As we near the holiday season, we spend weeks preparing for Thanksgiving. Cleaning the house, organizing and buying the food, and prepping the home to ensure a great holiday is critical. However, Thanksgiving is not just one day a year. Although Thanksgiving is a day when we celebrate being grateful for all we have, the world tends to gloss over this holiday quickly and make room for Christmas. Because of the holiday's hustle, it can often feel like it goes by in the blink of an eye.
Ironically, advertisements often skip Thanksgiving because they’re so busy making room for Christmas. As soon as Halloween is over, television and the internet skip to ads for toys, décor, and other gift ideas for Christmas. Christmas is not about gifts, the hustle and bustle of Christmas cards, or putting up Christmas lights. It is about the celebration of the Savior. Society often relegates Thanksgiving to a couple of hours of eating dinner with loved ones and then moving on to buying Christmas gifts for our loved ones.
I didn’t like Thanksgiving as a kid because it required me to sit down, eat a lot of food, and not do any activities, which I found boring. Plus, I had trouble thinking of things to be thankful for. As an adult, though, I've learned the importance of Thanksgiving. Giving thanks every day has changed my attitude to gratefulness. Gratitude is not something to be celebrated for a couple of hours on a Thursday in November but rather something to be pursued daily. When I choose to be thankful to the people around me and what I have, Thanksgiving is not just a one-day event but something I celebrate all year.
Here are three ways I learned how to celebrate Thanksgiving all year long:
One way that I'm able to practice Thanksgiving all year round is to say thank you to the people around me. Whenever my husband does something for me, I always say thank you. I try to acknowledge him for his actions and efforts in our marriage. I thank the employees at the grocery store for bagging the groceries and ringing them up. I thank the employees in the stores I attend and the staff at my local church. Thank you may mean little to some, but today, it is a lost art.
Many younger people don't say thank you any more to people when they do something for them. Yet, being willing to thank someone who has done something takes the focus off me and places it on the other person. This acknowledges that the other person is valuable and their actions have been seen and recognized. When I thank others, I show them that I care about them and that I'm not taking them for granted.
Because Thanksgiving often means getting together with loved ones I haven't seen the rest of the year, I must ensure I take the time to see how they're doing. Although I am not good at calling or texting others regularly, I've learned that if I want to celebrate Thanksgiving all year long, I must check in with them often to see how they're doing. Sometimes, a simple text asking how it's going does wonders for my relationship with others. They feel I have remembered them and that they are essential to me.
I talk to my father and mother-in-law often so they know they matter. Additionally, when I send cards, I say meaningful things. I let them know how appreciative I am of how they have helped me throughout my life and what they mean to me. Often, we wait for a funeral to talk about what that person meant to us. However, celebrating Thanksgiving means taking the time to tell people how much they mean to me now before they're gone.
Thanksgiving often means a big feast. This is to remember the feast between the pilgrims and Indians when they came to America. We have a big feast one day a year to celebrate that event. We bring out the fine China, use cloth napkins, and make a fancy display for all to enjoy, but because it is such a short meal, it usually goes by too fast. However, this life is short; we must take the time to celebrate life often. My husband and I have frequently done Thanksgiving more than once throughout the year.
Whenever our kids come home for a break, we bring out the fine China and make a big meal. This is because, for many years, we ate dinner every night together. But now, since they're gone, those times are more fleeting than ever. We must take the time to celebrate them and spend time with them. Whenever the kids get good grades in school or have another event to celebrate, we celebrate that. So often, we focus on the trials that we suffer, but we usually don't celebrate life's triumphs well. We try to take the kids out for ice cream or do a special event when things have gone well for them.
Life is meant to be celebrated; it's a special event, an ongoing miracle, to be relished. So don't wait to take out the fine China. Use the small occasions to celebrate.
Thanksgiving is an event that we celebrate with our loved ones. But we don't have to wait for the holidays to celebrate. Part of being thankful is to celebrate life's little moments, too. Did your daughter learn to do a cartwheel? Celebrate! Did your son memorize all the different types of dinosaurs in his favorite book? Celebrate! Did your husband finish that woodworking project? Celebrate! Did you finally master that embroidery stitch pattern? Celebrate! We are to thrive in life, not merely survive. You don't have to wait for one day a year to celebrate the people and things in life that mean the most.
Being thankful means acknowledging that the big and little things matter most in life. Don't wait until Thanksgiving to tell people what you are grateful for. Call a loved one up. Send an e-mail or text to let them know you are thankful for them. Find something they have done that you've never thanked them for, and be sure to thank them. This gentle reminder that they mean something in your life will mean more to them than you know.
Celebrating the little things in life makes life more meaningful for us and our loved ones. When they are cherished for doing the right thing, it only strengthens the bond between us and our children or between our loved ones and us.
Because Thanksgiving is a fleeting holiday, it comes and goes as quickly as it comes. Yet, by celebrating Thanksgiving all year, I can spend time with loved ones and let them know they are important to me every day, not just one day a year.
Photo credit: ©GettyImages/Drazen Zigic