Looking Forward to Thanksgiving

It took us some time to come up with a plan for Thanksgiving.  We had planned to visit my Mom at the beach for Thanksgiving.  When I found out that my brother and his family were thinking the same thing, we realized we need to change plans.  We love to spend the holidays together, but we are becoming a rather large group.  We settled on getting together in my parent's hometown, where my brother now lives.  Then we had to find places for the rest of us to stay.  I have to say this is my very least favorite part of the holidays.  Figuring out where to celebrate and how to find enough space for everyone to sleep and eat.  My dear friends reminded me how increasingly challenging this is going to become as my family grows into its full glory.  I am trusting God to manage all that in the years to come.

It has made me start to think about settling on some traditions that we can start as a family.  I want to establish a family liturgy of our own that our children can look forward to.  My hope is that they will want to come home to participate in the celebration, instead of worrying about what will happen if no one comes home for the holidays.  I still have several years before I have to worry about children moving out and establishing families of their own.  I'm in a strange transition from being the kid wanting to go home for the holidays, to being the parents who need to be home for holidays so the kids have a place to come home to.  I want to begin things that my children will love to be a part of and will look forward to as they anticipate the holiday season.

My friend Susan wrote a really lovely post about celebrating Thanksgiving.  I think I will include her Thanksgiving tree idea this year.  Our pastor has also been encouraging us to tell our children the stories of how God has worked in our lives.  I asked my husband to think about how we can tell the story of Thanksgiving at our celebration.  God has blessed us in so many ways, and we should never get tired of telling the stories of His deliverance.  I am thankful that our schools tell the Thanksgiving story, and that each class had their own feasts this week before everyone was dismissed for the holiday.

I am thankful for a week to prepare our family to celebrate Thanksgiving.  I am thankful for a family that loves to get together and sit down to a lovely meal.  I am thankful for the abundance of food that is being prepared.  I am thankful for the children that are gathered around our tables singing, eating, laughing, coloring, and occasionally burping.  I am looking forward to the turkey, gravy, lungs, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie.  I'm even looking forward to having coffee in the morning with my brother and sister-in-law in our jammies with our youngest children begging us for cereal.  These are the finest moments in life, and I am thankful for them all.