Tis’ the season to be grateful. Thanksgiving commemorates the sacrifices made long ago. It’s another day where we celebrate the cost paid for freedom. We commemorate the lessons and the journey of change and adaptation. Thanksgiving brings family, friends, and frenemies together in order to agree that bigger problems exist than those we see in our daily American lives.
It is a time we nurture thankful thoughts. It is more than breaking bread and stuffing ourselves with delectables. I hope it’ll become a time that we can take to celebrate others and celebrate ourselves for efforts made both big and small. In our household, we are forming a family tradition of eating a huge dinner on that Wednesday before Thanksgiving and conclude the evening with attending a Thanksgiving service at our home church.
I start out with preparation. It is a process that begins a month or two in advance. I take a few days to think about the meals we want to have the following month. I use a scrap piece of paper to brainstorm. During the prep stage, I look through the freezer and pantry to do an inventory of everything we have. I check to make sure I have freezer bags and other freezer safe containers. During this phase, I begin cleaning out the refrigerator, dumping old food, and wiping things down. I want to make sure that I have nothing to do but cook and store on the days I am cooking.
My children are small and impressionable, so we are relaxed and joyous as we attempt to create memories. Stress can steal the focus and imprint the wrong depiction. The relaxed dinner the day before is not just for them, but for me too. Weeks before Thanksgiving, I start becoming more conscious of all that I hold dear. I begin counting my blessings and take that into the new year. We do all of this to teach them how to celebrate the blessings that are so easily taken for granted.
How do you adjust from distractions and cultivate a heart of Thanksgiving?
mannerzmatterz 