Thanksgiving 2023

I have said it before and I'll say it again. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. The Thanksgiving dinner is my favorite meal of the year. I like it kept traditional; Roast turkey and a baked ham, mashed potatoes with giblet gravy, stuffing, green beans or asparagus, candied yams, cranberry sauce, good bread and pumpkin pie.  My drink of choice is water and egg nog.

My wife has been the Thanksgiving hostess throughout our marriage, she inherited that labor of love from my mother, just as our daughters have inherited it from her. She has earned her rest.

Why is it my favorite holiday? It is the pureness of it all, as well as the simplicity, not that cooking and hosting a Thanksgiving dinner is simple or easy but the intent is just to express our gratitude to God for all those good things in our lives.

With that, I offer this prayer: Father God, thank you for the family that you have given my wife and I, our five daughters and one son, perfectly imperfect but filled with love, nine loving grandchildren - including the one who sits with you Father God. We thank you for the the parents and grandparents that you, in your infinite wisdom, placed us with. Thank you for our siblings, the aunts, uncles and many wonderful cousins that defined our childhood. Thank you for those cousins I have found late in life. Thank you for the good, life changing, friends that you put in our path; some for a season, some for the duration.

Thank you for the good work you provided me with. It was enough. It was more than enough. Thank you for the home you gave us to live in and raise a family. Thank you for all the good dogs and cats that gave us love and joy. We remember them all.

Lord, we Thank you for our great country, however imperfect it may seem at the moment. We continue to pray not only for these United States of America but for the world.

Father God, more than anything, we Thank you for your, mercy,  forgiveness and grace.

In Jesus's name, we thank you and we pray

Now, about the Thanksgiving day stuffing: my mother made a wonderful stuffing but the stuffing/dressing of my heart is my wife's stuffing. It seems to me that it was created just for me. Maybe that is just one ingredients in God's plan for us. However, I feel as if I have put an undue burden on my daughters. Whichever one of them hosts the dinner they will almost invariably say to me, "Dad, I know it's not mom's stuffing but......" They needn't worry I love theirs too.

God Bless you, stay safe, eat good today and leave room for the pie.