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Your cat-funnies of the day. No need to thank me. We all need one. Or two.

Today I would like to re-live the holidays the way I remember them as a kid.

It was always cool and cloudy when I came from school on the last school day before Thanksgiving. The combination of the autumn-like weather, and the anticipation of yummy food and family made the extra few days off from school even more exciting. At school we colored turkeys, cornucopias, corn, pumpkins, pilgrims and Indians. The pictures were hung on the fridge at home and in the classroom. The classrooms were decorated in borders and banners of autumn leaves, brown, yellow and orange streamers, acorns, and cutouts of squash, pumpkins and cranberries. We made pilgrim and Indian hats out of colored construction paper and wore them throughout the day. We sang some really strange song entitled “Turkey in the Straw” and line-danced to it (Anybody? No one else? Maybe that’s just a Texas thing…). We learned about and then recalled every year thereafter the Mayflower – the harrowing trip across the sea to the New World, the dangerous months of starvation in Plymouth – the illness, disease, death, the lack of food, resources, and the harsh winter weather followed by the help given by the Indians and how they taught us to use the land and plant corn, and eventually the Thanksgiving meal. We watched Garfield’s and Charlie Brown’s Thanksgivings and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. We went to church (Thanksgiving Mass has always been one of my most favorite services) and got the loaf of bread to share with our family and friends at the meal. Before the meal we’d go around the table and share what we were Thankful for. We always set a place at the table for those who could not be or who no longer are with us. After dinner we’d bring out the card games and board games and play late into the evening.

It seems to me that a lot of the things I used to love about Thanksgiving (aside from the obvious opportunity to share our gratitude, stuff our bellies with delicious food, and spend time with those we love) have been unintentionally lost as the years go by. True, we did just watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and Charlie Brown Mayflower Adventure on TV tonight, but sadly I don’t remember the last time I colored Thanksgiving pictures or made a Pilgrim hat. The cool autumn weather only occasionally makes my tummy leap in excitement, and now that I’m no longer in elementary or middle school, I no longer get the annual refresher about the hard times and sacrifices endured by the Pilgrims on the Mayflower, their great faith in God, the kindness of the Indians or the how much gratitude they had and shared during that first Thanksgiving.

So this year I hope we’ll go to mass on Thanksgiving morning and receive a loaf of bread to share at our meal. I hope I’ll remember to step outside and breathe in the cool air and let it fill me with excitement. I hope we’ll set an extra place at the table for everyone who cannot be with us that day. I hope we’ll take a moment to verbally share what we are grateful for during Grace. I hope we’ll make the time to dig out the family card and board games and turn on Garfield’s Thanksgiving in the background (in between football games of course). And I hope I’ll find the time this week to color a few pictures of pilgrim and Indians, corn and pumpkins, and maybe even a turkey or cornucopia and stick it on our fridge. I hope I remember to decorate our dining room table with the baby pumpkins from our wedding. And I kind of hope I have time to make something like this: