Skip to main content

Our Book of Thanks

One of my very favorite holiday traditions is our Thankful Jar. I love seeing those colorful papers add up in the jar throughout the month. Every year, after Thanksgiving is over and I am switching all of the decorations from Turkeys and pumpkins over to Christmas trees and stockings, I am kind of sad to throw away our collection of papers inside the jar.

A few years back, I read this post on eighteen25 about a book they keep every year. While their tradition only takes place on Thanksgiving day, and incorporates all of the guests they have over for dinner, I was inspired to create a book just for our family. Luckily, I had saved our papers for a couple of years! 

Here is our Book of Thanks...

I just designed the outer cover, and printed the inside blank.



Each year gets 2 pages. I usually snap a picture of all of us on the couch right before we leave for dinner somewhere, and then I hand copy all of the things we wrote and added to our Thankful Jar on the opposite side. Even then, there are always a couple of papers I can't part with that the kids drew on or make me smile. So I just glue them on. 




I love looking at it as I bring it out every year. Not only to read through things we are thankful for, but to see where our family was at that moment. Or to remember the time I burned my forearm pulling the rolls out of the oven right before we took this photo...




Or to remember the little turkey onesie I made for Max this year (and that in the chaos of getting everything ready to go I forgot to take our annual photo on our couch)...



That was also the year that every single one of Avery's papers looked like this.. 


And the year Harvey went from drawing pictures to writing words...


Time flies. And it feels good to slow down a little and appreciate all of the little things we have and do together. It fills my heart. :)

Comments

  1. Protect your device from malware and viruses by downloading, installing, and then activate mcafee activate McAfee product. It is a popular and well-known antivirus software present in the market. McAfee offers complete solutions for protecting devices from malware, viruses, and other threats.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Here you can get thing keys for Office 365 full structure and individual Office apps.Here we are giving full help to present www.office.com/setup pack.

    ReplyDelete
  3. McAfee has comprehensive cyber security solutions. Get the McAfee product and download, install, and activate McAfee with ease. Access your McAfee account through mcafee activate protect unlimited devices with McAfee's complete virus protection and Internet Security.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Highly popular among the PC users, the Norton antivirus www.norton.com/setup software has been eliminating malware, viruses and other kinds of online and offline threats from affecting the performance of a computer for years.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My Norton makes it simple for you to set up norton.com/setup your Norton assurance, check your security status, and stretch out your insurance to different PCs, Macs, cell phones, and tablets.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Particularly organized guide how to download,install and start your MS Office 365, Office 2016,etc. on any contraption. In the event that you have discover any issue in making your Office account, by then visit this site office setup irrefutably causes you.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Concise and top-notch privatewriting.com reviews. My writer was also open to suggestions and comments which I love. I love that my first draft was ready 4 days to the deadline and all revision done by deadline. Will definitely use your services again and recommend friends.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Awesome book! It is a nice idea for present. I will buy such book for my team https://essayslab.com/essays.html. We are the best essay writing service and it will be nice to have this book in the office.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This Much Card and a Kid Canvas

Father's Day ideas continued... I decided to show you the things Harvey and I made to give to Justin. First up... "I Love You This Much Card": It's super easy... 1. Trace your child's hand, then cut out two copies. My paper was double sided so I made sure that when the thumbs match up - the yellow side would be inside, and the blue side would be outside. 2. Cut out a strip of paper and fold it accordion style. Use letter rub-ons or stickers to add the words "I Love You" on the outside, and "This Much" on the strip of paper.  3. Glue the ends of your accordion strip on the insides of the hands and your card is done. :) Kid Canvas: Then Harvey and I made a little canvas (4 inches x 4 inches) to hang on the wall in Justin's office at work. I purchased small ones so we could add to them each year and hang them in one grouping. I prepainted the canvas in green, then set Harvey in the bathtub with blue paint and

Thinkin' About Dad

So.. Father's Day is in 10 days. Yeah - already. Here are a few ideas for you... Shirt Card: All you need are two papers, and two buttons. 1. Cut one paper into a piece 4 inches by 11 inches. Fold it in half so you have a card base that opens "up" and measures about 4 inches wide by 5.5 inches tall. 2. Measure one inch from the fold and draw a line 3/4 inches toward the center on both sides of your card.  Use scissors to cut through both papers at the marks. 3. Fold these pieces in to the center of the card, so the top corners meet in the middle. 4. Download this tie pattern... Here is an alternate link to download the file: Shirt Card Template ...and use it to trace and cut a tie out of your second paper. Glue your tie in the center of the card. 5. Add buttons to the collar to make it more realistic. (Or, if you want to do it digitally, go here to download an awesome template from ScrapMatters.com) Here are some clutter-free Father's Day gif

DIY Canvas Car Playmat

So, my baby turned two yesterday. And I just KonMaried my house and I am SO. OVER. the toys. And the kid clutter. Plus he has both a big brother and a big sister, and they have toys that cover all the basics. But we still have loads of birthdays and Christmases in our future, so what in the world am I going to give? Anyway, my internal brain rant ended when I came up with this idea. It meets all of my current criteria: It is durable.  It is open-ended and fosters imaginative play. It folds up small and can be stored with like-items in our toy storage system. It encourages cooperative play. My hubby had a mat like this one when he was a kid, so I asked my mother-in-law to give me some details on how to make our own. I bought 60 inches x 45 inches of duck canvas and ran a zigzag stitch down the raw edges. Then, (after planning out the city on graph paper measured and accurately scaled proportionately, then folding the canvas to help rescale my plan) I drew in the c