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. :)