De-compartmentalizing My Holidays

As far as holidays go, I've always felt that Thanksgiving gets short changed a lot of the time. As soon as Halloween is over, boom!, up go the Christmas decorations. I know, I know, that's just commercialism. After all, Thanksgiving is basically only profitable for Weight Watchers, yam farmers, the Rachel Rays of the world and people in the turkey business. And many people I know are annoyed with the immediate transition from October to Christmas. However, many of those same people are sneaking out their Christmas music in early to mid November. And they're making Christmas lists. And they're writing Christmas cards. And their Christmas presents are mysteriously all bought by the day after Thanksgiving, even though they didn't capitalize on the Black Friday shopfest. I'm not saying that these people dislike Thanksgiving, I'm just saying that you don't see people making cranberry sauce, dressing like pilgrims and drawing turkeys with their hand print in December. This is all to say nothing of the fact that many people's Christmas trees are still up well into January. Let's just say that the Christmas "season" gets its fair share of facetime, and Thanksgiving sometimes gets a little squashed between costumes and stockings.

I will confess that I'm slow to get going on Christmas. I basically never do any shopping until December. People who want lists have to beg me for them. My decorations aren't up all that long before the semester ends and we leave town for the holidays. Hey, even my Christmas tree is less than two feet tall. I do love Christmas, but I also enjoy basking in Thanksgiving. I should say that I am, however, like all those other people who leave their Christmas decor up until it's definitively January.

So, in honor of its usual short-shrift, I've decided to extend Thanksgiving a bit this year. Today is the first day of my favorite month of the year. Winter is upon us, it's Christmas in two weeks, we'll soon be visiting family and dear old friends and a month from yesterday will be my birthday. It's a great, and busy, month. With so much going on, I want to remember all the things I'm thankful for.

I always find great pleasure in stepping back and noticing the abundance that fills my life. It's not hard to feel that "my cup runneth o'r." So, for this month, I'm going to articulate something I'm thankful for every day. Note, this is a goal, and will likely not get posted every day. But there will be something for each day. And so, in addition to everything else wonderful about it, this will be my month of giving thanks.