Gratitude

Happy November!

I know I have already waxed poetic about how much I love this time of year, but I just can't say it enough. I especially love November because my favorite holiday falls in this month.

Thanksgiving to me is the ultimate holiday. It's like Christmas without all the commercialism. Sadly, this lack of commercial hype means that Thanksgiving kind of gets ignored. You can't walk into a store, now that Halloween is over, and not get smacked in the face with how many shopping days are left until Christmas. I know in this particular economical climate retail stores need to hype up Christmas even more than normal. I worked in retail last holiday season and sales weren't great then, so I imagine that companies are scrambling to maximize whatever customers they have right now. But here at Planned Spontaneity I refuse to plunge right into the land of red velvet stockings and evergreen trees, overlooking the best time of year.

In order to properly celebrate Thanksgiving during the month of November I'm going to post at least one thing every day that I am grateful for.

So today my gratitude is bestowed upon the best holiday of the year: Thanksgiving. I know for a lot of people this holiday is the symbol of freedoms taken away from others and selfish settlers not trying or wanting to understand another culture. I get that, I do, but for me Thanksgiving is something different (and this isn't a political blog so I'm just not going to go there). It's a time to fellowship with the people I love most, my family. We stop everything in our busy lives for one day and just spend time together. Catch up on the events of the last year, and share our plans for the next. There are no brightly colored packages or flashing lights to distract us, just good food and good conversation. We aren't a football family so no one spends the day planted in front of the television. The whole day is just time spent together. It's one of the most comforting things in my life and it always has been. Sure, when I was a kid I loved Christmas the most, but once I began to appreciate the beauty of giving rather than receiving, Thanksgiving quickly became the preferable holiday.

So if you also love Thanksgiving the most, be sure to come back this month. I'll be sharing with you all of my gratitudes and celebrating Thanksgiving all November long.