I love this time of the year. When the weather turns crisp and cold. I love seeing the mountains where I live covered in snow. I love the way the leaves crunch underfoot as I walk. These are a few of the things that I love about Autumn.

It has been a while since I have written. I haven’t really known what to write about and frankly I have been too busy with home school starting up again to write. I guess that I would like to write today about the things I am grateful for.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to reflect on those things that give us the most joy. It’s almost as if Thanksgiving is the one true holiday left unscathed by commercialism. Of course there are some Thanksgiving sales and what not, but they are mostly for food. Yes, Thanksgiving is the best holiday in the sense that we can sit back, spend time with our families and be thankful.
For starters I am thankful for the pilgrims and the native Americans who first helped them when they arrived here. I am thankful for the freedom that was fought for and paid for with the blood of my forefathers. I am grateful for John Hancock to whom I recently discovered I am related, for being the first signer of the Declaration of Independence — the final catalyst which ignited the Revolutionary War. I am thankful for the sacrifices of the men who sat freezing in tents staked in the snow without shoes or boots who marched with bloody feet to fight a war that wasn’t supported by many of the people they were fighting for.

In my family we always eat sweet potatoes just baked in the oven for Thanksgiving. We do this to honor and to help us remember those of our forebarers who had nothing else to eat during the Revolutionary War. They were fighting for freedom and starving for it.

I am thankful for food, the abundance we have is a blessing from God.

I am thankful that our Founding Fathers were God fearing men who loved freedom and were intelligent enough to be able to establish the Constitution and The Bill of Rights. I am grateful for the lives they lived and the study they put into this great work of establishing our nation.
I am grateful for those who have tried to uphold the Constitution.
I am grateful for my brother who cannot be with us this year at the holiday season because he is serving in the U.S. Marines. I am grateful for the sacrifices he makes every day on our behalf. I am grateful for all of those whom serve in the military and the sacrifices they and their families make.
I am thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I don’t know who I would be without the direction of my Heavenly Father and the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
I am grateful for family. I get to go and see my sister and brother in law in Idaho next week for Thanksgiving. I am so excited! Family is so important to me. I am thankful for my children. They bring me such joy and such wonderful learning experiences. I am thankful for the love they have for each other. They are such great friends. I am thankful for their examples to me.

I am thankful for my husband and for all he does for me every day. He works so hard to support our family and gives me the gift of being able to stay at home and raise our children. I am thankful for his service and love. He is wonderful.
I am thankful for good friends. The kind that call you up because they just know when you need to talk. The kind of friends that would give you the shirt right off their back if you asked for it.
As I mentioned before, Thanksgiving is the one pure holiday left. Don’t get me wrong, Christmas is my favorite holiday because of the warmth and joy I feel and the wonderful memories I have, and the ones I am making with my family. But would Christmas be the same without Thanksgiving? I think Thanksgiving helps us to truly be grateful for Christmas. The purpose of celebrating Christmas being the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ — Heavenly Father’s greatest gift to all mankind. Thanksgiving helps us to stop and look and remember all the great things God has done for us, and does for us daily.
I hope all who find this post have a wonderful holiday season! Happy Thanksgiving!

Filed under: Journal Entry