I’m always looking for new ways to celebrate old traditions around our house.

One of those oldies but goodies I remember fondly from childhood is sitting around the Thanksgiving table - staring down my brother for the rights to be the first one to dig into the fresh perogis - taking turns telling everyone what we were grateful for.

We were always told to come to the table with a list - ad lib frowned upon as an unwillingness to take the whole thank-you process seriously.

And, honestly, I loved it - disappearing into my room while my mom made the house smell like holiday magic to think through all of my favourite things.

Yeah, I was grateful for Pop Rocks and chocolate chip cookies. But, grandmas, fun at school and the parents made the list (my brother, well…:))

In the quest to establish some of our own annual events, I wondered how I could incorporate that tradition into an age-appropriate educational activity that adults wouldn’t find horribly cheezy either.

Then I was reading through Amanda Blake Soule’s The Creative Family the other day and discovered her idea of the Gratitude Alphabet.

In true Soulemama fashion, Soule leaves tons of room for improvisation and creativity - dropping the lovely notion of a tradition in your lap and letting you run from there.

I loved it, 26 letters, everyone in the family coming up with one thing they are grateful for that begins with each letter.

It’s thoughtful. It’s silly. The tiny person, while not totally convinced about its merit in the tradition department, is totally happy running up and down the wall of letters singing and coming up with her own words - which in my book is a success.

After spending a recent chilly afternoon coming up with our version, I knew this was a tradition that would stick - evolving with the family every year, recording the goodness from the previous 365 days that we could look back on each Thanksgiving and remember that life - even in all the chaos at times - is pretty darn good.