving night my husband and I take turns reading what we all wrote. It's been especially fun this time because E. is able to write her notes herself, so while in years past I've known what she's thankful for each day, this year it'll be a surprise when we read our thankful notes aloud. 

This year I made our word cloud using Tagxedo from last year's notes. While I usually use all the previous years' notes I was very disappointed that I could not find the envelop I had put them all in! Hopefully in the massive house cleaning and organizing I have planned for after Christmas will churn them up - it would be awful to lose four years worth of notes!

The beauty of the word cloud is that it truly highlights what our family is most thankful for in a fun and creative (but totally easy) way. It also has worked really well in a classroom setting and provided kiddos with a great product to go home with to show their families (we did this in my special ed classroom a couple of years ago, to great success).

Of all our holiday traditions (and there seem to be more brewing each year), this one is my favorite. It's quiet and thoughtful, no treats or loud exclamations, but simply a moment or two out of each day to think outside of oneself and wonder at what has made that day particularly exceptional.

Getting My Thanks On

For the last four years for the month of November, until Thanksgiving, we've been following a little family tradition. There's a glass pumpkin shaped jar that sits on our kitchen table with a pile of colored paper and a felt tipped pen. Every day, when we get the chance, my husband, E. (with some help), and I will write down something we're thankful for that day.

Thanksgiving night, after we've come home from a long day of traveling along routes 117 and 4 in between eating way too much, we gather in the living room or on the bed and take turns reading what we were each thankful for every day that month. It's my favorite Thanksgiving tradition and I have saved nearly every single one of those scraps of colored paper since we started back in 2009. And so, for the second year in a row, I have taken all those notes on what we were thankful for and created a word cloud.

I love making these because they are vivid and simple. It takes a month's worth of effort and packages it up nicely. This year I used Tagul, though in years past I've used Tagxedo. Both are pretty good, though I've decided I prefer Tagxedo.


I adore family traditions of all kinds, and I love coming with them even more.I can't say how unbelievably pleased I am that this tradition has stuck for as long as it has.

What traditions do you look forward to to this time of year?