October stresses me out. I’m really not fond of soccer practices and games and Halloween is my least favorite Holiday. Right after Indigenous People’s Day or whatever malarkey that my online calendar makes up. I mean at least I don’t have to think up how to gather items for my children’s elaborate costumes for that day. I can just hate the fact that nobody really understands Christopher Columbus these days. What really gets my fictitious goat, though, is that Christmas seems to just take over October, November AND December without realizing that it really should not show up at all until December 25 and stay until February 2. If you aren’t that traditional, then at least keep your tree up until the wise men come.
A pretty funny clip by Brian Moller explains perfectly the sentiment I feel about Christmas creeping into all of our lives way too early. Everyone is sick of all of the extra decorations, the 16 songs that are so popular and way overplayed making us run to the skip button on our playlists, the mess that the parties and presents and candy wrappers have made celebrating what? Oh yeah, that guy that was born one day to save us all from what again? Oh yeah, he is supposed to save us from ourselves and our materialism and our selfishness and our pride.
Before we get to that, though, let’s focus on our non-Catholic, American, President Lincoln bestowed holiday that serves up steaming hot what Benjamin Franklin proffered to be our national bird (Thank you, God for not allowing that one!) I have seen many a friend blast on their social media all throughout the month of November one idea each day something for which she is thankful. I have to admit, I might have tried at one point to do the same, but alas, I am not one to follow through with these continuous notions day after day. Quite honestly, I probably got bored. However, growing up, we had what was called – The Thanksgiving Box
I loved the Thanksgiving Box. I know at one point my 8 or 9 year old self crafted from the ever versatile shoe box, a suggestion-box style receptacle wrapped in wood paneled contact paper juxtaposed with pens and pads of paper for relatives to write their ideas of what God has bestowed on them to make their lives better and more fulfilling. As a child, I know I had my share of papers that held very important elements of my existence like “The Sun” and “Mom and Dad” but sometimes the papers had things written like “My beautiful wife who does so much for us” from my dad. All day long, we would stuff this treasure box with our musings while Mom and my older sisters would cook and prep and I would make the name tags and set the table.
The best part about this tradition was reading all of them after dinner. As soon as we were sitting back in our chairs and some of the dishes were cleared, I would get the box and we would start passing it around, grabbing each paper as if it were the winning ticket. We laughed at the cute ones, cued the “Awwww”s at the sweet ones and more than one year the box contained a new baby announcement. For years, we used that Thanksgiving Box and my mother still has it. It is a cherished memory that lost favor when our family went from 8 to about 38 and the ritual took all of two hours to complete. But the sentiment still stands and the tradition continues on in many of our own families.
Now that my Thanksgiving is only my immediate family of 15, we need to start traditions of our own. Variations of the Thanksgiving Box have been tried, and maybe we will attempt our own box this year or write on butcher paper on the wall or create a tree with leaves of things for which we are grateful. Whatever we do, I will begin by thanking President Lincoln for a random Thursday in November to remember what God had given us. Don’t skip over this holiday and definitely make the most of it – it might just help you prepare for the next one.
Complex Simplicity 