Before the costumes for Halloween are off the shelves, Christmas decorations are everywhere.  Now I’m not fussing about getting ready for Christmas too early – or listening to Christmas songs before Thanksgiving.  I love the Christmas season and understand how exciting that time can be.

But sometimes it seems Thanksgiving gets lost in that time between Halloween and Christmas.  What a shame!

I love Thanksgiving!  It makes few demands.

• No shopping required.
• No large decorating project required.
• No large list of parties to attend.

Just a time to enjoy food and family!

Now I know for the one fixing the meal, it does require some labor-intensive efforts.  But, after the meal, what a great time to just enjoy family and friends.

No worries if everyone liked their gift:

• Did it fit?
• Was it the right color?
• Was that the game they wanted?

No decorations to take down and drag out to the garage or down to the basement.

Most of all, I think it gives us all a time to reflect and count our blessings.  (Something we need to do more often.)

While it is my favorite holiday, I must confess it brings some sadness to me also.  Most of my children and grandchildren now live in other states and we are not able to always get together on this holiday.  I miss those days of a table filled with laughing faces.  Still, I’m thankful for the memories I have – and I know there will be more Thanksgivings ahead when we will be together.

So – I count my many blessings and take a moment to relax before I enter that busy Christmas season.

Just a few thoughts on Thanksgiving.

“Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. ”  Psalm 106:1

 

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” – Melody Beattie

“Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.”

– WT Purkiser