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It seems very appropriate today to blog about gratitude. Yes, it’s been done, and personally I just never get tired of it.

With Thanksgiving upon us, I find myself working to make the holiday meaningful. This year my family is all going to be far away and my husband and I will spend a quiet Thanksgiving dinner with the four of us. I started feeling sorry that we wouldn’t be part of a huge celebration or that it would be like any other dinner. Then I said to myself, how lucky am I that I have a family who can do there own thing once in a while without anyone feeling bad. How lucky that I can cook at a leisurely pace because my husband will be at work and I have no one to entertain all day but the twins.
How lucky am I to have a family to celebrate Thanksgiving with and that I can afford an organic free range turkey.

You see, living in gratitude starts by adjusting your view point. Most of us look for the negative first. We are conditioned to see it, by the news and by experience. Thanksgiving on the news is all about busy airports, canceled flights, families torn apart by bad weather sleeping in airports. So that’s what we end up focusing on without even trying.

If you can get on top of this, and intentionally focus on what is good, soon it will be all that you see. So start this year, by thinking about everything you are grateful for about your Thanksgiving. Do you have a place to go? Do you have friends to break bread with? Are your parents still alive? Still together? Are there children who will be running around laughing, bringing home turkeys made from their little tiny hands? Do you enough money to buy food for Thanksgiving Dinner? Do you have a relative coming that you can offer your unconditional love to vs. your judgment?

Now go beyond the Thanksgiving itself, take stock of what you are grateful for in life. Can you afford coffee? Did you sleep in a cozy bed last night? Do you have a friend to call or a relative to write? Do you have someone to love? Do you have a dream to ponder? Relish these things.

So often we take for granted the basics because of the daily grind. We are unintentionally blinded to what we have because we get used to it. We just hop in our hamster wheel and drive to work, buy cranberries, make a turkey, welcome the family without a thought as to how lucky we are. This year be very intentional about your gratitude. When you are stuck in traffic as you travel this week, be grateful that your heater works, or that your windshield wipers are doing a good job.

So Here it is in a nutshell-

Start by taking stock of what you are grateful for right now…

Want more? Make a list of everything you have…

In each Holiday card you send, write, “I am grateful for you because….”

Give back. Find a food bank and carve turkeys on Thanksgiving morning. Plant a tree. Invite a lonely friend over. Show compassion to your cantankerous relatives. Snow blow your neighbor’s driveway while they are at work. The person who needs your love or your smile is the person who fails to give love or a smile.

Life is good. Notice it!

Hello my friends! I’m starting to get excited about the holidays and have promised myself to be more present this year. What that means is I want to get a jump start on holiday gift shopping, making and card writing. I want to enjoy these things vs. wait until the last minute and stress about doing them.

So I’d like to share with you a couple of gift ideas that I’ve come up with to spread the love to your friends and family. This year I’m trying to give gifts with meaning and love vs. a high ticket item. So here are my two favorite gifts to give.

1. Gift Journals – Supplies Needed: A journal with blank or lined pages, Magazines, Stickers, Quotes, Photos, Glue Sticks, Tape or Sticky Dots

Directions - Sift through your favorite magazines, photos, catalogs and find quotes and sentiments and images that you love. Cut them out and paste them sporadically through out the journal with inspiration in mind. Leave room for them to write their thoughts, dreams and hopes in there. Write them short notes to inspire their thoughts.

Examples are: “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”, “What are you afraid of?”, “Where have you always wanted to go?”, “How have you created your sacred space?”

Write an introductory note about why you love them, or love being friends with them.

Wrap the journal in beautiful paper and ribbon. It is a gift they will cherish for years.

2. Love Books - This deserves an explanation. One year, my husband asked for a bundle of love for his birthday. Well as you can imagine, that’s a bit hard to wrap. So I came up with this idea…
Supplies Needed: A Small or Medium Sized book, A color printer, Photos

Directions - Start by sending out an email (letters if you prefer and have plenty of time), Ask people who are friends, coworkers and family of the person you are making the book for, What do you “love” about this person. Then ask them for a photo with their reply. When the reply’s start coming in print the responses and paste them into the book one per page with the photo of the person who sent the response.

When you give the gift, they will be showered with love that they can reference for years to come. Every couple of years, you can sneak the book back and add new entries from you or new friends or family members.

So if you are in the mood to get crafty and share the love have fun and get started. If you live in Tahoe, check my website for live classes for these gift ideas here at the Nourish Office!

If you aren’t one for crafts – give the gift of coaching. Click here and give someone an experience they will enjoy and remember for their lifetime.