It is Thanksgiving today. Not a holiday I imagined celebrating before arriving at the US shores. But since then I have embraced the holiday. Why? Besides the food and the drink, the party atmosphere (which of course I enjoy), I have a lot to be thankful for.
1. Family:
Every Thanksgiving my entire family gather at my oldest sister's house. My family does not only consist of my mother and her eight children and their kids and grandkids. There are cousins, and friends and yes, even acquaintances, and they are all family. It is a great time for me and my children. Being the seventh of eight kids, I have neices and nephews with children older than my kids. The gathering is noisy but happy and my kids are ecstatic. We play a noisy round of Taboo, Gestures, and Piggy (a weird noisy game with lots of table banging that I still don't understand). A year ago Piggy broke a table. It is also a time to reconnect with all my relatives.
2. Health
Inspite of everything, God has blessed me with relatively good health, and I am thankful for it. Even if I was sick, I would still be thankful for life. My mother is 80 years old, has every possible chronic ailment, but she is alive and is happy. That I'm thankful for. My two year old has multiple food allergies to anything I can possible feed her to help her gain weight and other feeding issues. Her doctors are worried because she is so underweight. Yet she is progressing like any normal two year old. For that I am thankful.
3. Occupation
I have two jobs that I really love. My day job for which I spent a whole lot of years preparing brings me joy and a sense of fulfillment. My second job, writing, which is my hobby and passion, has yielded two published novels with good reviews. And though Dorchester had originally stopped selling the paper backs, they are now making copies available. Even if I didn't sell one novel, I am still thankful to be a writer.
4. Yes the food
Even though the turkey hardly gets eaten, when my family gathers, the food is to die for. Dinner is done potluck style and finger licking good.
There are many more things that I am thankful for. Last night we drove four hours to my sister's house. We expected bumper to bumper traffic and endless tolls. Instead we got a straight shot with hardly any delays. Even sweeter, one of the toll bridges decided to suspend the toll to alleviate traffic congestion. Yes free tolls and clear traffic, what more can I ask for?
So we celebrate thanksgiving to give thanks to God for every blessing in life.
How do you celebrate thanksgiving? What are you thankful for?
5 comments:
Friends and family always they are the best
It is indeed. I don't know what the holidays would be like without family. The one time I spent the holidays away from family it was extremely lonely and depressing.
My son was out to see me. My wife was here. We had good food and a nice and relaxing day, and I had good stuff to read. That's enough for me.
Wow! That's a great Thanksgiving spread! Free tolls?! Now *that's* something to be thankful for.
Jewel, you know we don't celebrate Thanksgiving here in the Caribbean, but my great-grandmother used to have a 'feast' every year when she would lay on the goodies for all the children in the family and neighbourhood. Every family milepost used to be celebrated in the manner of your family's Thanksgiving and yes, as children those were wildly joyous occasions for us.
She's been dead a long time now, and the great extended family celebrations died with her. Our gatherings are smaller and attended mostly by immediate relatives. I'm sorry my son never got to experience those old-style gatherings.
I count my blessings daily - even the unexpected free flow of traffic when I was bracing for congestion. Right now I'm thankful that the tropical winter is on us again and the air is cool and smells of... Christmas!
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