Do you remember when Thanksgiving was fun?Do you want to enjoy it with your family again?I wonder what we can do to make it fun again.
In this article I am going to make an attempt to assist you in remembering what made it so much fun the first time.
When you were young it was so much fun.
The whole family came over to your house, or maybe it was Grandma's house.
And everyone showed up.
No one had excuses...
there was no excuse.
You had no choice, I mean think about it...
it was Thanksgiving.
Yes, Thanksgiving is always on Thursday.
That is okay because no one needs to work on Friday anyway and we all took the whole week-end off.
So what is the problem?Why is it thatThanksgiving is not as much fun as it used to be?The problem is that families are simply not as close as they used to be.
As family members we make choices that prove we are more interested in taking the week-end to go to Disney Land, the lake, the cabin, or the mountains.
The immediate family,(mom, dad, and children)spend such little time together in everyday life that we feel like when we do get some time off, we need to spend it with immediate family.
While spending time with our immediate family is very important, we need to realize that it is so important that we need to make that an every day event.
Mom's and Dad's need to make sure that we spend time with our children each and every day.
We must not let our priorities get out of line.
We must remember what is really important to us.
Otherwise it can slip away and leave us with nothing but regret.
One November I realized that Thanksgiving was almost here and I decided that my immediate family needed to spend Thanksgivingdriving cross-country to enjoy the four day week-end.
We planned a trip to the mountains of North Carolina.
My wife Tracey spent the three days prior to going on this trek cleaning the house and packing our bags.
I might add here that she hates to leave the house dirty when we leave.
I never have quite understood that concept but it does feel good to come back to a clean home.
By the time we got into the car and departed on Wednesday night, it was almost dark.
We could not wait to get to our Chalet so I drove all night so that we could get there before Thanksgiving.
Although I guess it really was already Thanksgiving because we arrived at two in the morning.
No we did not visit much on our trek.
The kids fell asleep as soon as it got dark, and Tracey seemed to be too tired to say much at all.
As a matter of fact, she seemed a little bit ill.
I am sure the country-side would have been beautiful, however little was seen due to darkness and sleep.
Now I must say that the kids had an awesome time playing in the creek on Thursday morning and the meal at the lodge was especially appetizing since it was Thanksgiving.
The lodge was decorated with great creativity and we enjoyed our meal.
We sat around the fireplace that evening and enjoyed each others company until April convinced Evan that television would be more fun.
Tracey and I enjoyed the rest of the day, me reading a new book about Texas Hold'em and her rapped up in a romance novel.
Friday was special because we decided to go on a hike.
The trails were absolutely breath-taking with water falls cascading over the rocks.
I must say that we had an awesome time and truly enjoyed nature.
That evening we rented bikes .
As usual some of the bikes were more operative than others.
As luck would have it my wifes' bike was not the best of the bunch.
The chain came off a few times and I got pretty oily as it seemed the least I could do was to put it back on for her.
I offered to let her have my bike but she graciously declined.
By Saturday the kids seemed eager to get back home.
They were missing some of the finer things at home like play station 3 and their friends.
Mother gave no resistance and began to start packing.
By the time we straightened up the chalet to suite moms' inspection, it was time for lunch.
We quickly loads up the S.
U.
V.
and drove to the nearest Mc Donalds.
We arrived home at eight that night and I must say that it truly was good to get back to a clean house.
Of course it was late before Traceycame to bed.
She just could not go to bed without getting some of the clothes washed.
It was tough getting the kids ready for church on Sunday morning but that was nothing compared to the reception we got from Stacys'family.
The whole family had stayed over at Staceys'mothers house for the week-end and they all came to church together.
They took up two complete pews in our small church.
If that was not enough...
the Thanksgiving sermon delivered by brother Bill was so severe that I thought I would slip right into the cracks of the floor.
It seemed like he was talking straight to me that morning.
Brother Bill stood right up there and talked about how we live way to busy of lives and that we needed to slow down and enjoy each other.
He really got to me when he said that most of the time we work so hard at having a good time that we are usually too tired to enjoy ourselves.
I had to look over at Tracey whenhe said that.
I think she noticed the tears coming down my face.
I just could not help it.
The whole family went over to Grandma's house after the worship service.
We just had leftovers that we decided to eat on paper plates.
Somehow another the true meaning of giving thanks or Thanksgiving makes better sense now.