Thanksgiving

 

I think that this may be the first time that I am in the photograph for Thanksgiving, after twelve years of celebrating this holiday.  Apart from my first year in this country when we visited my friend Karen's family, we have spent every Thanksgiving with our good friends the Buschs and whomever else they took pity on invited. 

There have been some smaller gatherings, especially in our pre-kid days but this may have been the largest. They moved sofas and chairs to make room for the super extended table, so that we could still all sit at a table and feel civilized and like one big happy family. With twelve adults (another two had been expected) and six children, this was no mean feat.

As is our tradition, we went around the table and each person prayed or stated something for which they were grateful. With so many people rather than having free reign this year, each person was asked to keep it to one sentence, so that the food would still be moderately warm by the time we were finished. None of the children, other than Arran opted to say anything, but he said the sweetest little heartfelt prayer, thanking God for Thanksgiving because he had so much to be grateful for and he liked that it was a good reminder for him.

As usual there was way too much food, and too much dessert, but it was all so good. We have leftovers in the refrigerator for lunch tomorrow which is always a nice bonus and one less thing to deal with on another day. 

We have so much to be thankful for, on a daily basis. Each night before I go to sleep I reflect on my day, no matter how hard or tiring or fun it was and thank God for as many things as I can think of, but I love that this country as a whole sets aside a day to do that too. There is always something to be grateful for and the world would certainly be a better place if we all focused a little more time on those things than on the things that drag us down.