Happy Thanksgiving

I am enjoying the fact that it is 9:00am and I am still in bed! I've been enjoying some peace and quiet and a good book I picked up yesterday. My laptop was nearby so I am taking the opportunity to attend to a very neglected blog.

Dean said something I thought was very profound the other day. I was playing Christmas music and he said, "No! That's just wrong!" When I asked him why it was wrong he said, "I haven't even gotten to relish and enjoy Thanksgiving yet. You're rushing through to the next holiday before we even have a chance to savor this one. I love Thankgiving! I want to enjoy it first."

Wow, isn't that good. Totally changed my view of Christmas music and a few other things. I started thinking about what he said and I realized I LOVE Thanksgiving too! I love the fact that it is all about people and fellowship and nothing about gifts. The gift is the gift of our presence. The gift is the gift of fun. As I was thinking, I realized, it might be my favorite holiday. Christmas brings so much pressure to get all the right gifts but stay in my budget. It is so much work. Our time together is spent throwing paper off packages and then off to the next gathering where we do more of the same. The older I get, the less important the gifts become and the more I long for simplicity.

I love the fact that my boys love Thanksgiving. It's the holiday where the tradition includes their participation. They discuss plays the Kansas City Kids can use against the Greenbay Grown Ups. They plan activities that include kids and adults. They look forward to how they will spend time with their cousins and aunts and uncles. Their appreciation reminds us adults that they really do just want our time and interaction more than they want our gifts.

Too often I have treated Thanksgiving as the warm-up, the prelude, before Christmas. But I have already been in the Christmas frame of mind. This wouldn't be a bad thing if it meant I was focusing with awe and wonder on the fact that God became man so He could dwell among us and be the "with us" God (Emmanuael). But of course, instead it means that I'm making my lists and checking them twice and trying to figure out that perfect gift for everyone on it and wondering how, if life already seems busy, how I'll squeeze in everything that means Christmas.

So thanks for the reminder Dean to enjoy this day. To savor it's meaning. To revel in wonder at the abundance of God's blessings and provision but also to remember that the greatest blessings we have, next to our salvation in Christ, is each other. We are so mightily favored it is almost hard to take in.