Happy Thanksgiving! I wish you a day filled with love in the company of family and good friends. As you gather around a bountiful table, give thanks for all we have been given.

It is really cold, and the wind doesn’t help. The sun is just a prop, but I am comfy and warm. I’m watching the parade and having my coffee with the Danish I bought yesterday, an apple Danish. Henry is eating a decorated turkey biscuit. He licks off the frosting first. He is now ready for a nap. I am going out later for dinner at my favorite restaurant, The Ocean House.

Thanksgiving seems to be the one holiday almost all of us celebrate and turkey is universal. Eating meat, though, is not a prerequisite. Celebrating and feasting with friends and family are the only givens. Of all the holidays, I think Thanksgiving carries the most traditions from generation to generation. The food seldom changes. Some dishes are added, but family favorites reappear year after year. No one dares to leave one off the menu.

When I was a kid, my mother was always up early, when it was still dark. She was getting the turkey and the stuffing ready for the oven. The turkeys were always huge. She used a blue enamel roasting pan with little white dots. The turkey just about fit. My mother periodically basted the turkey and always pulled off the crisp end of the stuffing to eat. The windows fogged in the kitchen. The house smelled divine. It smelled of turkey.

For summer rains, and winter’s sun,
For autumn breezes crisp and sweet;
For labors doing, to be done,
And labors all complete;
For April, May, and lovely June,
For bud, and bird, and berried vine;
For joys of morning, night, and noon,
My thanks, dear Lord, are Thine!

For loving friends on every side;
For children full of joyous glee;
For all the blessed Heavens wide,
And for the sounding sea;
For mountains, valleys, forests deep;
For maple, oak, and lofty pine;
For rivers on their seaward sweep,
My thanks, dear Lord, are Thine!

For light and air, for sun and shade,
For merry laughter and for cheer;
For music and the glad parade
Of blessings through the year;
For all the fruitful earth’s increase,
For home and life, and love divine,
For hope, and faith, and perfect peace,
My thanks, dear Lord, are Thine!

~~John Kendrick Bangs 1862-1922

I want to give my thanks to all of you who have made Coffee a community.

This entry was posted on November 22, 2018 at 11:52 am and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.