Can you believe that many of us are less than one week away from Thanksgiving?  {Canadian friends, you can celebrate again next Thursday too…I won’t tell}!  I love that we have one holiday a year devoted just to being grateful for the abundance of blessings we have.  It’s not about presents…we don’t exchange any.  It’s not about decorations or about some mythical figure {imagine if we told our kids about a big giant turkey who went around leaving things under their pillows or something!}  Instead, it’s all about family, good food, and celebrating together all that we have.

But the reality is, it’s so easy to get caught up in other things.  We need to stop and focus and be intentional about counting our blessings.  To help do that in our family, we started the tradition of the Thankful Pumpkin.

All you need to make one is a pumpkin and a permanent marker and a heart full of gratitude.

Each day, Little Crafter and I sit down and add a few things we’re thankful for to the list.  As we go, I just turn the pumpkin and write them down one after the other.  Sometimes we ask other people too, like hubby and my grandmother and other folks who visit us and add their blessings along with ours. Yesterday, we pretty well ran out of room on this year’s pumpkin, so LC thinks we should bring another one inside and start over.  Here it is when we were still in progress…you’ll notice Starbucks made the list.  Of course.

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Last year was the first year we did this, and you can see our pumpkin was much smaller.  This year, we challenged ourselves with a larger one and I loved how as he watched it fill up, Little Crafter just kept saying, “Wow, we have so many things to be ‘fankful’ for, Mommy!”

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He also said “All of our blessings come from God, right, Mommy?”  What sweet words to hear.  We must be doing something right.

In addition to writing our blessings on the pumpkin, we also play the “thankful game” during meals sometimes.  We take turns going around the table and saying the things we’re thankful for.  Today, how are you focusing on the many reasons you have to be grateful?  Is this a tradition you could start with your family?

(Added 9/2019)
I can’t believe how this little project of ours has taken off! Last fall, I had the honor of sharing it on today.com, KSL Studio 5, and Scary Mommy, and from there it spread to families and groups all over the country. I love browsing the Instagram hashtag #thankfulpumpkin and seeing all the blessing-filled pumpkins being created. Girl scout troops, preschools, Mommy and Me yoga classes, and even some Starbucks stores are jumping on board with the tradition!

Check out this cool photo from the East Bend Starbucks in Oregon!

If your family or group is participating, I’d love to see! Show us your pumpkins on social media, tagging @amylattacreations and using #thankfulpumpkin, or share in the Amy Latta & Friends Facebook group!

Be sure to check out these other ideas for fun, family-focused fall projects!