Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a special holiday and always has been in our family. Growing up, I can remember going to my aunts house to eat a big meal. There was a lot of talking, laughing, and family fun. And it was always around a big table with metal folding chairs stuck in between the beautiful dining room chairs.

There were over 20 of us with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins. The food was set out on the table in serving trays of all different shapes and sizes. We passed it around… yummy turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, yams, and sweet rolls. The memories and smells are engraved in my mind.

And now, I have my own family. We have since moved states away so I had to start my own holiday traditions. One tradition that we do when we get together on holidays is focusing on what we are grateful for. We not only do this on Thanksgiving, but other holidays as well.

My favorite thing to do is after all the food has been consumed and the table has been cleared, we pop open the sparkling cider and go around the table and each person will say what they are grateful for and we toast after each declaration. More often than not, someone winds up crying… more often with joy than with sadness.

I just recently thought about doing this on birthdays as well. What a great time to talk about what we love about that person on their special day.

Do you have any fun family holiday traditions? We would love to hear about it!

happy-thanksgiving

Being thankful and grateful is something that I try to practice on a daily basis. It is so easy to lose focus especially when life throws those curve balls at us at the most inopportune times. There will always be something that we can complain about. But in spit of life’s ups and downs, it is important to turn our focus from the negative over to the positive. Yes, we have had a rough week, but thank God we still have food to eat. Yes, our car broke down, but thank God we are still healthy.

We have to remember that our children are always watching us. They soak in every little word we say and every attitude that we show. If we are speaking negatively in front of them about the things that we are going through, then they may unconsciously take on that negative spirit. It is hard work sometimes choosing to be positive when that is the last thing you FEEL like doing. But it will have a tremendous impact on our kids. I am not saying that we should hide the difficult things from them and pretend that our lives are all peachy. But we can express our struggles open and honestly without getting angry and without complaining.

So, on this Thanksgiving, even though it has been a tough few weeks – I still have so much to be thankful for. Check out my video blog to see exactly what those things are!