Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and half the fun is anticipating the event. I like reading through recipes and seeing if I might be able to take a family favorite and tweak it just a bit to make it even better. This year I’m adding crystallized ginger and orange juice to our fresh cranberries.
And I absolutely love making lists with small boxes placed before each task so I can check it off when it’s accomplished. That’s the way it is with people like me who consider it a great day when there are check marks in boxes.
Each year, toward the middle of October, I grab a manila folder — carefully label it and make it the place to collect my ideas from sundry resources. My folder includes baking and decorating ideas pulled out of magazines geared toward the holidays; a list of gift plans for family members, friends, and coworkers; and a current Christmas card list. It also includes a timeline for both holidays. I must work ahead or pay the penalties of stress and unnecessary expense.
As Thanksgiving Day swiftly approaches, I particularly enjoy the comradeship I share with those family members who like to cook and plan as I do. In anticipation of the time my family will spend together, the planners are charting who will arrive, where they will stay, and when we can eat dinner to accommodate those who must squeeze multiple Thanksgiving meals into one day. We’re watching weather conditions over mountain passes for those away at college and gathering everybody’s favorite foods — especially for those who are visiting. Ever attend a Thanksgiving dinner and not seen your favorite dish? We want everyone to feel at home and be thoughtfully considered during the planning. Therefore, we will serve baked yams with butter and brown sugar for Matt, a mound of garlic mashed potatoes for the kids, a cornbread-based dressing for those of us with Southern roots, and pecan pie — with the nuts toasted this year, for a deeper flavor.
Simple gestures such as these, I have learned, speak volumes of the love you have for those sitting around your table. Besides, it makes you feel awfully good to witness their pleasure.
In year’s past we have provided everyone with the opportunity to share some Thanksgiving Day thoughts by placing a basket in the center of the table early on in the day. As each of us has thought of things we feel particularly thankful for, we have written our sentiments on a slip of paper and placed them into the basket. These blessings were read aloud before the meal.
This year we will dismiss with the tradition, for most of us would simply begin and then dissolve into tears. The patriarch of our family, my precious dad, died late last month only 14 days after learning he had end-stage cancer. We are carrying on with our planning and our cooking, thanks to the hope and strength God has given us. And we will be a family that can unite on Thanksgiving Day to express our thankfulness because of the love of incredibly supportive family and friends. But we are also adjusting our plans to make the day not about fanfare but about being close to each other — to cry, to laugh, to play games, watch football, reminisce, and adjust to our enormous loss. The grace and courage of my dad encourages us; we know we can carry on because we have learned how strong we truly are as a family. But like all great life events, we will adapt our plans and expectations out of respect to those of us in attendance still processing our recent experiences with Dad’s illness and death. We are strong and filled with a hope that can only come from a faith in Christ and his promise that we will see Dad again. But we are also a family that recognizes that our very sad hearts need time to take in the events and the loss. Celebrating Thanksgiving is a giant step forward to healing.
