Give Thanks

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday.  I love the four day weekend, the delicious food, the beautiful fall weather.  I love getting together with family, watching football, taking a long afternoon nap. Thanksgiving feels like the simpler, slower version of Christmas, the calm before the shopping and gift giving storm.  It is a chance to just get together and BE, to reflect on the happiness and love in our lives, to recognize each other and the important things we are all experiencing.  It is a beautiful holiday.

We've been busy all week getting ready for our Thanksgiving weekend road trip.  We are traveling to north Louisiana to spend the holiday with my aunts and uncles and cousins and we are all so excited for a change of scenery.  It will be baby River's first road trip and I have high hopes for my sweet and peaceful boy.  We tackled several projects around the house this week including rearranging our living room furniture and FINALLY opening up our fireplace.  When we moved into our house 4 years ago, we placed the TV on the fireplace "temporarily", planning to hang it above the mantel "eventually".  Cut to FOUR years later and the TV was still sitting on the fireplace, preventing us from ever lighting fires and using this beautiful feature in our home.  Isabelle has been begging us to rearrange and move the room around to remedy this situation and Shawn and my Dad finally came through.  I came home from work one afternoon and noticed smoke coming out of the chimney, pleasantly surprised to walk in and find the room looking completely different and a fire roaring in the fireplace.  We've spent the last week obsessing over the whole thing, putting down a new rug, watching movies all cuddled up, and completely loving the warmth of the fire.  Thank you, Isabelle, for making us get our butts in gear. This was our best home improvement project yet!

We spent the afternoon making handprint turkeys, the kind of craft that meets all of my crafting criteria: requires 3 or less supplies, takes less than 10 minutes, doesn't destroy the house in the process. A crafter I am not but I do try to find little projects that the kids and I can do together, added bonus for preserving memories in the form of handprints.  This kept them busy and happy and River woke up from his nap just in time to make his own little turkey. We hung them on the door in the kitchen and they go perfectly with the pumpkin spice scented candles, the fire burning in the den, the big blankets laid out on the sofa, the cookies baking in the oven, and the chili cooking on the stove: everything fall and warm and cozy.

This holiday season, I want my family to really focus not on the things, but on the people.  I want us all to spend more time saying "thank you" instead of "I want".  I want us to give more than we receive. Together is all we ever need.