I am always a little bit ‘meh’ about writing my weekly Thankful Friday entry during the Thanksgiving Holiday. It is just so obvious. It is the holiday of gratitude and here I am, a day later, writing about gratitude. It should be the easiest entry to write. Yet, every year I sit down to write this particular entry and I struggle. I overthink it. I think that I need to write something more, something unrelated to the holiday itself. During the English Reformations, the Puritans wanted to remove all holidays from the calendar and replace them with Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving. Disasters like droughts and plagues called for Days of Fasting while good things like a bountiful harvest called for Days of Thanksgiving. The Puritans brought all of this with them when they came to the Americas. There was not just one day of Thanksgiving. There were many days of gratitude.

George Washington made Thanksgiving a national for November 26th in 1789.

"as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God"

If we were to revert to the Puritans idea of holidays, this would probably be a time for Days of Fasting. In a way, many of us are doing just that. We are socially fasting to help curb the spread of COVID and keep our loved ones healthy and safe. Michael and I decided to move our Thanksgiving meal to Friday so that we can take advantage of dollar oysters at Whole Foods. This is the time of year that I usually make an apple pie, but that seemed excessive considering only two of us would eat any of it. Instead, I bought some small pie tins and made tiny pies and those little pies filled me with so much joy, that I just might always make tiny pies. I sent two of those pies to Terry and Greg and I was very grateful to be able to do this. Greg is a nurse and he’s working all holidays, so it feels nice to send him something sweet. Terry is back from Spokane and living with Greg and I couldn’t be more overjoyed to see at least half of his face.

We’ve missed him.

Thinking back on Thanksgivings Past, the ones that stand out to me are the most recent ones. It feels like Michael and I started our own tradition by traveling to friends for the holiday. At the beginning of the year, we were making plans to be in Phoenix. Those plans shifted for obvious reasons and we started thinking about Thanksgiving in Madison WI. Then those plans shifted and Michael and I are home putting together the most difficult puzzle. I bought it for him for his birthday and I am starting to have regrets. The cabbage was with us for most of the day, but that just meant she was holed up in her room with her iPad and a book. She’s reaching the age where we only see her if she needs food. We took the dog for a walk and then we made dinner. It was really a day just like every other day.

It was a Day of Fasting (Socially), which we used to be grateful for Thanksgiving holidays of past and future.