Thanksgiving

I will praise the name of God with a song;
I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

Psalm 69:30

Thanksgiving seems to be a forgotten holiday in our country. If you go in a store the day after Halloween, you see Christmas decor shining everywhere.  We go straight from telling our kids to beg for candy, to telling them to beg for toys.  We have somewhere along the way slipped away from teaching our children to be thankful for the things that God has blessed them with. One tradition that we have at our house is that no Christmas decorations go up before Thanksgiving. Nothing, Nada. The boys were given a new ornament by my mother recently. We brought it home and put it in the homeschool closet. Not that we were ungrateful, we just don’t to take away from Thanksgiving by already focusing on Christmas. Every year my in-laws come to Thanksgiving dinner at our house. It gives the boys a special day with Grandmama and Granddaddy.  One other thing that we do is to make construction paper leaves that we write things that we are thankful for. During lunch we go around the table reading our leaves to each other. It is a nice way to get everyone involved with saying outloud what they feel thankful for. The boys are thankful that they are out of school for the entire week. They are thankful that they are getting a meal that is special. Speaking of meals here is our menu:

Turkey

Dressing

Charoset**

Corn on the Cob

Mashed Potatoes

Green beans

Sweet Potato/ Apple Casserole

Mac and Cheese

Yeast Rolls

Yellow Cake w/ Chocolate Frosting

Baklava

Sugar Cookies

Feel free to share any ways that your family makes Thanksgiving a day to truly be thankful and not just a day of gorging on a big meal.

** since this is not a common Thanksgiving food, I’ll give an explanation. It is traditionally a Passover food. It is a combination of apples, nuts, honey, cinnamon, and grape juice. We are having it instead of cranberry sauce this year.

The Letter That Will Never, Ever be Mailed

Last year, Nathaniel wrote a letter to former President George W. Bush.  We never expected anything to come of it, seeing how he was getting ready to leave the White House and all. However, he got a letter back and a signed picture of W. in his cowboy hat!! How exciting!

Samuel decided he wanted to send a letter to President Obama. It was not quite as kind as the one Nathaniel sent to Bush. In case you are having trouble reading, it says”Hey!! Be a beter President, Obama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The big yellow blob at the bottom is a Post-it covering up our phone number!!! That’s all we need; to get put on the anti-President list with Fox News. And the White House to have not only our address, but our phone number, too.

For what it’s worth, this is better than the first one he wrote. The first one:

Dear Barak Obama,

My brothers hate you.

From, Samuel Gilliland.

I am not sure why my kids are so in to politics. I hope it wears off someday, before they decide to become politicians 😉

Keep a Poem in Your Heart

Several years my mother gave the boys all the Random House Book of Poetry for Children for Christmas. It has been one of those gifts that has been used over and over. Benjamin especially loves it. Two of his favorites are written by the same person. Dorothy Aldis either is the female version of Benjamin or has a child just like him. If you do not believe me, read these poems:

Wasps

Wasps like coffee.

Syrup.

Tea.

Coca-Cola.

Butter.

Me.

My Nose

It doesn’t breathe;

It doesn’t smell;

It doesn’t feel So very well.

I am discouraged

With my nose:

The only thing it

Does is blows.

Benjamin’s assignment was to create a poem of all verbs. He decided to write one about school.

School

Writing…………….reading……………………..listening…………….arguing……

………………….spanking……………………………sulking

(I promise not all days are like this! :))