Family Traditions- Part One

I have many special memories of holiday traditions.  One of my favorite memories started the first of November when the big glass jar would be placed in the center of the table.  My grandparents and I would start the day, as we always did, with quiet time with GOD.  I was taught that before the day could begin the road map needed to be studied and the guide needed to be asked what direction we were being led to go.  Afterwards we would have breakfast and discuss what we found while studying the road map and which way we felt the guide was directing us to go this day.  After breakfast it was time to address the glass jar which I could never wait to start this tradition.

I was taught and still live my life to the best of my ability to this day to be grateful in every situation daily.  At this time of year, we have this tradition of the glass jar.  The glass jar was a symbol of our testimony of our gratitude.  The only two rules was that we had to list all the things we were thankful for and that we didn’t sign our names to the thank you. The first day of November we would write a thank you to GOD of all the things we know or knew He was doing in our lives.   The second day of November we would write a thank you to a family member of all the things we know or knew that that person was doing or had done for us.  The writing of thank you to a different family member of all the things we know or had done for us could take up to six days depending on how many people are in the immediate family.

The next entries into the glass jar are in some ways almost as important as the first day.  These entries are thank you to the many different people who we may or may not know their names.  These entries are also done one person a day. This would last until the day of Thanksgiving and on this day, we would take all the pieces of pater out of the jar and my grandfather as the head of the house would read out loud each piece of paper then we as a family would pray over the many papers.

This was not the only jar that was placed out on the first of November so stay tuned to hear about the other jars and more family traditions.