I always loved Thanksgiving the most, even as a child. My mom was a fabulous cook and we had a HUGE family. So it meant a great time at our house. I'm not against Halloween, but I decorate "for Thanksgiving" instead of Halloween. I do this every year in order to begin thinking more of what I am so thankful, for a longer period of time. Mary Jane has on her calendar, "Buy Nothing Day" for the Friday after Thanksgiving. Shopping on Friday after Thanksgiving may have thoughts turned towards Christmas too soon??!! I like Mary Jane's idea! As the leaves turn, so does my heart turn towards the mountains, to visit where my family grew up, possibly touching base with some that we don't see but perhaps once a year. Then at my Thanksgiving meal, Sweet Potato Souffle is my favorite. It tastes more like a desert. Most of all, my only daughter having a chance to come for Thanksgiving, this makes my heart soar!

I'm soooo sorry about your sweet little Tripp and pray you will have great memories to the end just like this one in the Driveway!!! May he not suffer any pain and may your hearts be comforted. Well, our family Thanksgiving tradition when my 4 children were young (and because we are a book-loving family) was to find one new Thanksgiving children's book each year. It was always fun to go out and find our new book and then spend the day reading over the stories. I never liked so much the 'trendy' books but more the good old-fashioned stories and richly illustrated books. Now my children are grown and there aren't any grandchildren yet, but we have over a dozen great books about Thanksgiving to keep the holiday Alive for many, many years to come and I can't wait to see one of them sharing a story with one of their children when they come over for Thanksgiving some year. My husband and I were married on Thanksgiving 30 years ago so it's always been our favorite Holiday. Ephesians 5:20 - Giving Thanks Always - has been our Life's verse.

Rebekah, I love the idea of more traditions but one thing I would like to see come to an end at Thanksgiving is Black Friday. It has more than one meaning for me. My sister lives 2 states away and works in a department store and can never enjoy Thanksgiving with the rest of the family because she is forced to work on this day. Every year reports of people getting badly injured and even killed fill the newspapers. I think we should get back to appreciating one another and not thinking about our next 'good deal'. I know this isn't exactly what you have in mind for ideas but I'm very passionate on this subject.
The idea about the kernel of corn is very original. I like it. Tripp is so adorable. I hope she heals quickly.

I am always touched by how connected we are to these pets that become members of our families. They give and give to us and teach us about compassion and loving tirelessly. They are worth every minute in making us better humans.

This is a fun site to visit!!! i love your Indian corn necklace, and I think I will try making one for myself!
Thank you for the great idea!!!

Wendy Lou

Excellent Bloggie Rebekah...!
Thanksgiving is my favorite Holiday, because it is uncomplicated and quiet. A special time for the big three to be practiced: Faith... Hope... Love, and shared with beloved ones... Family... Critters... and Friends.
We could all probably learn more about Thankfulness from Tripp than our collective minds could ever produce.
Thank You for all the Wonderful Bloggies, and especially the one about "Elvis", and these two brilliant portraits of Love and devotion in the photos of Tripp above.
GodSpeed to Y'all...!
Gary
in Tampa

I love your attention and intention to this wonderful holiday..With all the consumerism and marketing and media, we all loose sight of the purpose....For my family and I we have gone back to the basics of being thankful for what we already have and use it instead of buying new table settings and fancy napkins etc. it really turns out creative and fun... and this year we are buying all the food from local growers !!!! I'm so thankful I have seen the light and that my children know the meaning of being grateful....A true Farmgirl....Kathy

The tradition we have at Thanksgiving is a "Thankfulness Tablecloth". I have a cream colored tablecloth on the dining room table and everyone who is in attendance at the Thanksgiving dinner writes on the tablecloth something they are thankful for. It's fun to look back and see who was with us at each dinner and what everyone was thankful for that year.

I agree with you about us loosing Thanksgiving!! Goes right from Halloween to Christmas. Right after Halloween they put all the fall things on a hugh sale. I do think we need to bring back Thanksgiving!!

Hope your dog gets better. I know its so hard as I had a boxer who was 12 and got stuck in our little creek and couldn't get out. I had to carry him to the house. Now he is gone but we have great memories!!!

Happy Thanksgiving,

Rowena

Oh, those sweet brown eyes, so innocent! The story and photo brought tears to my eyes. Love to see others who love their doggies as much as their own children! So happy she gets to come home to heal, "home is where the heart is," and right now the couch is where my big ranch dog lies!!!!!

The picture of your husband and your dog brought tears to my eyes this morning.

I love the Indian corn idea and roll Trip onto a sheet to get him to the vet for his daily dose. He will get stronger. I am treating my rescue cat Blu, for a horrindus cat bite infection too. He is getting better! I will pray for both.

I do think Thanksgiving should be a time for FAMILY and we don't have any special rituals but I shall take away from these ideas some very NEW rituals for me.

I remember my grandmother's candy red apple slices she made each year from red hots and cinnamon. Oh, Yummy! We used to go over the river and thru the woods when my daughter was small.

Thanks for starting this topic! I do give thanks for so much that we have today and what we have lost!
Smiles, Cyndi

I am so distressed that Thanksgiving is getting lost between Halloween and Christmas! I wish I knew how to petition to get it changed to October 12th and celebrate it as part of Columbus Day. (Canada celebrates on Oct. 12th already!) Our country has so much to be grateful for, but because of the commercialization of Halloween and Christmas, it appears that the act of being truly grateful (for even one day)is not being practiced. My family has chosen to not honor Halloween and go straight to the season of celebration and Thanksgiving on October 1st!! We have two months of celebration!! How wonderful and fun it's been!! I've noticed that our attitudes and thoughtfulness has increased as we have thankful hearts. Any one else feel the same way??

There is always reason to be thankful...always. When you look beyond anything material it's easy to find the grateful heart we were all born with. When my holidays used to be about "stuff", you know, the amount of food we had, the amount of friends we had over, the decorations, buying NEW decorations, shopping the day after Thanksgiving (arrghhh!), etc., etc., it was all external. Then came a time when we needed to scale back, and it was a time of withdrawal for me, the feeling of not having "enough". What had happened to me, I wondered? Where did the child-like anticipation go, that wonderful sense of expectancy, the walks on the woods, the smell of woodsmoke in the air, the feeling of being "home"? It was enough then, as a child, and I knew it needed to be enough once again as an adult. So...

We started to make our own decorations from found objects on our walks. Natural decorations are so much more beautiful and meaningful. We decided to only invite our closest family and friends over for dinner, that meant a table with eight was much more manageable for us (read that...ME...since I did all the cooking!), and refusing to be caught up in the day after Thanksgiving madness. So, for the last three years we go to Shaker Village the day after Thanksgiving (we are so blessed to be able to live close to this wonderful, peaceful and historic place), and we walk the quiet grounds. My daughters have so much fun running through the leaves, and here we feed the ducks and geese with loaves of bread. The people we see there are those folks for whom the commercialism of the season holds no sway. You see people sketching, meditating/contemplating under the trees and smiling warmly when you pass by. It's a feeling of peace and plenty. This is how we retrieved Thanksgiving (the whole Christmas season really) from being "lost". To simplify is the best gift you can give your family...and yourself! I wish you all quiet joy and a season of peace.....

Cindy

I love Thanksgiving. I love decorating both the porch and our foyer with corn stalks, pumpkins, bittersweet, and autumn vines.

The Sunday before, our church,with it's altar decorated in a bounty of corn, pumpkins, leaves, and wheat, has a lovely service followed by a huge potluck lunch. Church potlucks are the best!

On the big day we eat at mom's and all of us bring food. Mom always makes her famous oyster dressing which was passed down from grandmother.

No traditions other than eating and being together--something that seems to be less common in today's world of people always on the go.

I refuse to do anything Christmas (shopping, decorating, listening to music, etc.) until after Thanksgiving has been celebrated thoroughly.

much love to Tripp ... so good that he has his family that understands there's no place like home when it comes to reco-operation and no one who understands you better than a "Dad" that just sits in the driveway with you (great picture btw).

What I love about my dogs is how they live in every moment (no yesterdays, no tomorrows) and being thankful is something they are every day for everything in their life (Wow, you came home - love you! Oh Dinner - I LOVE dinner - and look, my favorite! Walk? oh yes, my very favorite thing, let's go!)

Every Thanksgiving, we take a wonderful long walk with the dogs after dinnere & talk about anything & nothing - lookin for a beautiful fallen leaf, pinecones, acorns, etc. to take home for the wooden bowl on the dining room table and in the evening, I actually start working on my Christmas cards as it truly causes me to give thanks for the friends & family in my life and with each note I write and wish I send, I know that life is truly about having an attitude of gratitude to be at my happiest self.

30 years ago the neighborhood I grew up in started a football game and now 30 years later it's still going on. I used to be at a park in the neighborhood but it's since been movec to another location. They write up a funny little newsletter with updates on everyone's year and after the game (rain or shine) those that want to meet at a neighborhood bar for soda/beer and snacks. There are now great grandkids of some of the origional players. A fun way for old friends to keep in touch.

What can I say about Thanksgiving? I am not one for holidays, and Thanksgiving was my favorite when I was young. Mainly because I LOVE fall. My culture does not celebrate Thanksgiving, but living in the US, well it became a new tradition. I love the food, and sweet potatoes with marshmallows became my favorite. For me, it was all about family. Just having them with us meant something special. No real traditions, no dressing up, no football games, just everyone talking, making tamales, men outside talking. I loved it.
Why are we losing Thanksgiving? The day is still there, the calendar still says it is a holiday, but our spirit is not there. Our society has lost its love for tradition, meaning and the simple things in life. So many have even given up being thankful for what they have.
I am new to the magazine and to blogs. I have found it very interesting, and I hope to contribute more. You see, though I feel the farm girl in me, I do not see myself in the magazine. But, it help me find myself, the one I lost so many years ago. The creative side of me. I have to let her out and let her explore, and hopefully bring back the culture I love so much and want to recapture. Maybe it will start with Thanksgiving. I will ask some friends to come and I will teach them to make tamales! For me, that will be the first step in saving the holiday I used to treasure.
Carolina

love the driveway photo! hope trip feels better soon.

i've always loved the social aspect of thanksgiving, but my family lives in another state, so i usually try to do something different on the holidays. this year, i'm going to volunteer at our local fair trade store on black friday. only once i've got up way-too early to get a good deal on a kitchenaid mixer (and it was a good deal!), but just once. i think i value sleep more than shopping. so this year i won't be up as early, but i will be volunteering at a store that sells goods from artisans in other countries. if you don't know what fair trade is, i highly recommend finding out more. it's a great way to help those in need. you can even support them by buying your christmas gifts from fair trade stores. i know, that's totally skipping out talking about thanksgiving traditions and going straight to christmas, but for me it's about giving my time during the holidays to help others.
i do like the idea of making a corn necklace, so maybe i'll do that and wear it in the store on black friday.

here's a brief description of fair trade for those that are interested:
"Throughout generations of conventional trade, some of the world's most skilled craftsmen have been marginalized. Today, talented artisans in regions of Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Central Africa are fighting to maintain personal dignity while struggling to provide for themselves and their families. Fair Trade organizations work to provide these artisans with an opportunity for economic development by helping them rightfully earn a living wage in safe and healthy working conditions."

Oh I am so sorry to hear about Trip and love the picture and why your husband sat down with her. I have a cat Luckie who is 19 and understand the love a pet you have had that long. I hope she gets better soon.
Thanksgiving for me and my family has not been the same since my mother died in 2002, leaving my dad, 2 brothers and me. One don't care if we get together or not. The other will some times and some times not come over. So my dad and I have been for a few years go to the local Eagles club my father belongs to and have dinner there, they put on every year for any member who has no where else to go, they don't charge and only ask to bring a dish to pass.

i only recently found farmgirl and the blog and am enjoying it - im from scotland, have lived in the states for 12 years, am married to an american and we have 3 little boys
thanksgiving is obviously not a holiday ive celebrated much - though i have enjoyed family feasts when we have lived near my husbands relatives, as a nurse i often work so others can celebrate wuth their families.
but as my kids grow - seven, four and two - i feel like i need to start blending our scottish/american/african heritages for us
this blog episode has opened my eyes to exactly what and how we do celebrate - we have a lovely tin plaque on our living room wall that states simply FAITH LOVE HOPE and another says PEACE those are the tenets we want to live under in our family so i think we will brainstrom as a family to find ways to blend this into a celebration
thank you thank you
ps the lovely driveway picture made me cry a little, hope and prayers to you all

I have always loved Thanksgiving. When I was a child, we gathered at my grandmothers house for the day. Since we all lived within a block of each other it was easy. When my husband and I moved from Pittsburgh to North Carolina, our parents came here together almost every year to celebrate with us. the big event of the weekend was the dads, my husband and I raking leaves. We also celebrated our daughter's birthday a couple of weeks early with the grandparents. Now our daughter is married and living in Pittsburgh (funny turn of events) and we look to a new tradition. She and her husband will come here and her inlaws will come from Florida to start a new time together. We'll see what new traditions develop. It will be great.

One tradition that we had for years in my family was to finish the big meal with a pumpkin pie AND a special pie that my mom developed - prune and apricot. Oh, I can just hear the "ooh, yuck"s out there now. Don't be so hasty to put that combo down. Acutally, it's really delicious. I can't give you a recipe for it, you know, how much sugar, etc. but, in general, treat it like any other fruit pie. Use the dried fruits, and plump them up by leaving them in some rehydrating liquid, water or orange juice, say, for at least a few minutes. I usually leave them in for an hour, or so, just to be sure. Continue as for an apple pie, just testing for sweetness and adjusting the suger accordingly. My mom's been gone for almost twenty years, so I've had to rely on myself to make this pie. This spring, I found out that I can no longer eat anything with gluten in it, and that includes my regular old pie crust. The usual gluten-free crust recipes produce something barely edible, so we'll se what this Thanksgiving brings. Wish me luck.

I've always loved Thanksgiving, and having family together.
One tradition I've kept through the course of marriage, 7 kids, and now as a single mom with 4 of these 7 living with me is being able to keep up the tradition of a good homecooked meal with my kids. We've been fortunate to have this holiday off work and spend together with each other.
We're thankful we have a roof over our head, bills paid on time, and food on the table, especially with the economy being as bad as it is. Simple is best! Have a GREAT THANKSGIVING ALL!

On October 19, 2008, our youngest son, age 7, past away suddenly from a brain tumor. It has been very difficult this past year to find anything to be thankful for. This year, I hope to make things a bit better for my family, and to reach for things that we are thankful for. After nearly finding ourselves homeless in late August, that seems like a great place to start. As I was growing up, my extended family had many great Thanksgiving traditions that I think need to be introduced to my remaining three boys, as well as possibly starting a new one-that being a trip to the mountains to a place locally called "snow bowl". After a Thanksgiving dinner, an afternoon of sledding and snow-boarding and a campfire might be a good thing. Whatever the tradition may be, it is what is in each person's heart that counts.

My Sister and I have always gone 'shopping' the day after Thanksgiving, but never bought much. It was more of a social event. We always see a lot of people we know. This year we decided to forego the shopping and do a craft day instead. We are trying to change our local economy, one person at a time. We are making our Christmas presents this year, or buying handmade. No more junk from other countries that end up in a garage sale next year. Maybe we'll even invite all of our friends to drop by and say hi. When they see how much fun we are having, they'll join in next year. I love the tablecloth and the corn necklace idea. I think it would be cute to put the handprints on the tablecloth, draw them with a permanent marker, then have everyone turn them into a turkey. Remember those handprint turkey drawings in grade school? We could make a new one every year, and eventually every family member will have one. Remember to put the year on it. What a great way to decorate for Thanksgiving and remember people we are thankful for. My brother will definitly complain about having to do this! I can't wait!

This year I started a "new" tradition. I started this on Nov.1st...I bought some silk leaves and a gold paint pen...everyday I have written a kindness or something special that I am thankful for. I have a basket on the dining room table that I put them in...on Thanksgiving day I am going to scatter them on my table and then set the table as always...friends and family will can see how special they all are to me and know that I think of them often and kindly.

We read Psalm and then we each say something we are thankful for. It is a simple tradition but I look forward to it each year and the interesting thing is that the things we are most thankful for are not material things but treasures of the heart that help us on those tough days.

Your blog today touched me personally as most of yours do. I have two small girls. One in 1st grade and one who stays home with me everyday, she is three. After I drop my 6 year old off at school I say to my youngest "lets say a prayer for sissy and family" this is a daily activity and one that I cherish. In saying our prayers I always end with everything that I'm thankful for and the list is long. Not of material things but of my families health, happiness, well being, my two beautiful girls and husband, the glorious day just beginning whether it is raining or the sun is shining... the list goes on. Now, by this time my 3 year old is playing with whichever baby she has chosen to bring with her in the car and no longer repeats each word after me :) but most everyday I end my prayer with teary eyes because I truly am thankful for the blessings we have.
Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday to me and one we have always celebrated. My husband and I are trying to raise our children to be thankful for what we have and not always ask for or want more, more, more. In doing that, I am making most all of the christmas presents that we will give out this year. I am going to include my girls in this project and they will help me with the baking. Most everything that I will give as gifts this year will be sewn by me or baked by us. they are really excited and have helped me pick out recipes and ideas.
thank you for your inspiration. I so look forward to this each week. I have only left a comment one other time but felt moved to do so today.

What a good topic and food for thought.

Thanksgiving is very simply defined, it is what the word implies. It can be a whole lot more, depending on the embellishment(s) people attach to the holiday, but it remains what it was originally intended to be...Thanking the Lord of Heaven for any and all blessings in our lives. If it was nothing else beyond that, no feast, no autumn, not frills...it would still be so worthy of the time we might set aside to sincerely give to give thanks.