Making A Thanksgiving Gratitude Chalkboard: a house log

You likely know of our little Thanksgiving tradition of filling up our homemade “Thanks Jar” with gratitude notes throughout November. We hoped to keep the tradition going this year, but our book tour kept us away most of the month and it got away from us. So this weekend we chose to sneak this tradition in right at the buzzer… while putting a new spin on it thanks to our new chalkboard.

The word art at the top of the board was a joint effort. Sherry searched something like “fairly script” on Pinterest and tried her best to imitate what she saw for the word “thanks.” A curlicue here. A flourish there. Then I got in there with some distinct colors to shade things in and add “Give” and “2012” in my “man font” as she called it. I think we were moderately successful.

I in fact like doodling distinct letters and fonts a lot (type geek, represent) but this task nearly got the best of me. Using chalk myself in fact gives me the heebie-jeebies BIG TIME. Something about the sound of it. The feel of it grinding against the board. The potential screechiness of it. It does not happen when Sherry or Clara are scribbling away, so perhaps it is the feel of it in my own hand? Yah – it is weird. But this project was like therapy for my chalk-phobia. What does not kill you makes you stronger, right? I can now check “chalk use” off my list of things that I’d prefer never to do in this lifetime. It is not THAT bad.

Shortly after getting our little piece of art done we got down to showing some gratitude. With the assist of about $10 in Target magnets and some spare, cut-up cardstock our little “Thanks Board” was looking more like this by the end of the day:

Oh and see those few magnets made from round disks of wood with stripes of paint on them? Those were in fact handmade by Megan who gave them to us at one of our signings. She simply used small wood disks and some tape + paint + magnets glued to the back. Are not they excellent? We enjoy them the most.

We opted to write things that we are thankful for on paper cards because (a) we could later store them in our thanks jar along with our 2010 and 2011 collection and (b) I could avoid having to write directly on the chalkboard any more than necessary. Baby steps, people. Baby steps.

We even got Clara in on the action for the first time ever. It was a bit of a struggle to explain concepts like gratitude and feeling thankful to a 2.5 year old (“Think of things or people that make you glad or glad!”) but she did spit out a few gems. Our hearts melted when she said “Mommy and Daddy make me glad!” A few others were: a balloon, the bookstore, and Bridget’s party (she’s the gal next door who rents a moon bounce (#bestneighborsever).

Here is a smattering of some of the cards that we each drew up. Since I wrote Clara’s we tried to assist distinguish hers from mine by letting her color on her own with crayons. For example, I am thankful for Skype (especially last week!) and Clara was thankful for Bridget’s aforementioned party (see those festive scribbles?).

Clara got distracted before we wrapped up, though. So, for the record, I am not the one who is thankful for her Play-Doh cookie cutters. That is all her.

Oh, and warning: kids + magnets can be quite dangerous. We had a quite firm talk with Clara about the magnets not being toys or food. She’s past the phase of putting anything in her mouth, but we did not want her to think the magnets looked like candy or anything. We overheard her later telling Burger that he could “look but not touch them because they are not yummy and they are not food and ice cream is yummy and that is food” and had a pleasant laugh. And in the end (after we shot all these photos) we moved all the smaller round ones up on the board to be fully out of her reach and used the larger not-swallowable ones for the lower area – simply to be on the safe side.

We are truly glad we took the time to squeeze this little tradition in again this year because it is a truly satisfying process to write out what we are thankful to have in our lives… even if they are simply plain things like a good TV show to escape to once a week. Yup, Dexter made the board.

And while I am sure we could’ve easily filled the whole board with things, people, and events that we appreciate, we were sure to leave a good chunk at the bottom open for Ms. Chalks-A-Lot.

She clearly did not inherit her father’s aversion to the stuff.

We hope everyone celebrating Thanksgiving this week has some wonderful food, safe travels, loving company, and plenty to be grateful for. Heck, here is wishing the same thing even to those who are not celebrating any official holiday. And with that, I cannot assist but share our Thanksgiving greeting from last year.

Oh Burger, you slay me. Glad face-stuffing to one and all!

Looking for more Thanksgiving traditions? Check out these posts:

• A free Thanksgiving printable to mail messages of gratitude to friends & family
• A Hands-on Thanksgiving craft glass-etched Thanks Jar
• Our daughter’s first year writing Thanks Jar messages

Update: You can check out all of our go-to holiday decor finds here – many of which are under $15!