Gloria in Excelsis Deo: Thanksgiving 2018

I am thankful for older children

. . . who benefited from my earlier Crafty Days--when I used to weekly find inspiration at resources like Catholic Icing--and who decided to make individualized Thanksgiving turkeys and put them up for decorations.

I am thankful for homeschooling

. . . so that I could suspend our History unit for the week and teach about Thanksgiving, using the following resources:

"The Catholic Origins of the First Thanksgiving" by Dr Taylor Marshall
"America’s First Thanksgiving Was in Florida — Seriously. It Was!" by Thomas J. Craughwell
George Washington's First Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1789
John Stossel's video on "Happy Thanksgiving!" (about socialism versus property rights)
Plus he wrote a new article on the same topic this year

I am thankful for circumstances allowing me to try to put on a Proper Thanksgiving this year.

This year was going to be low-key because we would not be traveling or having any guests, but it was simultaneously going to be more interesting because we were going to try to cook most of the food ourselves. For years, I've been in the early baby years and--while I know so many of my cohorts have still managed to cook Thanksgiving dinner themselves . . . you ladies amaze me!--my husband has said the stress to me was not worth it, so most years we have bought almost all of the meal (at a grocery store deli or Boston Market, etc.).

This year, I don't have a "bun in the oven" and I don't have an under-one baby, but I do have several older helpers who want to cook.

John (almost 12) baked the pumpkin pie (with a store-bought crust) all by himself and he asked Thomas to "help" him because "Thomas is the most lovable, sweet helper."

Mary (10) made the apple pie (with a store-bought crust) all by herself. She told me she did not even want me interjecting commentary! Afterward, she insisted on cleaning up the kitchen and sweeping it all by herself "because that is part of the job!"

Later, I fell asleep at 7:00 p.m. because I'd had two nights in a row of about five hours of sleep, and Mary on her own sneaked downstairs and swept and mopped beautifully the whole kitchen. Having a ten-year-old girl is as wonderful as mothers had told me it would be! (In a humorous end to that story, Mary thought she was being responsible by locking up the house like she sees Daddy do each night, but Chris and John were out for the evening and did not have a house key. Chris ended up waking me up by calling me on my cell phone repeatedly, but my phone was on mute and I was foggily ignoring the buzzing because 'who would be calling me late at night?')

Joseph (5) made his grandmother's cranberry sauce recipe with only my verbal instructions.

Margaret (7) made the sweet potato casserole with my verbal instructions.

John polished the silver and also made the fettuccine Alfredo. Later, he built the bonfire, lit it, and extinguished it safely.

I am thankful for a little bit of breathing room to rest.

This autumn has really knocked us for a loop, and our firstborn doing a heavy middle school load has meant we're getting far less family time than we ever have before, and I'm not getting moments of rest. On Thanksgiving, Chris watched the children so I could have an early hour to exercise and then later I put my feet up and read an actual book during the baby's morning nap. Boy, did that feel good! My wheels are turning trying to figure out how I can get those moments more often than every few months.

Then we took the children on a walk to view the beautiful fall leaves. At two o'clock that afternoon, we spotted a buck in our front yard!

I am thankful for spiffy dressers.

A half hour before our meal, I asked the children to go upstairs and "spiff up," suggesting they not wear jeans to the Thanksgiving dinner table. My three boys came down in suits!

Thomas (3) was confused by wearing a sports jacket ("Are we going to Mass?") and agog at the fancy table setting which appeared during his afternoon nap. He insisted on sitting at the table for the final half hour of preparations and kept asking me, "Is it mine birthday?" I would explain Thanksgiving day yet again, and he'd quietly look at me and affirm, "It is mine birthday, Mama."

I am thankful for food on our table and a roof over our head.

We have never gone hungry for even one day, and we've never felt insecurity about our home.

I am thankful for our back yard.

After dinner, we prayed the rosary and chatted around a bonfire and then the children played Sardine Tag in the dark until an unfortunate victim stepped barefoot onto a rake left in the grass.