Happy Thanksgiving, eh?

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! Ah, the advantages to having stake in two countries: twice as many excuses to make large amounts of tasty food.

A few of my friends from university who now live in Portland are coming over this afternoon for a Thanksgiving feast. We've all celebrated Thanksgiving in mid-October (and real Thanksgiving, of course) for the last four years, and now it feels like an essential part of fall. And this early Thanksgiving seems less prone, somehow, to being swallowed by Christmas (although, to my horror, some places in Canada did follow the Christmas-begins-once-Thanksgiving-is-over rule, and put up Christmas decorations the next day...in October).

Canadian Thanksgiving is--as with most things--smaller in scale than the American version: just one day off, and the next day is a work-day. I think our two-days-off-plus-the-weekend approach is much pleasanter. But, hey, I'll take any excuse to make/eat stuffing and green beans and sweet potatoes and pumpkiny desserts. (Okay, so I make those throughout fall anyway...but today gives me the excuse to eat them all on the same day. Mmm.)

And, since Canadian Thanksgiving happens to coincide with Columbus Day this year, I have a paid day off. So it's actually like a holiday. (Why I have Columbus Day as a paid day off, I don't know. But I'm not going to complain.)

And then there is of course the whole point to Thanksgiving (besides the food); the thankfulness part. Yet it seems a shame to devote only one (or two) days a year to being thankful. God has filled the world with a gazillion things and experiences and sensations and relationships and connections and lessons and whatnot, all of which can inspire bursts of thankfulness throughout every day, can/should/hopefully do lead to living life in a constant posture of thankfulness and praise to Him.

So, since thankfulness is a thing for everyday, on Thanksgiving I think on what sets it apart from all those other days: the amazingly delicious food. :)