In what ways are we thankful?! Write about anything you want under this theme! Do you have any family traditions that help you to be mindful of the blessings in your life?
I LOVE holidays. Good food, good smells, dressing up. It's all good.
But the best part? The family time.
I don't know about you, but the older I've grown, the more I appreciate the quality time I get with my family. With 3 younger siblings, each in 3 different cities and 3 different states, we rarely see each other. So you can imagine my excitement as Thanksgiving has grown closer. It's something like this:
I LOVE Thanksgiving. Autumn in and of itself is delightful: scarves, dresses, tights, boots...AH!
Throw in some turkey, stuffing, gravy, PUMPKIN PIE, sweet potatoes, and vegging out with the fam.
Perfection.
My extended family always gets together for Thanksgiving, and while there have been some modifications to this year's plans - I'm doing my best to not be all "BUT TRADITION!" - we're still all getting together and that's what counts, right? Yep.
This year's changes, while I've been annoyed and frustrated for some time, remind me of the need to be more flexible AND that I must be grateful regardless of the circumstances. Truth be told, I do not prefer to spend my extended-family-Thanksgiving extravaganza at a banquet hall/bowling alley. However, any family time is good time and I must be grateful for that. Rather than being grumpy about the changes, I need to enjoy the time with my loved ones and thank God that I have them.
In regards to other traditions, we usually do the customary everyone-say-something-they're-thankful-for thing, but I heard of a different spin on that this weekend which I might try to implement. A friend told of how his family goes around and each person has to say something they're thankful for about each person at the table. This might get lengthy, but it might be fun for my immediate family Thanksgiving celebration!
The Church does a great job of constantly reminding us to give thanks. In each Mass we are reminded to give thanks for what we have been blessed with and just to be thankful for the Lord's love and mercy. But Thanksgiving is a wonderful time for true reflection, and real reveling in the goodness of family time.
I'm always thankful for my family, but Thanksgiving is specifically a time when I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the love and companionship in my family. It's also a good time to reflect on the past year and realize that I have a pretty great life. A good job, a warm place to live, good friends...perhaps I should have more gratitude for these blessings in the day to day....
I pray that you have a blessed Thanksgiving and hope that you're able to spend it with loved ones!
How will you be spending your Thanksgiving? Share with us what you're thankful for in the comments or attach your post below!
PSA: If you emailed Jen and I about being paired up with a prayer partner, we will contact you later today!
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Next week's topic:
Preparing the Way!
{NAS Advent post}
Happy Advent! How do you prepare your heart, home, etc. for the coming of the Lord? Are there specific recipes or traditions you partake in? Share with us how you are making way for our newborn King!
Um. Pretty much loved this whole post!!! I related to so much of what you said! Even though the holidays have been some really tough times being single (for about 5 years in a row I was going through a different breakup in the fall! Sheesh!) I've always really loved holidays and totally entered into all the celebrating (cooking, family, decor, etc.).
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see you dance like Monica. That was hilarious!!