Thanksgiving…

Once again…I’m working on Thanksgiving.

  

Thanksgiving and

the day BEFORE  Thanksgiving.

When I was ayoung girl in school

Thanksgiving was all about the DElicious

turkey dinner {with ALL the trimmings! Yum!!}

lots of family and…

using the GOOD china! 

My father was the one

who cooked the turkey so it was always perfect!

{Mom was not a good cook and she would be the

first to admit it!}

So twice a year…Thanks giving and Christmas

I REALLY looked forward to these two dinners!

Lately though, maybe because I’ve had to work too many holidays {and because I no longer have those kind

of wonderful family dinners}

Thanksgiving is just another day.  I have made a

positive change though, I focus more on the “giving”.

It starts with the first fall day. 

My thoughts return to New England with

all the wonderful sites and smells of fall.  The dinners, the family…the apple pies and cider! 

Ever since I can remember,  school children who were fortunate  enough to live close to the Cape would go on a field trip to Plymouth Plantation once a year. 

We lived fairly close to the Cape and went at different times of the year bringing along visiting relatives.  There was so much to see!  So  much history to experience as you step back in time walking through the dusty, sandy pathways of Plymouth.

 

This is where the spirit of the first Thanks Giving began. 

It was born out of severe hardships and true perseverance!

Being thankful  and so grateful to God for just surviving their first year, they sought what they could GIVE to that first Thanksgiving celebration!   There were no fine china but there was a fine meal that was shared with finest guests who guided and nurtured them through their first year in this strange and wonderful land.

 

                   

{Massasoit- Chief     where our state name came from}

So Thanksgiving , to me…is what I remember most.  The giving.  The gratitude to others;  for their help, their support and most of all for God’s abiding love.

 

Allow me to give you a quick tour of Plymouth Plantation!

First…the rock! {sorry, I thought I had a picture of the rock}

No one knows for sure if it really is THE rock, the one that the Pilgrims stepped out on…

but…they’ve got it covered….literally, so no one can touch. Just look! 

It’s grey, it’s granite…if you’ve seen one…you’ve seen them all!  Let’s move on…

Ahhhh… I can almost smell the ocean breeze.  Actually, it was smoke from the fire place of each little thatched roof homes. That’s  what you can smell the most!   Beautiful though, isn’t it!  This photo is probably taken from the 2-story fort that stands at the beginning of the village. {all photos found on-line}

 

 

Each little home was surrounded by wonderful herb gardens and vegetables that would have been cultivated from seed, brought over on the Mayflower.

Each year you can actually sign up to have dinner, Pilgrim and Indian style AT the Plantation.  They are considered a “live museum” and have actors that play (and stick to) their part.

( Despite the valiant efforts to trip them up by sly little  field trip children!)

The Mayflower…three months in this????  Yikes! 

  

 

pumpkin and corn seeds abound, but it was the Indian’s secrets of fish fertilizer that made things grow!    

Have a Happy Thanks Giving!    {can you tell I love turkey}