My Inner Hippie Says...

It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without Alice's Restaurant(embedding disabled so click to watch and listen).

We are headed to Mark's parents for dinner and a football watching. They'll do the turkey and dressing, some side dishes and desserts and hopefully her homemade 5-hour yeast rolls, I'm bringing sweet potato casserole and broccoli rice casserole and possibly a chocolate pie if I have time.

I am thankful for much this year. There have been many changes in each of our lives. The kids have grown, parents are aging, friendships have deepened, livelihoods have been altered by a fateful hand, and God has moved in very bold ways.

It is literally true, as the thankless say, that they have nothing to be thankful for. He who sits by the fire, thankless for the fire, is just as if he had no fire. Nothing is possessed save in appreciation, of which thankfulness is the indispensable ingredient. But a thankful heart hath a continual feast. ~W.J. Cameron

If I have enjoyed the hospitality of the Host of this universe, Who daily spreads a table in my sight, surely I cannot do less than acknowledge my dependence. ~G.A. Johnston Ross

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ah! on Thanksgiving day....
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before.
What moistens the lips and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie?
~John Greenleaf Whittier

Thanksgiving is the holiday of peace, the celebration of work and the simple life... a true folk-festival that speaks the poetry of the turn of the seasons, the beauty of seedtime and harvest, the ripe product of the year - and the deep, deep connection of all these things with God. ~Ray Stannard Baker (David Grayson)

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy