Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to you all! The United States celebrates Thanksgiving on the 4th Thursday of the month (which means we’re never certain when it is without a calendar), which happens to fall on November 28th this year.
I’ve read a lot about the troubling past of this holiday, and I’m super looking forward to Kate Messner‘s new series History Smashers, which starts with a tale about the Mayflower.
That said, Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to consider all the things we are grateful for. Gratitude is something we don’t seem to have enough of in this world, so here are my top five things I’m grateful for:
1. My family.
(These people are my rock. They are there for me in all the best and worst and mediocre-est moments of my life. I would be lost without them).
2. A book coming out next year.
(I don’t take this for granted at all. Getting a book published is tough. No matter what road you take. And heck, even writing one is a BIG DEAL! So much gratitude that I’m in a position I can both write them, and have the opportunity to have one published.)
3. My faith in God, and my beliefs.
(I don’t talk about this much here on my blog, but my beliefs are my compass. They give me direction, and I’m who I am because of them.)
4. My friends
(IRL ones, writing ones, social media ones, ALL OF YOU! Wish I had a big picture with you all in it, but I don’t. Sorry if you aren’t shown, I still love you and am grateful for you!)
5. Cookies.
(Whoever invented them, THANK YOU!)
Happy Thanksgiving! And please tell me what you are grateful for! I’d love to hear. 🙂
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books, Cookies, family, friends, Religion, ThanksgivingBlog Critique and Happy Thanksgiving!
Today, my blog is being critiqued by Laura Barnes over on her site, Laura B. Writer: Building Author Media Presence. So please, if you don’t mind, steer clear of there.
Okay, okay. Please go check it out. Really. 😛
And since it’s a big holiday this week here in the States, I wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! In honor of the day, here is my short list of silly and serious thanks (my long list would take too long, but I’m sure you all understand it’s there, right?):
- That I’m not a turkey.
- That my husband puts up with me day in and day out (crazy writer and all)
- That my kids still love to give me hugs (and that they brag to their friends that I write books)
- That my Savior, Jesus Christ, loved me enough to die for me, so I can repent of my multitude of sins.
What are you thankful for?
P.S. I will be back blogging on Monday, Dec. 5
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Jesus Christ, Laura Barnes, Thanksgiving, turkeyHappy Thanksgiving!
Life has been good to me, and I have much to be thankful for:
- Parents, in-laws, and siblings who love and support me.
- A husband who encourages my writing and believes in me.
- Children who still give hugs and kisses, and who still want mine.
- Friends who worry about me and love me despite my perpetual absentmindedness.
- Blogger friends who give amazing advice and who read my rantings.
Thank you to all of you! You know who you are and what you do. My life would be meaningless without you.
A quick P.S. . . . I’ll be out the next two weeks (minus Talli Roland’s Web Splash on Dec. 1!) working on revisions, but happy holidays to all of you! See you soon. 🙂
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bloggers, family, friends, ThanksgivingThanksgiving Et Al
Another Thanksgiving has come and gone, and this year, we are most thankful to have spent it with family. Rick had two weeks of vacation over the holiday, so we had a splendid visit with parents, grandparents, cousins, brothers, sisters, the whole shebang.
I don’t want to bore you with all the sordid details, but here are the highlights of thanks:
1- I am thankful I got my hair cut! (The dead animal is GONE.)
2- Brandt is thankful for chopsticks and McDonald’s. (And for grandparents who love to take him out to eat!)
3- London is thankful he got to bounce on the trampoline.
4- We are thankful we got our family picture taken. And even more thankful that we only do it once a year.
5- The boys are thankful they got to go to the zoo with their cousins. And very thankful to Aunt Kim who bought tickets to the carousel.
6- Rick is thankful that the people on the airplane were so understanding when Brandt had to get up to go potty every 5 minutes and then threw up on the plane.
7- I am thankful that Rick took Brandt and Khyah early so I got a nice peaceful flight with London.
8- We are all thankful that it snowed. More thankful that it only snowed once. And most thankful that we got to go sledding. London keeps asking when it will snow here.
9- Rick is thankful that he got to play soccer with my family.
10- I am thankful I got to go shopping with my sister (it’s tradition after all), even if it was only at K-mart on Thanksgiving night to find formula (because we ran out).
11- London is thankful he got to play with all his cousins so much. He wishes we lived closer.
12- Khyah is thankful to have FINALLY met all her aunts and uncles (excepting Aunt Tiff and Uncle Rob, who I’m sure she is dying to meet) and that everyone held her all the time. (She misses that. As do I.)
13- Rick and I are extremely thankful that we made it home before London’s stomach bug hit in full force. And in conjunction with that, I am grateful for carpet cleaner, washing machines, and toilets.
14- Though I could go on like this a long time, because we have much to be thankful for, I will end with our biggest thanks. We are thankful for our family, their love and support, and the chance we had to spend some quality time with them. After all, where would we be without them?
And I can’t resist a Postscript: We’re thankful everyone thinks we live in an awesome place so they all want to come visit!
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Chopsticks, Thanksgiving, ZooPoll results:
Even though 58% of those polled do NOT like cranberries, 90% reported serving them at Thanksgiving.
My interpretation of this data:
1. We’re tradition-driven.
2. We’re catering to the few.
3. You had leftovers of the cranberry sauce/relish/jelly (whatever you want to call it.)
4. This could very well be a snapshot of society-at-large. 😉
5. Cranberries just don’t taste very good.
6. We all gained weight over Thanksgiving . . . wait! That’s not related . . .
7. There is a conspiracy by cranberry growers to brainwash Americans into believing we MUST have cranberries at Thanksgiving.
Anyhow, these are just my biased, first-glance findings. Please share your own interpretation, I’d love to hear.
And as a little factoid, did you know that polls suggest that as many as 80% of Americans believe JFK’s assassination was a conspiracy? Important information, people. Right here.
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cranberry, JFK, poll, ThanksgivingCranberries: A Poll
So I just spent the last hour serving Cranberry Sauce (though it looks more like Cranberry Jelly) in the cafeteria of London’s elementary school for their Thanksgiving dinner. I found it very interesting to see who took it and who didn’t. Here’s what I noted:
– Cranberry Sauce is an extreme dish, meaning that people either love it or hate it.
– On average, only about 1 in 10 people took it.
– Like or dislike had no apparent tie to ethnicity or culture (and there’s a broad range in London’s school).
– The universal sign for dislike is wrinkling up your nose.
Then suddenly I was curious about the whole cranberry phenomenon. Why do we always serve this dish at Thanksgiving dinner when only 1 in 10 people eat it anyway?
And having just asked, “Would you like Cranberry Sauce?” a hundred times or so in the cafeteria, I feel like I’ve already conducted a poll, so I thought, “Why not? I’ll put a poll on my blog!”
So here’s the question:
Cranberry Sauce: yes or no?
And as a follow-up:
Does your family include it as part of Thanksgiving?
Please weigh in on the issue (see sidebar poll). This is important stuff!
And just as a little tidbit about cranberries, did you know that cranberries are native to northeast North America? They grow from the mountains of Georgia to the Canadian Maritimes. And in 1620, the Pilgrims learned to use them from the Native Americans who used them as food, dyes, and medicines.
Now you’re smarter for having visited my blog. 🙂