Thanksgiving is next week in the United States and I’ve been getting prepared.
Mostly, I’ve been working on my heart, which always needs scrutiny in the thanksgiving department!
But this fourth Thursday in November holiday is one of my favorites because it’s family reunion time.
I won’t be there this year, but the knowledge I always can go home and see my Sicilian relatives warms my heart.
As a genealogist, spending time hearing my family’s stories is always important.
Really, more important than the food.
But some years, it’s just a challenging trip.
Or, I’ve just seen them at a family wedding.
Why go home for Thanksgiving?
I go home for several reasons which I’ve articulated on this blog site over the years.
Yes, I go home for Thanksgiving to see everyone.
As a Navy wife far from home with a husband out to sea (of course) over several Novembers, I packed up the kids and traveled across country.
I needed to touch base with people who had known me my whole life and who loved me.
We’d stay longer than the one day, but on that day, I sat listening to voices telling stories around me and sighed with contentment.
I don’t agree with them on everything. We have many differences.
But they’re my past, my present and part of who I’ll always be.
I love them. I miss them. We all celebrate when we’re together.
No matter how long it’s been.
What if you’re not invited?
It doesn’t always mean you’re not welcome if you’re not invited.
With family, well, anyone can show up at my brother’s house for the big meal.
But when I lived far from from home, I realized I may not have been invited to dinner (while my husband was out to sea, of course), because no one knew I needed an invitation.
No invite? Does anybody know you need one?
That particular year, I voiced my single status (other than the two toddlers), to our pastor.
He announced from the pulpit that a Navy wife needed a place to go for dinner that Thanksgiving.
Several people invited me.
It was wonderful.
Why not set a new tradition?
Then there were the Thanksgivings my husband was NOT out to sea, but we lived too far to go home.
So, we improvised.
No one in my family will ever forget the year we nearly starved one Thanksgiving weekend.
(Okay, it wasn’t that bad, but the kids thought so).
And then discovered every grocery store on the island was closed for the weekend.
The children survived because we could attend the Moloka’i rodeo!
Adapting for the family
One year, we savored eating Thanksgiving dinner with our vegetarian relatives.
Ah, the food tasted so good and featured such different entrees!
Several years, we joined the “big” family and shared family history.
I brought my scanner and my cousins had photos I’d never seen before.
We met a new relative another year and entertained ourselves with an elaborate family tree that filled a wall.
Everyone got a detailed nametag describing how they were related to my grandparents.
We laughed as we introduced ourselves to a new cousin–and the name tags helped some of the old ones identify just who the younger children belonged to!
What’s the real point of Thanksgiving?
Being thankful.
In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18 NKJV
A meal, a time, with family and friends gathering together makes being thankful easy.
You’ve got a week. Can you find a way to be thankful–and to provide a reason for someone else to be thankful–by Thanksgiving day?
Tweetables
Four thoughts on Thanksgiving–every year. Click to Tweet
Why not provide a reason for someone to be thankful this week? Click to Tweet
There is no place that I will go,
and no-one comes to call.
Without a parade I wouldn’t know
it’s Thanksgiving-time at all.
The fault, I think, is really mine,
I’m down another road;
I have to seek, perchance to find
the sum of all I owe.
I’ve got to try to understand;
there’s scarce room for homely joys.
for I’ve been given red-hot brand
that God alone employs.
So let the holidays begin,
and thanks, but it’s best I don’t come in.