Thanksgiving Lessons

I hope everyone’s Thanksgiving was awesome, like mine. 

In most ways it was the same as the 51 Thanksgivings I’ve had before it. It was spent with family, we traveled back to Iowa (where my wife and my family are from), the weather wasn’t great, football was on the television, and the food was traditional, plentiful and excellently prepared. The turkey wasn’t the only thing stuffed by the afternoon.   

But in other ways, this Thanksgiving was quite different (and more significant) from any other Thanksgiving I can recollect. It was particularly emotional and heart-tugging (because of all the personal matters going on in our family), and it was the first time my entire immediate family wasn’t together for Thanksgiving because my oldest son works at Best Buy and had to work the holiday.

So here’s a few lessons I took from the week spent with family during the very best of ALL holidays, Thanksgiving!

Lesson #1: The Kiddie Table.  When you were young enough to get placed at the kiddie table you wanted to jump forward to the age when you would get upgraded to the adult table. And then once you get to the adult table, well, the kiddie table suddenly looks pretty awesome! During Thanksgiving this year my brother combined the adult and kid table into one big pile of laughter, tears, stories and shenanigans. Listening to the kids talk, laugh, and stand on their chair during our Thanksgiving meal was refreshing, and made me feel like I had once again returned to the kiddie table.  

Lesson #2:  Beauty comes in many forms. I grew up in Iowa but now live in Colorado. Making the trek home to Iowa and back we drove through Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas. To each his own, but no matter the weather or the time of day (some days overcast and dreary, other days sunny and crisp) each place had it’s own beauty and charm.  Feel free to pick from rolling plains, farm ponds, streams and rivers, wide open fields, or valleys of full of trees – there was something beautiful about it all.   

Lesson #3: A gift is for a while, but a memory is for a lifetime. The upcoming holidays and the one that just past, focus on gifts. And while more stuff is something most of us don’t need more of, we give anyway.  And giving is better than getting, but the exchange of gifts can be exhausting. This Thanksgiving taught me once again that holidays are prime times for creating memories, with those who mean the most to you in life. Holidays create memories that get told over and over again, slightly embellished every year. Even more so than the story of the biggest fish you ever caught. And that gift, memories that last forever, is the greatest gift of all. 

And one Final Lesson: Good eating and being around those who you love and love you is soul food, no matter who you are or where you call home.