Every holiday holds special memories for each one of us–some good, some bad, but memories, just the same. During a recent conversation with my newest family member, I was asked about our family traditions.
I had to think about that one. I’m not sure how my sons would answer, since most of their holiday memories were from one, or maybe two, of our five countries of service, but I’d like to think that they have good memories of especially Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Thanksgivings always included guests, as we usually invited our American ex-pat friends for a special meal together. This was one of the two holidays when you most wanted to be with other countrymen. The Fourth of July was the other, but I’ll talk about another time.
Since Canadians have a Thanksgiving (though on a different date), we would many times include them as well. The more the merrier, in our opinion, as Thanksgiving can be the holiday when homesickness really hits, especially for our single friends or new arrivals.
We did our best to find all the traditional fixings for our meals, though sometimes we had to have special requests from those traveling our way or ask a military friend to visit their commissary for us to make it happen. Getting as close as we could was good enough. Everyone brought something to share, so the amount of food was never a problem.
The center-point of our day, prior to the meal was taking time to go around the room and share what we were thanking the Lord for this day. It was, after all, the reason we were gathered.
Give thanks, pray, eat, and fellowship.
That is Thanksgiving to me. Oh, and no football games or Black Friday sales to distract us–just good conversation, laughter and fun with a group of people who really understood the blessings we possess as American citizens.
So, as you quickly take down your Thanksgiving decorations and put out the Christmas tree, don’t forget to thank the Lord, once again, for his blessings in 2020. Will we remember next year what we were thankful for in his year of trial and struggle? I pray so.
Grace and Peace
All The Colors In The World by Podington Bear is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.
Thank you Carol!