Happy Thanksgiving!!

My friends, it has now been scientifically proven that the calendar need not be resting on the month of November in order for one to enjoy a scrumptious Thanksgiving meal. It can be done quite effectively in January, as was done yesterday – January 24 – at the Fenelon Clan Abode. We did indeed have a Happy Thanksgiving, cooking up a storm and stuffing ourselves more compactly that we stuffed the turkey. We pulled out the extra folding table and filled it with all the traditional fare – turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, carrot pudding, cranberry/feta salad, pumpkin pie, whipped cream… Then we sat down together as family to enjoy the meal and give thanks to God for all his blessings.

We had, and have, a great deal for which to be thankful. So much so, that when we celebrated Thanksgiving on the usual November date, we pledged to “do it all over again” once our soldier-son had returned from Iraq. We did that yesterday, and I have to say that I think the second Thanksgiving was even better than the first.

Did we feel foolish celebrating a transplanted holiday? Not at all. Of course, the Clan is notorious for not celebrating any special event on the day it actually occurred, but that’s another story. No, we were delighted to regain the same sense of anticipation, festivity, and gaiety that we had back in November. As we sat down to table, my sister-in-law remarked, “We should do this at least a couple of times a year!”

She’s right. We should do this more than once a year, and we should do it because we want to gather and celebrate family and God’s goodness to us, not because a calendar dictates a holiday. Yesterday was perfectly wonderful, not because we were trying to create a perfect Thanksgiving but because we had a perfect reason to give thanks.