Making a Grateful Chain

Last Friday, our playgroup hosted a small Thanksgiving party, complete with turkey sandwiches, pumpkin muffins, and other seasonal goodies. As a part of it, we thought it would be fun for the kids to make a grateful chain, something I remember doing (and loving) several times when I was in elementary school. We cut strips of construction paper, asked all of the kids what they were grateful for, wrote it on the paper, and stapled them together into links to form a chain.

In case you are wondering what kinds of things 2-3 year olds are grateful for? Pizza and chips. Tigers. Ninjas. Legos. Caillou, princesses, iPads, and the song Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Oh, and this little guy?

He was grateful for himself. He said it over and over again, his own name, every time we asked him. At first we thought maybe he didn't get the purpose of the exercise but you know what? I think he did. And I think it's very important to remember to appreciate the sheer miracle of your own existence from time to time. Only just 3, and Little C.'s already got this worked out.

Our chain grew and grew throughout the party as we moms added links to it (I confess that I got a little teary-eyed as I listed off my own thankfuls: healthy family. Missing cat returned. New house. Good friends.) By the end of the party our grateful chain was so long that it had been stepped on a few times and patched several more, thanks to a post-lunch surge of boisterousness. But we didn't mind. We're thankful the chance to run off a little steam, and especially for the midafternoon nap that's destined to follow.

What are you grateful for this year? I'm grateful for you readers, the ones who have been reading from the beginning and the ones who have only just stopped by. Thank you for being here!