All of the family is gathered here for Thanksgiving except for my youngest nephew out in Utah, who is playing college football tomorrow. I haven’t been here for the holiday in several years; usually when I come I go to Houston for Christmas, not to my parents’ house in the eastern part of the state.
We had a lovely day yesterday with good food and good company. There’s a little song we sing when we stuff the turkey (silly song but it’s a family tradition – there are LOTS of traditions around here) and we take a million pictures of people stuffing it.
Our traditional meal is at 5:00 and we have turkey with “Yankee stuffing” (which is bread stuffing cooked inside the turkey) as well as cornbread dressing cooked separately, sweet potatoes with oranges and marshmallows, green bean casserole, red cabbage, rolls, homemade cranberry sauce. And desserts – there were four different kinds of pies.
One of the things we do at our meal is to take time to go around the table and reflect aloud on the things we are thankful for this year. As wonderful as the food was, no one mentioned that. We weren’t thankful for it; it was simply there to be enjoyed. Instead we gave thanks for health and family, good friends, safe travel, job possibilities, finishing school, marriages that were solid, support through difficult times. Things that matter.
It’s good to remember this and we should do it more than once a year, but at least that often it’s worth taking the time to be deliberately reflective of the people and things that are important to us.
Pictured is me with my lovely goddaughter.
Random Thoughts of a Disordered Mind 