This year, it was very important to me to get Leeland involved. In years past, he has been too young to understand, but this year we are battling the "I wants" hard core.... It's human nature really, we're all incredibly selfish without Christ, but I guess I was so alarmed because I didn't expect the "I wants" to begin so early. He was spouting off a laundry list of items he wanted for his 4th birthday a week after his 3rd birthday. I love that we have such generous friends and family who love to shower and spoil our boys for their birthdays and Christmas, but it makes it really hard to teach thankfulness.
The hope is we go through this 30 days of thanksgiving to help prepare his heart for what's to come. He's so excited about Christmas coming (and I am too), but I want him to enter this holiday season thankful for what he has and not anxious about what he will get.
Since he's only 3, I knew a visual would be of importance, so I cut out leaves and hearts out of construction paper, and we've been writing something we're thankful for down everyday and attaching it to a long piece of yarn, creating a garland. (I wish I could remember where I found the display idea, not sure if it was a Pinterest, a friend, a catalog... But it's really cute and working well.)
This is what Leeland and I have come up with each day--
Day 1 & 2--
Day 8--
Day 9--
Day 10--
I've done my best to let him choose what we write down each day and he definitely keeps me on my toes. I will admit to asking him the question ("what are we thankful for today?") more than once on some days because a lot of times his 1st response is whatever object catches his eye in a room first. Haha!
It's been interesting, and he keeps me on my toes with some of his responses. This will definitely be a nice addition to our family traditions.
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