My family and I started our ‘gratitude pumpkins’ this week on October 1st and I think it might just shape up to be an annual tradition because we love it already.
What the heck is a ‘gratitude pumpkin’ you might be asking?
Here’s the deal:
You get each member of your family a pumpkin (we received small pie pumpkins, but any size will do).
Each family member writes down something they are thankful for or happy about for each day in October (or for whatever amount of time you choose).
Each night at dinner time in our home, as we sit down and begin to eat, everyone reaches for the black sharpie marker to scribble down their daily item.
Now I’m not going to lie, when I first brought the pumpkins out and I told my boys what the plan was, there were definitely a few groans of protest, eye rolls and disappointment that we wouldn’t be dissecting and carving these pumpkins… and that Mom had come up with one of her crazy ‘mooshy’ ideas again.
But, and I am super happy about this, the loudest groaner, has had the most insightful scrawlings – “front line workers,” “to have ingredients to cook with and eat,” “to be alive,” a picture of a 🍕 ?
Some of the other additions have been: fall colours, our health care system, lifelong friends, a garden to pick flowers from (that was mine), walks in the rain …. and to think we are only in the first week of October with so many days ahead.
Of course, you can do your own version of gratitude pumpkins – perhaps you want to fill an entire pumpkin during one sitting at the Thanksgiving table? Or choose your three biggest things you are thankful for? Or maybe you would prefer to have one large pumpkin for the family to fill in together? Search ‘gratitude pumpkin’ up on Pinterest and you will see tons of different options and looks.
Whatever you choose, I highly encourage you to try it out.
While we are experiencing such a chaotic 2020, and when the world seems so filled with horrible news sickness and hate …. a simple little gratitude pumpkin is worth every penny and every minute spent feeling good and remembering how fortunate we are and how much good we have in our lives, even when it’s tough.
Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving week!
Need a dessert to go with your pumpkins? Might I suggest Pumpkin Swirl Brownies?
From my kitchen table to yours,
[…] Gratitude pumpkins […]