Skipping Thanksgiving or not..

Thanksgiving can be tough, can't it?  Trying to get multiple families schedules together, trying to get little ones to sit down long enough to eat, trying to get a conversation in while chasing little ones, trying to get a dinner ready all at the same time without one dish being completely cold or unappetizing.  Different personalities, differing opinions, the drive to and from or the hosting, cleaning, cooking.  It's enough to make one want to skip Thanksgiving. 

Every year I sit down with my thoughts and the reasons to skip.  I sit and think and every time I'm taken back to my childhood and what I want for my son and that's all it takes to make me re-think. 

When I was a kid, we always slowed down on Sundays, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  These days were sacred. Days to give thanks. Thanksgiving was intended to be a holiday to celebrate our thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year.  In this day, our harvest might be our family, our friends, our job, but regardless my heart says, "slow down and take the time to give reverence for your blessings."

My grandparents rocked my world.

I thought of my grandfather as John Wayne.  He had a deep, hardy voice that always bellowed my name at the top of his lungs.  He was partially deaf from driving a tractor most of his life, but his bellowing only enhanced his charm in my eyes.  He always smelled of fresh mowed hay and the red and white peppermints he loved.  I can still hear his voice as he said the blessing before our meals.
My grandmother was tiny but feisty.  She could pull out her shotgun and shoot any rattlesnake within 25 feet of the house, but when she spoke, she always spoke softly and her eyes always twinkled. On cold winter nights, we would bundle up together and I would ask her about God and faith.  I considered her the expert on this topic and she always had an answer that

made things right in my heart.  They were cotton farmers and lived a good distance from their local church.  Because of this distance, they spent many Sunday mornings in what I like to refer to as, "The Church of the Kitchen."  I have the most beautiful memories of those Sundays.  The smell of my grandfather's coffee and my grandmother's biscuits wafting into my bedroom and hearing "Amazing Grace" or "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" playing on the tape player.  I loved the framed painting of the Last Supper that hung over their dinner table and I loved how much they loved it.  I know they watch over me now from their perch in Heaven and when I think of giving thanks and counting my blessings, I count them among the biggest.

I can't skip Thanksgiving! I have too much to be thankful for. 

With that said, I share my thanks with you.

I am thankful for my loving and supportive husband.  I am thankful for my benevolent son.  I'm thankful for the 42 years I had with my beautiful, loving and gracious Mother. I am thankful for my dad, twin brother, older sister, little brother and well the whole bowl of cereal whom I call, family.  The flakes, the fruits and the nuts of which I am very much one!  I am thankful for my friends, who have seen me through thick and thin. I am thankful for my home and for the knowledge that when I leave this planet, I have another more beautiful home waiting for me. I am thankful for my church and my church family, inspiring role models, kind strangers, life's challenges and my ability to learn from them.  I'm thankful for technology and what the future holds.  I am thankful for family traditions, holiday gatherings and I am thankful for my faith.

I have been given so many gifts and I am thankful for each and every one, but most of all I am thankful for this day of giving Thanks and this blog which gives me the opportunity to reflect and write down on all that I have to be thankful for. 

I have decided once again. I will be hosting Thanksgiving this year and when I start the day, I'll say a little thanks to God for all my blessings and for the ability to say yes to this occasion.  Then... I might just pour myself a little champagne cocktail.  *One more thing I'm thankful for!

 CHEERS!

p.s.  I am thankful for you!