Tuesday 4 Thankful

 Thankful

Hello friends and welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.

Thanksgiving Day is about here. Let's talk about the holiday and thankfulness.

1. Whether you are from the USA or not, thankfulness is beneficial to a nation and people. Is it a natural thing for you to think of being thankful or is it something you must be reminded about?

Being thankful is something that I think about all of the time. Every day is a gift from God. Every breath I take is a gift from God. When I see the sorrows and perils and poverty around the world and even in our own community, I am thankful to God for His kindness and mercy and grace and blessings bestowed upon us, who are most unworthy. 

 

Psalm 136:1-3

1  Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

For His mercy endures forever.

2 Oh, give thanks to the God of gods!

For His mercy endures forever.

3 Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords!

For His mercy endures forever:

2. Plimoth Plantation is the site of the original settlement and everything is authentic to the 1600's including how they speak. Have you been to Plymouth Rock? How about the Plimoth Plantation (yes that is the proper spelling). Would you like to go visit these places? What places are you thankful for having seen?

I have never been to Plimoth Plantation or any of that area. I would love to visit it someday.  I do appreciate our country's history, and especially the courage of those Pilgrims who traveled so far to a new land so that they could have religious freedom.  They withstood many hardships and many did not survive that first year...but for those who did, it is quite fitting that they should set aside a special time of giving thanks to God, their Creator and Sustainer.  I love that they also shared that celebration with the local Native Americans.  It is sad how that early good relationship with them deteriorated as so many people flooded our continent and drove them out of their native lands. History cannot be re-written or erased, however, and we must not forget the "good, the bad, and the ugly" parts of our country's development over next many decades.  We should learn from our mistakes and teach our children the truth...and pray they will strive to do better in the future, with God's help.

3. Do you tune into the Macy's Parade ?

It may be on the TV, but I am usually too busy in the kitchen to pay much attention to it.  I do, however, love the old movie, "Miracle on 34th Street", and would rather watch that than the modern day parade.

4. What will you be eating on Thanksgiving Day this year?

The usual traditional dishes: Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Sweet Potato Casserole, Green beans (not the casserole!), maybe a Corn pudding casserole, jello, rolls, and maybe some carrot and celery sticks if anyone gets around to fixing them...(me?)  Then there will be pumpkin pie and apple pie for dessert.  And whatever else we think of.  

We will be a smaller crowd than usual, just our immediate family here and one guest friend from our church.  Our extended families all decided to do their own thing this Thanksgiving due to health and family travel concerns, etc., and now I am missing them already.  I miss the anticipation of seeing our loved ones come through the door and hearing their voices and seeing their happy faces and enjoying their chatter around the table.  I wish now we could have managed to pull everyone together...but I guess as we age and  families scatter and grow it becomes more and more difficult to gather everyone under one roof for one day.  I am thankful we had a lovely family reunion in September with most of our family there. That helps me not feel too blue.

I spent a few minutes scrolling through the posts I've written over the past years about Thanksgiving, and it made me really miss everyone even more.  If you want to see what I am talking about, you can go to the link for "Thanksgiving" on the right column of my blog page and go back as far as you want. It definitely made me a bit nostalgic, but happy that we have such good memories.   I suspect many of you have similar feelings on these holidays. We can't always do what we remember doing back in our younger years. So we do the best we can with whoever we have...and if we don't have any family nearby, we can always create some family and invite over neighbors or friends or folks who have nowhere else to go for the day. That always makes for an interesting and delightful celebration. 

Well, friends, I'm sure we all have a lot to get done in the next 24-48 hours to prepare for Thanksgiving Day, so I will bring this to a close and wish you each and everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! May we always be counting our blessings and giving thanks to the Lord for what He has done!

If you want to join in this week's Thanksgiving meme, HERE is the Link.