Thanksgiving (2019 edition)

[SnowAngel]

I love this time of year. The air is cool and crisp, there's apple cider and pumpkin desserts, Christmas music (if you start listening to it this early), and so many other wonderful things happening. And one of those wonderful things in the United States is Thanksgiving Day which is Thursday, November 28th this year.

Do you have the tradition Thanksgiving meal?
What are your favorite traditions or memories of Thanksgiving?

Anyone who has hung around the Spare Oom for a few years knows my favorite fall tradition is my family’s “thankful for” jar. When I was about 6 years old my mom started the tradition and we’ve done it every year since then. It goes like this we get a large canning jar, small candies, and nuts. At lunch or supper time we pass the jar around the table and saying either "Thank you God for…"or "I’m thankful for…", and then we drop one piece of candy in the jar for each 'thankful for'. Thanksgiving Day and the days following it we enjoy eating the candy and nuts. We each do 5 or 6 'thankful fors' every day. We will fill a couple canning jars with 'thankful fors' before Thanksgiving Day. In the last couple years we have changed it up for a healthy version with a lot of nuts, we do still include some chocolate chips and a little bit of candy corn.

I'm thankful for...
~God
~My savior, Jesus Christ!
~The Bible
~My parents
~My siblings
~Extended family
~The Mod Squad
~All of the wonderful people here on NarniaWeb!
~Black Rifle Coffee Company - best coffee ever!

SnowAngel

[Ryadian]

Thanksgiving is absolutely my favorite holiday. It helps that my extended family usually gets together for Thanksgiving instead of Christmas, and we've consistently had the whole Thanksgiving Dinner whereas Christmas... well, I tend to remember Christmas presents more than Christmas Dinners. It also helps that fall is my favorite time of year, there's less pressure around Thanksgiving once the logistics have been arranged, and I kind of find it easier to keep the true meaning of Thanksgiving in my mind when surrounded by some of the people I love most.

My family definitely has the traditional Thanksgiving meal - turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce (usually several varieties!), and probably a minimum of three more side dishes. We also have several pies - pumpkin, apple, and triple berry (my favorite!) are absolute mainstays, and we usually have at least a couple of other varieties. For context, we tend to have about 20-30 people at Thanksgiving. This year, I'm planning to make the triple berry pie, and I'm hoping to try making a key lime pie.

I think your "thankful for" jar is wonderful! My family has tried a couple of the "write down something you're thankful for" things (like a fall wreath), but those don't always take off. I might have to try that one for myself - I live alone so I won't accumulate as much, but that's kind of a side benefit to finding something to be thankful for every night.

I'll ditto most of the things you're thankful for (except for the Black Rifle Coffee Company, I'm not familiar with them and I'm not a coffee drinker ), and add two more: I'm thankful for my new house (I finally have a place of my own indefinitely), and I'm so thankful for this wonderful time of year! I love autumn so much!!

[Cleander]

Ah yes, Thanksgiving is upon us!
I've always kind of viewed the holiday as a sort of warm-up for Christmas actually, (though perhaps I shouldn't; they just seem to be part of the same event somehow. ) But I do love fall, and I do love large meals involving rolls, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, so I'm totally in on it!
This year I'm thankful for a lot of things, most notably my sister getting engaged and my brother and his wife announcing their fourth incoming child!(or is it outcoming ? )
Yeah, it's been an eventful year in the... uh, "Cleander" household!
And of course, I'm thankful for God, my relationship with Jesus Christ, and my family!
His mercies are new every morning!

[Kalta79]

We have been going to the Thanksgiving dinner that the local restaurant puts out for those who really don't have family to be with, this will be their third year I think doing it. They have mostly traditional fixings, and it's never just the bird who ends up stuffed.

Can't think of any specific memories of Thanksgiving. Christmas yes, but not really Thanksgiving.

I'm thankful that even though someone stole some of stuff from church last Wednesday, including my Kindle Fire tablet, they weren't able to access our Amazon account with it and make any fraudulent charges before I notified Amazon and it's now defunct, so even if we don't get our stuff returned, it's okay.

Also thankful that the wireless adapter thing I bought from Amazon works, so my XP desktop can now use my phone's internet, hence me posting right now. I'm having a "binge-a-thon" of coffee and leftover Halloween candy to celebrate. Sure I can just use my phone to do stuff online, but I like my desktop best for internet stuff.

Thankful our new pastor's wife shared copies of the Purpose Driven Life book, because I found a possible suitable house for my mother and I, but it's in New Hampshire, all the way across the country, and even though it seems perfect, I've been praying for guidance on how to know what God wants for us.

I'm also grateful for all the blessings that we don't even realize are blessings at the time, mainly because we mistakenly take them for granted.

[aileth]

Ah yes, Thanksgiving is upon us!...and my brother and his wife announcing their fourth incoming child!(or is it outcoming ? )

Well, for us Thanksgiving is past (though we can enjoy other people's) and for that I am thankful (strictly due to NaNo, you see).

And speaking of due...yes, that is a puzzling question you've posed there: incoming--into the family; outcoming--yes, yes, emerging eventually. Or how about fourthcoming? My brother and his wife are also expecting this year, only theirs is secondcoming (bi-coming?)

[SnowAngel]

I'll ditto most of the things you're thankful for (except for the Black Rifle Coffee Company, I'm not familiar with them and I'm not a coffee drinker ).

I use to be slightly disappointed when someone would say they don't like coffee, but now I'm just thankful there's more for me.

It is so much fun to hear what others do for Thanksgiving. It's been decided by my dad that we're having brisket for Thanksgiving this year, not sure yet what sides we will be having. I'm hoping for cheesy potatoes and I would really like to have okra too.

I'm thankful for...
~Wretched
~Books
~Colored gel pens
~Sticky notes
~Christmas music
~Pumpkins
~Dark chocolate
~Homemade marshmallow
~Protein powder, xanthan gum, and gelatin (for making marshmallows)

Now, I'm hungry....
SnowAngel

[Arwen_Daeneri31]

My family typically makes different foods for Thanksgiving and that's always fun and something to look forward to. We try to find something to watch together afterwards.

I'm thankful for:

-Coffee
-People here on Narniaweb
-Family and Friends
-Books
-School
-Chocolate

Plenty more but that's just a start.

[Movie Aristotle]

Ah, Thanksgiving. I truly appreciate this season. For me, Thanksgiving and hymns seem to go together. Hymns are traditional, old-fashioned, thoughtful, beautiful, melodic, and compact with doctrine. I truly love new worship music, but I also love the old. Since becoming my church's worship leader, I've made it a point to ensure that we have hymns every November. (Tomorrow's list includes I'll Fly Away, Chris Tomlin's arrangement of Take My Life (and Let It Be), and As the Deer.) I think it is important to know these songs and to teach these songs to the next generation. (I also feel like it provides a nice transition to Christmas carols.) What do you think of as "Thanksgiving music"?

I'm chairman of the Health & Wellness Committee at work (currently, I'm also the only member of the committee. ) and for November I created a blank gratitude list that my coworkers could print out and each day jot down one thing they are thankful for, to share during the company meeting on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I'm planning to bring mine home for Thursday's lunch as well.

Something I'm thankful for? You fine folks! - My NarniaWeb family is so awesome. Through you all I'm beginning to realize how unique and wonderful are the saints. We're like a superhero team -each interesting in our own right but more awesome together!

Let's see... now to talk about food! Our traditional family meal consists of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, dinner rolls, green bean casserole, pickles, and both green and black olives. I'm getting full just thinking about it!

Optional sides include corn, creamed corn, salad, baked beans, and carrots. I'm trying to think of something new this year. What do you think: fancy mac & cheese, or cole slaw? Or maybe wild rice? Or maybe crackers and cheeses? Is there a vegetable that goes particularly well at the Thanksgiving table? A soup? I'm not going to worry about the dessert. I'm sure there will be something at the table and I don't need to be making too many contributions to that category!

Ryadian was kind enough to host a "Friendsgiving" for our local group of NarniaWebbers and we chose to bring selected dishes featured in a New York Times article with recipes from each state. Let's see, we had turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, cheese and crackers, olives, mashed potatoes, grape salad, cranberry sauce, lefse, and dinner roles. Hmm... now that I type it out, it looks very similar to my traditional Thanksgiving meal! Ha. Well, I guess that's the point. I'll have to bring the wild rice next time just to mix it up! Thanks Ryadian for hosting! Are you already making plans for next year?

-I'm also thankful for Mozilla Firefox. My computer just ran out of battery and shut down, but I turned the computer and Firefox back on and not only did it remember what pages I was on, it also saved everything I typed above so I didn't have to type it over again!

Now let's see, what was I going to type next? Oh yes! For you history buffs (or people who have trouble thinking what to be thankful for) check out these Thanksgiving Proclamations I found!

[SnowAngel]

So neat that you pick hymns for your church, Movie Artistole. Our church occasional sings "updated" hymns which I do not care for, I find them to be very awkward to sing since I know the original wording.

Today, I made pumpkin chiffon pie and sour cream mix berry pie for tomorrow as well as pumpkin muffins for breakfast. Lunch will be brisket, scalloped potatoes, roasted green beans, and sparkling fruit salad (apples, oranges, kombucha, and chia seeds). Since the pies and fruit salad are made and the brisket is cooking, today's prep is done.

I'm thankful for...
~rest
~family time
~items check off my to-do list
~Thanksgiving Day
~sweaters
~sparkly jewelry
~Christmas lights
~chicory


SnowAngel

[coracle]

I continue to feel grateful for many things, particularly for all the pleasures of being home after two years overseas.
I'm thankful for many friends online, and particularly Narniaweb friends who have often been supportive of me in less easy times.
Not being American, I don't actually celebrate Thanksgiving.

Wishing you all a happy day with friends or family, and enjoy resting and feasting.

[Courtenay]

I'm also not American, but because my church denomination (Christian Science) originated in America, we hold a Thanksgiving service on or near the day — I helped to conduct one in my own church last week and also attended one today at the Christian Science nursing facility where I work. It was a really lovely occasion with people sharing their gratitude for all kinds of blessings in their lives — and we had roast turkey for lunch afterwards, too!

I've never been to the US at Thanksgiving time, but I would love to — it's such a wonderful idea for a celebration and friends from America have assured me it's the nicest and most special time of year to be there! So maybe I'll get there one day.

In the meantime, I have so much to be thankful for in my own life — the love and support of friends and family, a rewarding job and a wonderful place to live, the recent confirmation that I've been granted permanent settlement status in the UK (which I've been hoping for and working towards for a long time) — and I'm grateful to have discovered this lovely friendly NarniaWeb community, too, dedicated to my favourite series of children's books!

Here's a Thanksgiving hymn I love, which we sang at my church's service last week — I'm sure others here will know it too: Let All Things Now Living

Wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving full of joy and blessings!

[Movie Aristotle]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Enjoy the day!

Now to see if someone has started a Christmas thread yet...

[Col Klink]

Thanksgiving is probably my least favorite major (American) holiday because the main thing we do to celebrate is have a big dinner and I don't particularly like traditional Thanksgiving food except for pumpkin pie. So we get all the stress of making an important meal without the benefits (for me.) Sometimes relatives from faraway will visit my family on Thanksgiving, which can be fun, but usually it's just the relatives who live in our neighborhood and whom we see every week.

I do love A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving though!

[SnowAngel]

One thing that I love about Thanksgiving is that my family has made a tradition out of not having the traditional dinner. Our brisket was so good.

We had a lovely day, the weather was moderate, so part of the family went for a walk in the afternoon before we had dessert. Oh, the pies were really good. The rest of the day was spent playing games and hanging out by the fireplace.

SnowAngel