Give A Gift of Thanks

Every Thanksgiving seems to bring about the same thing: a huge family dinner, football game, and everyone groaning about how much they shouldn’t have eaten. This year, why not do something different? Give a gift of thanks to someone you love.

Usually people only consider Christmas to be the time of year to give special gifts. But Thanksgiving is the perfect time to give someone this special gift of thanks—a gratitude journal.

A gratitude journal is a notebook that is filled with things you are thankful, or grateful, for. It is special because not only does it help open your eyes even more to the small things that we so often overlook, but it helps someone else to see us in a new light, too.

A gratitude journal can be kept all year long, if you’d like to give a plump journal to someone. However, you can create a nice, simple, small gratitude journal in a very short amount of time.

First, choose a small journal. Usually a pocket-sized notebook with a hard cover is the perfect size for this project.

Second, decide who you are going to create this gratitude journal for. Perhaps you want to show your spouse how much you love him/her. Maybe you haven’t felt as connected to your teen as you once were. Or maybe you miss your best friend that you haven’t talked to in a long time.

Next, think about what you want to include in this journal. Think about all the ways that you are grateful to have this person in your life.

Finally, begin to write a list on each page of the things you are grateful for. The size of your gratitude list on each page will depend largely on how big your journal is. If it’s a pocket-sized journal, you might write 5 things per page. If it’s larger, you might be able to fit 15 or 20 per page.

When you have every page in your gratitude journal filled, it’s time to package the journal. If you want to recover the journal, do so now. When you’re finished, wrap the journal in a fall wrapping, then give it to that special someone on Thanksgiving.