Thanksgiving

20 11, 2023

Traditions at Thanksgiving

By |2023-11-19T12:58:16-06:00November 20th, 2023|A Writer's Life, Holidays, Writer's Life|0 Comments

We’re celebrating Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

Time for family reunions, food, fun, travel, football games, Black Friday,

and expressing thankfulness

The American celebration of the day began during the Civil War when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”

Football games and Black Friday were not included on that first Pilgrim Thanksgiving in 1621, but the basis for our modern Thanksgiving festivities remains the same.

Families will gather to give thanks for their blessings.

Our clan will bring all the Thanksgiving feast fixings to our youngest daughter’s home where her famous brine turkey will fill the house with yummy scents.

Years ago, she started a family tradition that has become our favorite part of the day. Besides being the best turkey cooker, she’s a professional photographer and scrapbooker. Every year when we arrive at her house, she hands out cards.

On that card, we write what we are thankful for that year. She snaps a picture with her Polaroid Instant Camera which we affix to our thankful card. Before we eat, we share what we’ve written on our cards.

At the end of the day, she gathers all the cards and puts them into a yearly scrapbook. The highlight of our yearly gatherings is looking back through Thanksgiving scrapbooks from years past.

We have a lovely day filled with traditions that remind me of Tevye’s words in the song from Fiddler on the Roof.

"Tradition. Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as... as a fiddler on the roof!"

Thanksgiving traditions, while lovely and touching, aren’t based on the things on the table or around the table but on the love that surrounds us.

May you have a blessed Thanksgiving filled with love.

22 11, 2021

Reasons I’m Thankful to Be a Writer

By |2021-11-21T06:20:12-06:00November 22nd, 2021|A Writer's Life, Holidays|0 Comments

Thanksgiving in the United States is just around the corner. Cornbread for dressing is baking in the oven. The big bird’s thawing in the frig.

It’s time to focus on thankfulness.

 

As a writer, I’m thankful for so many things.

  • A supportive spouse who is my walking research resource and also happens to be the best critique partner, plotting budding, and editor ever.
  • Writing friends who support, cheer, and listen to my rants.
  • Non-writing friends who ask how’s my writing is going and accept that deadlines can interfere with get-togethers.
  • Family members who let me talk about my characters as if they are real and always answer my wild questions.
  • The imaginary friends and their voices in my head. Without them, I couldn’t do what I do.

Then there are the uniquely writerly things

  1. I get to work in pajamas.
  2. I always have a blank page to start fresh.
  3. Life is filled with funny stories, daily struggles, and multitudes of blessings, so there’s always be something to write about.
  4. My first-try draft doesn’t have to be perfect. Think about it. Professionals like doctors and dentists can’t say that.
  5. Edits and revisions do, in fact, eventually end.
  6. My Google searches haven’t gotten me arrested…yet. (I’m probably on watchlists, but so far no one’s come after me.)
  7. I can escape into other worlds – ones I create, and the ones other authors have created for us to read.
  8. Reviews! Even one or two-star reviews mean a reader’s read the book.

So many blessings in my writer world. What’s in your world that makes you feel thankful this Thanksgiving?

23 11, 2020

Celebrating Thanksgiving in Quarantine

By |2021-11-01T06:29:09-05:00November 23rd, 2020|Holidays|1 Comment

Thanksgiving arrives this week for those of us in the United States. Before COVID-19 struck, we had a week filled with family reunions, food, fun, travel, football games, Black Friday, and being thankful.

Not necessarily in that order.

All that was very different from how Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving in 1607. Those were days of prayer, not days of feasting with services deeply grounded in religious beliefs and gratitude to their Heavenly Father.

Some of that changed in 1621 when the Wampanoag Indians were included in the festivities. Dancing, singing secular songs, playing games were added. A very secular celebration that would have shocked those first celebrants.

During this pandemic when we’re being told not to gather at all. Celebrating will be different again. Difficult. Sad.

Thanksgiving won’t be the same as last year’s, which may be a good or bad thing depending on how your day went last year.

But don’t let this pandemic madness stop you from celebrating. Here are four ideas for quarantine celebrations.

  1. Host a virtual get-together. Zoom is lifting it’s forty-minute call limit so you can visit together longer.

If you want to avoid controversial topics of conversation? Download a printable list of conversation starters from the Alice&Lois blog.

Are missing the younger grandkids? Start with a Zoom craft-making session. Tracing hands to make a turkey and then writing something you’re thankful for on the finger-feathers is always fun.

  1. Light a fall-scented candle and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It’s still happening though different thanks to COVID restrictions. It’s reassuring when Santa arrives at Macy’s.

3. Take a family walk or bike ride. Enjoy the fresh air outside.

4. Keep a notebook handy and jot down something each day that you are thankful for. Then share on Thanksgiving.

Use your imagination. Be creative. And don’t forget to include things from the original holiday like prayer and thanksgiving.

29 11, 2019

Grateful for YOU

By |2019-11-28T10:12:10-06:00November 29th, 2019|Thanksgiving, Writer's Life|0 Comments

Whether  you’re in a part of the world that celebrates Thanksgiving  or not, we want to say how  grateful we are for you, our View from the Front Porch readers. Chicken Wrangler and I truly appreciate the time you take to leave your comments.

Thank you for hanging out with us these many years.

We’re recovering from our own overeating yesterday and have taken today off.

We’ve decided to reduce our stress this year and, in December, we will begin a countdown to the number one viewed blogs from Miller Farm Friday and the Front Porch in 2019. I think you’ll find which blog posts drew the most views interesting. We did.

Hope you see one of your favorites.

6 11, 2019

Thankfulness and Gratitude – Amiel

By |2019-11-05T17:07:55-06:00November 6th, 2019|Thanksgiving, Wednesday Quote|1 Comment

About the graphic

This photo was taken by Jenny Caywood and offered on Unsplash.

About the quote

Henri Frédéric Amiel was a Swiss philosopher, poet, and critic. I love this quote because it clearly differentials the difference between thankfulness and gratitude.

Being thankful is the first step to gratitude. Expressing thankfulness in words leads to gratitude.

Something to think about as Thanksgiving approaches.

 

 

 

 

 

26 11, 2018

Family Traditions around the Thanksgiving Table

By |2018-11-25T19:22:27-06:00November 26th, 2018|Holidays, Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

Our children are married with families of their own and some of their children are married so our attendee number for holidays varies every year.

This Thanksgiving we were only missing the members living out-of-state. The rest of the clan – all seventeen of them – arrived with their traditional offerings to share.

Daughter #2 served as hostess and prepared a Pioneer Woman brine turkey that was moist and tasty and the dressing and homemade cranberry sauce. Her traditional chess pies were baked this year by her step-daughter. Tradition remained though the cook varied. As she said, “it’s good to pass the torch.”

Daughter #1 brought pecan-crusted sweet potatoes and a bag full of yummy baked goods like cranberry orange bread, enough for all to carry home. And, a can of jellied cranberry, a husband’s favorite.

One Aunt brought deviled eggs and brown-and-serve rolls, her annual contributions. She served the eggs on a special egg dish of another gone-to-glory aunt. We felt her presence, smiling down from heaven.

Another Aunt brought her special recipe cheese ball. This was the first Thanksgiving she and her husband weren’t together in their fifty years together. His Parkinson kept him at his Memory Care home. The beginning of new tradition, we’re hoping.

Granddaughter #1 brought her husband’s family tradition – a pound cake made by his grandmother’s recipe. A new tradition, we all agreed when she and hubby join our festivities. Newly married, they alternate holidays between their families. We had them this Thanksgiving.

Step-daughter’s mom joined in with homemade mash potatoes that were creamy and smooth. We’re counting on a repeat performance for next year’s Thanksgiving feast.

I contributed the scalloped corn and the classic green bean casserole and an orange pineapple jello salad no one has eaten since they were toddlers. I can’t seem to stop myself

A vintage 1950s fall tablecloth covered one of the tables. A remnant from family or a prize antique shop purchase, no one remembers. It’s just always been around along with the honeycomb tissue paper turkey in the center of the table.

Pepa carved the bird and grandchildren lined up for first tastes of slices from the carver himself. We all know nothing tastes better.

The football game played on the very large screen TV. Grandsons and Pepa cheered their team to victory.

The granddogs, banished to the bedroom, quietly wondered at all the commotion and Auntie’s dog, who came along, relished the pats and extra laps.

All in all a lovely day filled with traditions that remind me of Tevye’s words in the song from Fiddler on the Roof.

“Tradition. Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as… as a fiddler on the roof!”

But I was also reminded Thanksgiving traditions, while lovely and touching, aren’t based on the things on the table or around the table but in the love that surrounds us.

22 11, 2018

Thanksgiving Blessing

By |2018-11-22T06:51:07-06:00November 22nd, 2018|Holidays|2 Comments

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. The day to think about all the things we are thankful for. You, our readers, are top of the thankful list for Chicken Wrangler Sara and me. We offer this Irish blessing for you and yours.

Happy Thanksgiving!

5 11, 2018

Two Ways to Develop an Attitude of Gratitude

By |2018-11-02T15:59:04-05:00November 5th, 2018|Holidays, Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

I know blogging about thankfulness and gratitude in November is cliché, but what better time to focus our thoughts on thankfulness and gratitude.

After all, we do celebrate Thanksgiving Day in America this month.

Too often, though, our attention on thankfulness is missing for the rest of the year.

Being grateful is a choice. If you’ve lived most of your life NOT focusing on gratitude, it’s not so simple to change that perspective.

Here are two ways to help you cultivate an attitude of thankfulness beyond one Thursday in November.

Keep a thankful list.

It’s sometimes hard to write down things that you’re thankful for, especially on those terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad days, but over time the act of physically writing out a daily list can produce an grateful attitude.

Start your list with simple things like a bed to sleep in. A house that keeps you dry and warm. The sunrise/sunset. If you look around you, there is so much to be thankful for.

If writing out a list isn’t for you, you could try grateful beads. That’s what I use.

My grateful bead string has ten beads to help recall things to be thankful for. Three beads for three people who touch your life. Six beads for six things, events, and occurrences and the final bead to remind you to give thanks to your creator.

You can find beads like mine here  or do a search online for grateful beads. There are many options.

Share thankfulness on social media

We are a plugged-in culture, which makes it next to impossible to avoid social media altogether no matter how hard we might try. Social media sites are filled with an abundance of thoughts and images of wars, earthquakes, floods, fires, sick children, murdered spouses and, lately, politics.

By sharing positive, uplifting posts, memes, and videos instead of those, you encourage attitudes of thankfulness in yourself and others.

Give these two ideas a try, I think you’ll find an attitude of gratitude grows the more you use it.

20 11, 2017

Thanksgiving Festivities Around My House

By |2017-11-05T17:30:25-06:00November 20th, 2017|Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

In three days Thanksgiving festivities will commence.

The American celebration of the day began during the Civil War when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”

The traditional New York City’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade started in 1924. Our family tradition is to watch while we unpack Christmas decorations. Truthfully, we tend to spent more time watching than decorating and no one misses Santa’s arrival.

After filling their bellies with turkey and all the trimmings, the menfolk, and most of the women, around our house gather in front of the TV for football. The National Football League has been broadcasting Thanksgiving Day games since 1920. Our family’s been watching games since the sixties.

Down here in Texas, the Thanksgiving Day collegiate games are often more important than the professional football games. Our own meal time centers around the University of Texas Longhorns’ schedule for the day.

None of these things happened on that first Pilgrim Thanksgiving in 1621, but the basis for our modern Thanksgiving festivites remains the same. We pause on this day to give thanks for our blessings.

When my turn comes to share my blessings this year, I will include

My husband (the role model for my heroes)

Family and friends (far and near)

My pets (who brighten every day)

What blessings will you be sharing?
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