39.12 miles

This weekend we celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. Across the nation families gather around turkey laden tables to celebrate and give thanks for our many blessings. Traditionally, this was a time to give thanks for the harvest but much of this year’s crop is still in the field. Since we were harvesting all day yesterday and, weather permitting, we’ll be back at it tomorrow we weren’t able to get away to spend today with family. Only one of our children lives close enough to come home for a day and he’s exploring Costa Rica at the moment, so there were only two of us at our Thanksgiving table.

In some homes, the Thanksgiving turkey weighs as much or more than the youngest child at the table. Obviously, I couldn’t cook such a beast for just the two of us! Instead, we enjoyed rock cornish game hens. At the opposite end of the size spectrum, they each weighed a little over a pound and with all the traditional trimmings, they made a fantastic mini Thanksgiving! Of course, no Thanksgiving meal would be complete without pumpkin pie but by the time we finished the main course, we were so full that we decided to go for a walk before indulging in dessert!

Of course, Thanksgiving is about much more than food. In church this morning, we were reminded again just how blessed we are. Did you know that if you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the people on earth? We were also encouraged to finish the sentence “I am thankful for…” with five words. There are so many things that I could have said but the five words that immediately came to my mind were the names of my grandchildren (including the two “adopted” ones in Japan): Andrew, Jami-Lee, Sam, Ayumu and Michiru. How they have enriched my life! When harvest is over, we’ll be going to Calgary for a late Thanksgiving celebration with two of them and I suspect that we’ll have turkey!