The week leading up to Thanksgiving and then the weeks leading up to Christmas tend to be hectic with creating menus, shopping, decorating, wrapping gifts and deep cleaning before company arrives. Excitement fills the air as we recall fond memories of past holidays and anticipate celebrating together again.  The senses are awakened by all of the delightful decorations, pleasant aromas and delicious foods. All of the positive emotions we feel can be mixed with sadness and pain as we face economic hardship, disappointments or think of loved ones who are no longer with us. We can start to feel overwhelmed and exhausted unless we intentionally center our festivities around what’s really important.  How can we do this instead of getting lost in a jumble of busyness and accompanying stress?

Reflecting back, I can think of several things that we did as a family to create a warm, loving atmosphere where we put our energy into what Thanksgiving and Christmas really mean. 

For now, I will talk about Thanksgiving and share more about Christmas in a later post. Besides relatives, we have hosted International Students who never experienced this American Holiday.  It gave us the opportunity to share the origin of Thanksgiving as well as how and why we celebrate it. The students enjoyed trying new foods and had a fun time interacting with us. Among others who have shared this special day with us include a single mom and her child and another large homeschool family.

Twice we had the privilege of serving turkey dinners to large groups of people who likely would have spent the day alone had it not been for the ministries who gave an open invitation. Another year we were invited to eat with a large community of people who blessed us with incredible food and friendship.

During  our homeschooling years,  we attempted to put an emphasis on the real meaning of Thanksgiving by including theme-based arts and crafts projects as well as reading books and giving writing assignments related to this holiday. Dressing up like Pilgrims and Indians and acting out the first Thanksgiving, singing and listening to hymns of Thanksgiving and reading Scriptures that point to being thankful were also on this list. A favorite thing that we still do is to give each person around the dining room table a chance to share something for which he or she is thankful. Now that all of our children are adults, most of these activities are only a memory, but it is nice to see these traditions being passed down to our grandchildren. 

“Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.”    Psalm 107:8 & 9