What am I grateful for?

It's not Thanksgiving quite yet.. but I was reading my Book of Mormon tonight and came across a verse that overwhelmed me with such a desire to be grateful.. and to write and share those things. And after all, as soon as Halloween is over everyone will jump to celebrate Christmas, forgetting much of Thanksgiving and the importance of gratitude... so I feel like it's acceptable to share this post a little early in the season.. and really, we need to be grateful all year long. So I think it's alright :)
First off, I want to share that scripture I read... I don't know if anyone's read it the way I did tonight, but it just stuck out to me. It is Mosiah 24:22, which is talking of Alma and his people, who had been persecuted and in bondage by the Lamanites.... and were finally delivered with God's help. This verse says:

"And they gave thanks to God, yeah, all their men and all their women and all their children that could speak lifted their voices in the praises of their God." 

I'm not totally sure why, but the part that stuck out to me was the last part... that all who could speak lifted their voices in praise... That image seemed so powerful to me. Imagining this group of people who had suffered so much and were probably hungry and tattered from their trials, needing to distance themselves from the source of their bondage... yet they stood together and gave thanks to their God... All of them. Every person who was physically capable of speaking expressed their thanks to God. This group of afflicted people did everything in their capacity to show their thanks.
This made me wonder what I am doing to show my gratitude to God after literally giving me EVERYTHING... am I doing all that I am capable of to show my gratitude? Do I speak with every part of my existence that I am grateful for and love my God? Do I do so in every action, word, and thought? Do I worship him with every part of my body and soul? It made me think of the scripture 2 Nephi 25:26

"We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."

Am I talking, rejoicing, and preaching of Christ? Do I heed what the prophets and scriptures tell of him and personal revelation from the spirit? Do I write according to these things so that others and my future children will know of my belief? I realized that I want to do a better job of showing that I am a follower of Christ. That I worship him and love him. That I am eternally and overwhelmingly grateful to him. I don't just want to do this by expressing gratitude as I pray, or writing a silly blog post.. I want to live this! I want every aspect of my life to reflect my love for him. How I treat people, how I treat myself- in how I take care of my body as well as how I treat my mind- do I sit around wasting time? Or do I dedicate time to putting knowledge into that mind he's given me? Spending my time with good people who lift me and make me want to do even better, and spending time with people whom I can lift as well. Sharing these beliefs with people... whether it be my family, friends, strangers... whoever! Letting that love of the Lord reflect on who I am and allowing it to make me happier and therefore allowing that happiness and light to shine out to people and make them curious and willing to know for themselves. People who are entirely dedicated to the gospel are the happiest people I know, so why not do all I can to be one of those happy people? I think I can do so by showing my love and gratitude for my God :)

So there's my spiel on gratitude... :)
But there's more.... I need to share the Thanksgiving craft Daina (my roommate) and I did last night! We were bored of sitting doing homework, so looked at crafty ideas on pinterest (my new best friend since being here at school) and decided to make Thanksgiving wreaths! I found this pin... so we decided on the idea of making gratitude wreaths... :)

We got supplies and made a wreath for each of our doors... so we could tape leaves to each one saying things we were grateful for/liked about that person. I think it was quite cute and brilliant of us :) Here's the picture of the wreath on mine and Daina's door... It's going to be so nice and full of happy gratitude-filled leaves by the time Thanksgiving rolls around! :)

Here are pictures of us making them... :)

One of the other finished wreaths... without any leaves pinned on yet

Writing a nifty little poem to instruct our other roommates on what to do with the wreaths :)

It was quite a lovely craft... fun and good to encourage a spirit of love and gratitude for each other! I thought it would be fun to do at home with my family throughout the month of November... but I won't be home before thanksgiving to join in on the fun :( It would be a good little activity to encourage feelings of gratitude for one another though :) Or just one wreath on the front door could have general things you're grateful for... just some fun little ideas! :)