This holiday season I decide to try something new with my family…the Gratitude Jar…and wow was I impressed!

Every year around the holiday it seems to be more and more about gift giving and receiving and the true spirit of the holidays were being fogged
away! This year I really wanted to enlighten my children about how lucky they  really are so over the last 2 weeks, we used dinner time to write down one thing every night that we were thankful for. I thought my family would be unimpressed with this as they are in their teens but to my surprise, they had the jar out every night before I even mentioned it. They loved the idea. They loved writing  and sharing what they were thankful for and I was so happy to hear that none of the things they wrote were materialistic at all. They were thankful for friends, a family, food for dinner, health and so many more things. This really melted my heart. But what I couldn’t believe was their excitement about paying it forward which is step 2 of the Gratitude jar lesson. Now that we are full of gratitude, it’s time to share it and that’s what the next 3 weeks will be all about for our family. 

Every day for the next 3 weeks will be about doing something for
someone else. It can be small or big but the point is that every day we will do  something. At our dinners, we will still pull out the jar and write down what we did to share our gratitude. I could not have expected his to go any better. My family seems to surprise me every time. I thought this was going to be a lesson on gratitude for them but I realized that this was actually confirmation for me
as a parent that I’m doing a good job…and at the end of the day, that’s all any parent wants!

This holiday season will be the best ever because I have realized
that with giving to others and sharing our gratitude, our heart is filled with more joy and love. I am so excited to share this with my
family!

Here are a few things I will be doing to help pay it forward over the next few weeks. Hope you will join me and make this a brighter season for others!

Buy a coffee for the guy in line behind me.
Let the person behind me move in front.
Say something nice to a stranger
Bring something to your neighbor
Open the door for someone
Let someone in front of you while driving
Bring a coffee to a friend
Call a family member you haven't spoken to in a while
Drop off some new mittens to local charity
Help someone shovel their snow
Return a shopping cart
Donate at least $1 to charity
Donate blood
Thank the mailman
Send a thank you to first responders (Police, Paramedics & Firemen)
Leave a positive comment on a blog
Spend 15minutes being silly with family
Fill in donor card or ask someone to fill in theirs
Give away my parking spot.

Debbie Fazio
Parenting Coach
preciousmomentsbabeez.com

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