I think Thanksgiving is the most underrated holiday around. It’s all about food, family, and grateful heart, it’s warm and comforting. A couple of years ago, I started feeling frustrated by the lack of love for Thanksgiving. It was almost jarring to me that Thanksgiving ended and all of the sudden we were talking about Christmas gifts, service projects, and the Gift of Christmas. December started and we jumped into Advent calendars and the season of generosity and giving. I wanted a “warm up” if you will. So the next year I started a thankful board.

I bought my supplies and made what basically became a Thanksgiving Advent calendar, for lack of a better term. It is a large painted canvas with 30 numbered pockets glued to it. Each pocket has a piece of paper in it and every day leading up to Thanksgiving each member of our family shares what they are thankful for. I write it down on and I save them because it’s really fun to see what we were all most thankful for a few years back.  There is a lot of gratitude for Lightning McQueen, the gym, and babysitters.

The idea is that our family is focused on the purpose of Thanksgiving: reflecting on the things that we are most grateful for. In doing this, we start the Christmas season with hearts that are already full. Bonus is that a thankful board is also a really cute fall decoration.

Here is what you will need:

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• 1 large canvas

• Paint

• Paper craft envelopes (like these)

• Decorative paper

• Decoupage

• Glue stick

• Number stickers

• Letter cutouts

To make the board:

• Paint your canvas

• Place the words “Give Thanks” or whatever your choose on the top of your canvas

• Cut the envelope flaps off so they make a pocket. You may need to cut the envelopes down to a size you like that fits on your canvas if you can't find small enough ones

• Cut decorative paper to cover the front of the envelopes and glue the paper down with a glue stick

• Put number stickers on each envelope and glue them down on the canvas

• You can decoupage over the paper and stickers if you want

• Put blank pieces of paper in each pocket so you can pull them out and write down what you are thankful for