Our Thanksgiving Advent

There’s just something about November.

I need it. I crave it. It begins the day after Halloween, where make-believe is at its peak; and although I love an evening of gluttonous candy and costumes, there’s just something dark and unsettling about the night. I wake up November 1st thankful it’s over and ready to re-align my heart for the coming months.

November challenges us to go deeper. To be thankful. To have hearts of gratitude.

November is a blessing.

I need November because I REALLY love December. Without November, December would exhaust me. I would decorate, impulse spend, and wrap til even the elves were impressed. But November grounds me. It gives me time to reflect and re-prioritize on what I truly care about, not on what advertising campaigns and catalogs try to lure me with.

November allows me to enter the holiday season with a heart of gratitude not desire.

So this month, I’m going to write about what that looks like in our home, and how I am preparing my heart and my family’s heart for Thanksgiving. One way we do this is through a Thanksgiving Advent.

Our Thanksgiving Advent Calendar

Each evening in November, we each write on a card something we are thankful for.

Sometimes it’s a list. Sometimes a drawing.

We place the card into the corresponding day on our felt advent calendar.

On Thanksgiving night, we read each of the cards.

I save these cards to remember. They reveal so much about the heart of our family…particularly those cards written when life was not easy. I cling to the cards of years past, cherish them, and am thankful to God for carrying us through the rough patches. I am thankful for His faithful goodness. I remember… and my faith is strengthened.

I made YOU a set of Thanksgiving cards. Click here to chose your style and print.

I’m thankful for you and hope your hearts are filled with gratitude and joy this November. Allison

For more festive ideas and activities, I just started a Thanksgiving board on Pinterest that you can follow.

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17 thoughts on “Our Thanksgiving Advent”

where did you get the pocket chart? I really like it and the idea!

I absolutely love your Thanksgiving advent calendar! Did you make it or buy it??

Great post! In my classroom I had an “I Am Thankful For. . .” message in a glass frame, and every day (all year long) I chose someone to write what they were thankful for that day. It was interesting how their “thankfuls” changed as the year went on, from “my toys” to “the trees that give us oxygen”!
My name is Linda Karchmar. I am starting up a shop called Linda’s Montessori Shop. selling all my 3,000 used books from 30 years of teaching Montessori, and later all my Montessori materials. It’s not open yet, but I have over 400 books on right now. If you sign up for e-mail messages (on the front page) I can let you know the day before launching! Since most of my books are singles, this is a great advantage for you! I thought that my Shop might be especially useful for parents such as yourself. Thank you! Hope to see you there! http://www.lindasmontessori.com
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!

PLEASE share with me where you got your advent calendar from, thank you!!

Allison Hendrix | November 12, 2013 at 3:58 pm

I got it at Pottery barn Kids a few years back. I believe they still carry something similar though. We love it!

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