A Thankful, Grateful, Blessed Thanksgiving Holiday
Fall isn’t only about pumpkins, scarecrows and foliage. While we love to decorate our homes and porches, take sunflower field selfies and endless red maple tree pictures, there’s more to the story. Fall is also about family. Thanksgiving is, of course, a time for our country to pause and remember the abundance we have been blessed with since, well, that very first Thanksgiving on this wonderful continent, but it’s also a time for families (and friend groups) to get together and enjoy each other. To be thankful for each other! It’s “together” time, in every sense of the word.
The first thing the word “Thanksgiving” evokes for most is the traditional turkey, that tried-and-true centerpiece of the meal. In recent years, however, families have gathered around a smorgasbord of meats on that last Thursday in November! If you’d rather have duck, lamb, veal, or Cornish hens, you’re no longer in the minority. You’ll find a trove of recipes on the internet as experts and amateurs alike work their magic in the kitchen, testing and re-testing new ideas for the holiday and tweaking to add new takes on old favorites. A search of the words “sweet potato casserole,” for instance, will serve up everything from baked versions with marshmallow or brown sugar and pecan toppings to vegan and healthier options. You can even make it in a crockpot!
Food has always brought families together. If you are incorporating several friends and/or several members of your extended family into your feast this year, it might be a fun bonding experience to have each person bring a favorite dish to the party! Ask them to attach a card with the recipe. Most people are super-proud of their tried-and-true favorites and will enjoy complying. As you plan your own contribution to the meal, you may wish to head on over to the The Village in Gatlinburg! The Spice and Tea Exchange of Gatlinburg will have something special to add that extra “oomph” to your Thanksgiving recipes. You know you want your homemade mac-and-cheese to beat Uncle Jack’s green bean casserole this year! Get that winning edge. While you’re in the Village, you will HAVE to hop on by Zi Olive to gather up the best olive oil and balsamic vinegar gathered from all over the globe . Even if you don’t need them for Thanksgiving (and you probably will), they will enhance your cooking well into the new year. Grab a bag of coffee from Coffee & Company to enjoy with your pumpkin pie after the meal.
Whether your Thanksgiving is spent with a large group of friends, a mixed group of friends and family, a small gathering of immediate family or in a shelter where you are serving alongside other volunteers, you can DECIDE ahead of time that you will focus on gratitude for the blessings you enjoy every day. Begin with the meal before you. End with the faces around you! A positive activity that will help children (and adults) keep focused on what matters is to have each person say one thing they are thankful for before the meal starts. Another idea that will be especially popular with children is to have each person draw a picture of what they are thankful for and allow others to guess…a sort of “Pictionary” of gratitude. Unless you have a lot of artists in the family, this could become extremely funny. Memories will be made. Another idea, particularly for small groups, is to draw names and have each person say what they are grateful for/love about the person whose name was drawn. At the end of the day, people are what matter.
Happy Thanksgiving!
The header image of this article is actually a sign created by Sawdust City LLC and can be found by clicking here.