Celebrate Thanksgiving and prepare for the Christmas Season!

We are not pilgrims but we still continue to treasure the relationships we have. the Thanksgiving holiday noted by pilgrims, autumn harvest foods and turkey. There are so many arguments to abandon the holiday because it is too close to Christmas and New Years. For some strange reason we keep adding holidays but the logical choice would be to remove Thanksgiving. We do not and we love the holiday. Maybe it’s the food and feast that has become so customary. Maybe it is one of the only holiday seasons that does not require gift giving (like Valentines’ Day, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Christmas, Easter baskets). It’s pretty nice actually. Always on a Thursday, most of us are assured a long weekend after the holiday. It gives us a chance to rest up before the holiday rush. Come on….what could be better than a day off, good food, and football followed by a day off plus a weekend? According to history it all began in 1621 after a harsh winter and folks in the Plymouth Colony had a feast to commemorate the harvest. As events are successful, they become custom and the idea spread, but it wasn’t until 1777 until all 13 colonies celebrated Thanksgiving. According to the website infoplease.com: “By the mid–1800s, many states observed a Thanksgiving holiday. Meanwhile, the poet and editor Sarah J. Hale had begun lobbying for a national Thanksgiving holiday. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, searching for ways to unite the nation, discussed the subject with Hale. In 1863 he gave his Thanksgiving Proclamation, declaring the last Thursday in November a day of thanksgiving. In 1939, 1940, and 1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt, seeking to lengthen the Christmas shopping season, proclaimed Thanksgiving the third Thursday in November. Controversy followed, and Congress passed a joint resolution in 1941 declaring that Thanksgiving should fall on the fourth Thursday of November, where it remains.” Read more: Thanksgiving History — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/spot/tgturkey1.html#ixzz2AMDimWCf There’s even a Thanksgiving Quiz for you to experience. So how do I celebrate Thanksgiving? I grocery shop for my part of the Thanksgiving Dinner (Pumpkin Pie) the weekend before and then totally relax on Wednesday night. We come home and totally chill with a pot of chili and no requirements on anyone. I would say that evening is one of the very best of the entire year with no expectations. Right after Halloween I buy all my Thanksgiving cards for family living out of state and send them early. The week before Thanksgiving I start getting all energized anticipating the easy week ahead because the mood and workload at work is much lighter. I buy either a floral bouquet from the florist down the street from my parents for the family gathering there or I order a Thanksgiving basket from Baskets by Rita to arrive that week. Easy holiday. I absolutely love it. We wake up late and go to my cousin’s for a great day of food, football, and board games. We get home and once again have a free evening with no anticipation of request for the next day. But come Friday morning I am getting ancy and we tend to get out all the holiday decorations and even join some of the outrageous throngs of people for shopping later in the afternoon. After stopping for pizza, we go forward and the kids point out the most significant items on their wish list. I rise early the next day and am the first in the store to choose them and be done with it. Then I go home and that evening my husband and I choose what to send the relative out of state for the holidays. We try to be creative every year–one year it was books, one year it was homemade food items (which turned out to be a disaster and way too much work). Last year we sent most of our Wisconsin relative beer tubs from Baskets by Rita. This next year a huge family reunion is planned out here in the Colorado mountains for my parents’ anniversary and we’re going to send Rodney Strong Merlot Basket   from Baskets by Rita to set up the anticipation for the summer gathering. Thanksgiving is fantastic! It is a happy holiday of constructive thoughts and wishes and to me is the low key celebration I like.