Thanksgiving Day

At some point a week from today, we will all be joining friends and family for a Thanksgiving Day feast with our own family traditions and welcoming new ones as our families grow.   This is my favorite holiday and every time I return home to Natick for Thanksgiving, I torture my mother and beg for her to make my grandmothers bread stuffing.  When I was a kid, I would wake up early on Thanksgiving morning like it was Christmas because I knew my grandmother was going to be in the kitchen making the stuffing in a huge pot to feed 100 people (well it sure seemed that way when I was kicked into the livingroom because the diningroom and the kitchen tables were already filled with brothers, aunts, uncles and older cousins).  She would always let me be the "tester" knowing full well she knew exactly how much seasoning had to go in there.  I still love the smell of Thanksgiving (I wonder if you can candle that??).

As we do our shopping this weekend for the ingredients for your Thanksgiving dish, pick up an extra can or two and donate them to a food bank or to your church.  There are people close to you, that you may or may not know, whose money runs out before the end of the month and are unable to have a Thanksgiving dinner without our help.   Don't forget that families may need help throughout the year, it's so important for us to keep the food banks shelves stocked because at some point that person in line for items to feed their family may be you.

It's days like Thanksgiving that remind us of things we should be thankful for year round but for some reason it just doesn't click (at least for me) unless something heartbreaking happens.   The biggest thing that I am thankful for is that God has given my oldest brother the will and strength of a superhero to battle his colon cancer everyday and has graced him with incredible doctors who are enabling him to spend more time with his family for the next 50 or so years.