Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful to have celebrated Thanksgiving with friends and family just about every year of my life by partaking in a traditional holiday meal. Last year I reflected about how the military does its best to provide service members a memorable Thanksgiving meal, no matter where they may be deployed. I feel very fortunate to have partaken in a number of those special Thanksgivings over the years.

Most of us might describe the “typical” Thanksgiving celebration as friends and family around a table filled with traditional holiday foods. The featured pic this week is one of my family’s spreads from a few years back. In fact, I’m keeping my thoughts short this week as I’ve got some meal prep to do for tomorrow!

What I’ve always found most interesting about these great meals is that they are generally made up of simple and low cost ingredients.

Sure, there are the hotels and restaurants offering the extravagant holiday meals with prime rib carving stations, oysters and shrimp cocktail. But many Americans tomorrow will huddle around a full but simple table of turkey and favorite side dishes, be it dressing / stuffing, mashed potatoes or a variety of casseroles.

To be sure, the materials to make these feasts are getting more expensive, but they are still relatively low cost. Our turkey this year was 48 cents per pound!  You can feed a lot of people with 22 pounds of poultry for just 11 bucks!

So why do many Americans create these feasts of mostly inexpensive ingredients to celebrate Thanksgiving? I think it harkens back to what we learned in grade school. Settlers in the 1600s were no doubt celebrating because they were just thankful to be alive.  It was a true blessing to actually have some crops and game to share! Those first Thanksgiving meals were most likely incredibly simple.

And I think that is the true significance of celebrating Thanksgiving in modern times by partaking in simple but delicious meals. Tomorrow is an opportunity to pause and give thanks for the most basic things in our life from the food on our plate to the air in our lungs. Every moment is truly a gift to be thankful for. Prime rib carving stations are great, but that 48 cent per pound turkey is what I will always identify with the spirit of the holiday.

Another part of giving thanks is remembering those unable to enjoy a simple meal with friends and family. Thanksgiving is a great opportunity to give back to the community.  Additionally, like every day of the year, tomorrow is an important day to remember those service members far from home.

I hope everyone is able to pause tomorrow and give thanks for all the blessings in their life and if possible, feast on the holiday meal of your choosing! Happy Thanksgiving!

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