Hold Your Ground

There is something to be said about holding our ground. Some people will not budge in regards to their political stance or religious beliefs. And then there is little old me. When it comes to being tough, I hold my ground on celebrating Thanksgiving Day before celebrating Christmas.

Maybe it isn’t a big deal to most people but I feel like Thanksgiving Day is a pretty significant day and we should honor it properly. Thanksgiving deserves its own spotlight before we all move on to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. In my opinion, Thanksgiving is celebrated in the Fall and Christmas is celebrated in the Winter. We cannot rush Mother Nature’s seasons - we have to let them roll as they are meant to roll. In other words, Thanksgiving naturally comes before Christmas.

This year’s Thanksgiving teacher gifts were T-day themed straws found at Walmart. My note to the teachers was a little ballsy but I hope they got a good laugh.

There were not enough packets of straws at Walmart but I remembered how this place card holder (see post” Your place at the Table” and sentiment made an impact on others when we gave them as pinches years ago, so we gave them out again this year to the administrators.

Typically I buy packs of holiday cards and all of our family receives the same card but with different sentiments hand-written inside. All of these cards were found at Walmart weeks ago. The Thanksgiving Day cards that we sent to our family this year are all different.

Last week some friends took a pause to think about Thanksgiving when I posted on Instagram. In my post I featured some pictures of the cards we were sending to our family members and the gifts we were giving to the teachers and administrators (see photos above). These friends reached out to me to say that they never thought about thanking teachers or other support aka their village at Thanksgiving. Christmas gifts for teachers are more common but giving a thoughtful pinch for Thanksgiving makes perfect sense. We show our appreciation and give thanks at Thanksgiving!

When I plugged in the keyword “Thanksgiving” on the Thoughtful Pinch blog website, I was pleasantly surprised to see all of the following posts that pertain to the holiday and its meaning. I am proud that I have so many posts for this one holiday because it often gets overlooked or hurried past in order to celebrate Christmas.

Nov 17, 2015 Let’s Give a Toast

Nov 24, 2015 Gratitude = Happiness

Nov 22, 2016 Pie, Sauce and Rolls

Nov 14, 2017 Jar, Turkey or Tree

Nov 6. 2018 Habits That Transform

Nov 20, 2018 Simple;Uncomplicated

Nov 26, 2019 Your Place at the Table

Nov 24, 2020 Good Scents

The above posts pertain to pinches that we can give away specifically for Thanksgiving and some of the posts demonstrate ways we can show gratitude and thoughtfulness. My hope is that by providing the links, it’s easy to stand with me in celebrating Thanksgiving BEFORE Christmas.

I am constantly labeling myself as “old school” and in this case, I am totally one of those traditionalists insisting on celebrating the holidays in a specific order. There is just something so comforting to me when I use the same turkey baskets that I have used for decades. I fill them with Fall flowers, not Tulips or Poinsettias. And this year, I changed it up by filling the larger turkey basket with Whoopie Pies (see the first photo).

I tried making this green bean casserole during some random month last year and it just didn’t taste as amazing as it does on Thanksgiving. Since I want to keep this dish special, I will hold out and only make it for Thanksgiving.

Sometimes we gotta stand up for what we think is right and as trivial of an issue as this is, it’s one I’m holding my ground on. Thanksgiving will appreciate our thoughtfulness. If for some reason Christmas decor, music, food, smells have to happen before that last Thursday of November I’m not going to hate it. However, if I can help it, playing Christmas music 24/7 before T-day will not be happening in my house. Ever.
Pinches,

Barb