‘Twas the day after Halloween and all through the house, notes of “Jingle Bells” I heard sung right from their mouths!
Sadly, this is a true story. The Halloween sugar hangover was still in full effect and somehow, in some way, our 5- and 2-year-old boys had swiftly made the transition right to Christmas. I searched high and low, physically and figuratively, for what triggers might have guided them from jack-o-lanterns to reindeer in this blink of an eye. I finally decided the Lego catalog was to blame, but in the coming days, signs of Christmas have been literally popping up everywhere.
“What about Thanksgiving?” I asked them. “You know … turkey, cranberry sauce, friends and family coming together to celebrate just being all together for the day?” Blank stares. I can appreciate that it’s hard for a turkey to compete with Santa, but still, my heart was breaking for this important and meaningful holiday that’s started to just get lost in the mix.
And then I decided, we will not skip Thanksgiving. Our family will pause to enjoy this holiday and take it as an opportunity to reflect on all of our blessings, our friends and family, our health. We will celebrate this beautiful city in which we live by spending part of our day being active citizens and giving back to those in need. We will keep alive our holiday traditions of turkey dinner, pecan pie, and homemade place cards at the table. We’ll appreciate people and things that may have been previously overlooked like California’s firefighters, the fresh air we breathe, a strong roof over our heads, and electricity.
Before we go ice skating and sit on Santa’s lap and build gingerbread houses … all of which we are eagerly anticipating … we will slow down just a bit these next few weeks as we give thanks for all we have and live in the moment, enjoying Thanksgiving and what it means to us.
