Thanksgiving Recap

The Thanksgiving holiday is over.  My daughter came home from college for the first time since the semester started.  We watched movies, played board and card games together, colored (those adult coloring pages!), and generally relaxed. I got some reading in my Lewis & Clark books done.  (They have reached the Gates of the Mountains in present day Montana.)  It was a really nice break.  We did venture out to Target on Saturday--we could not resist the lure of the book section, but that was about it.  I did do some on-line shopping (hey, I'm a busy working mom, I had to get it done), but didn't go out Thursday night/Friday early. 

I will attempt to stay relaxed and not get worked up about how much I have to do as the Christmas season gets closer.  That kind of thinking is totally reversed from what we should be doing during this season.

Thanksgiving or PreChristmas?

     Thanksgiving is in just a few days and I am bracing myself for the Christmas onslaught.  Every year I am overwhelmed with the way the big kick off to the Christmas shopping season overshadows what is a wonderful fall, harvest day of thanks.  I just want to shut myself in the house and not emerge again until Christmas season actually starts, which is the first Sunday of Advent (December 3 this year).  I know, we are only talking a difference of 10 days, but I think they are important days. 

    

     It is nice to have a couple of days off work to eat and relax and take note for what we are thankful for in our life--what is important to us.  It is family time.  It is time to go for a hike on a crisp fall day and come back in and have hot chocolate.  It is a time to play board games, to read, to watch parades relax and recharge.  That is what is important.  Planning our shopping conquests, running ourselves ragged trying to get the best deals takes all of that away.  Thanksgiving becomes the start to a commercial race I don't even want to watch, let alone participate in.  

     This year, we are having a low key Thanksgiving dinner and family get together.  We are playing games and watching TV.  We are relaxing the rest of the weekend and will go back to work/school refreshed and energized.  The next weekend, we will attend church and celebrate the beginning of the Advent season and put up the Christmas tree.