This. Family. Plenty of food, all made with loving care for everyone's food sensitivities (this year I gained a new sister-in-law who cannot eat dairy, to add to our gluten-free needs and my Dad's chicken egg problem). Plenty of helpers when we couldn't get our car back up the hill in front of my Dad's house with the slushy ice on the road. The specialness of eating on the good china, and getting to drink from stemware. Hypatia was so happy having stemware, right up until she knocked it over onto her Aunt Domini and broke the glass. Thankful for everyone trying to comfort her after. Thankful for my silly brothers who both grew mustaches this month. Thankful for the delicious turkey that my family raised and killed and my father brined and smoked to perfection. Thankful for all the games of chess Carbon got to play, and the game Hypatia was playing where she pretended to be a call center and had people use catalogs to call her and order stuff. She charged someone $900 for a sweater! Thankful for my dog that behaved herself in the back of my car and didn't scratch it all up or chew on the seats (I was a bit worried about that).
I have a blessed life, and although I sometimes forget that, I am still intensely grateful for it all. I think the original meaning of these harvest festivals/Thanksgivings is that we are glad to have lived through another year, glad for the bounty we've gathered from the earth, glad to still have our loved ones around us. And I am, so glad, so thankful.
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