All of my American readers will be frightfully busy. Kitchens will already be groaning with fresh food, the clank of saucepans being heaved up out of the pot cupboard that can never stay straight. ( Just shut the doors fast with your foot.) They will be sorting the ingredients for Gramma Emma’s special recipe for beans that must be replicated at all costs or worrying that Cousin Bob will cry into his four fat chins if they swap out the mashed something for mashed something else. And who would do that to Cousin Bob.
This is what I love about Thanksgiving. It is about people. And about People and their Food. (And, at the table of The Matriarch, a glass of lovely chilled white pinot gris.)
There are no painstakingly wrapped presents, no shopping campaigns to find something for someone who has every something you can imagine, no gaudy blowups deflating slowly outside the door, or lights flashing or not, no dressing up or guilty spending, or pressure to buy or terror of competition. Thanksgiving is not a Main street day. It is not a High Street day or a Mall day. It is a Kitchen day. It is a Dining Room day. Our Dining Room.
It is largely ignored by the money hungry Big Box Stores (who try to cash in with Black Friday .. we are having a Green Friday). In fact most of the stores already have Christmas Carols shrieking like reluctant bullies in the background. Halloween stuffed back in the store rooms with undue haste and Christmas lights blaring out into the night.
But Thanksgiving sits proudly and quietly stuffing its face, in its own house. Ignoring the ignorance of the ignorant and loving them for it too and knowing that this day is just food and family and friends. It is not tinny or commercial. We LIKE that the stores skip straight over Thanksgiving from Halloween to Christmas. Because Thanksgiving does not belong to big business, it belongs to us. You don’t have to be rich to have a lovely lovely day of Thanks. You don’t even need a big family or lots of friends. There is always something to be thankful for. Always. Even in the darkest of our dark times (and everyone has them, I could tell you stories that would take the curl straight out of your hair). There is always a lovely little glowing space for thanks, a wee shiny rock of thankfulness sat out there on a tiny sheltered shelf waiting to be seen, collected and stored in our pockets, where we can hold it in our hands like knowledge. And keep it.
Whether your gathering is large and rowdy with a Big Fat Turkey and marshmallow stuffing followed by flaming pink desserts, or a small juicy duck cooked with orange and pine nuts accompanied by roast potatoes crisped in the duck fat and a fresh spinach and lettuce salad, (that I will very thankfully gather from the garden.) Whether it is colorful and pretty or plain and tasty. Maybe just ordinary and not even particularly bright. 
It is still our Day of Giving Thanks.
Thanksgiving.
Thank you.
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
86 responses to “Day for Giving Thanks is Tomorrow”
My very best wishes to you and your family today. 🙂
Thank you Mrs MiskMask, we will have lovely lunch then back to work, can’t waste this lovely day.. c
I know nothing of Thanksgiving in the American way, but you moved me – have a wonderful time.
Thank you Roger, and as Thanksgiving is all about the kitchen ’tis best i get in there right now!! c
It’s true, Thanksgiving is mostly a holiday still owned by the people. I really like that idea 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving!
Lets hope it lasts! have a great day with tons of really good food, aren’t we lucky to have all that fresh food we grow! c
Lovely photos and a lovely message, Celi. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, and may your holidays be loving, simple and meaningful!
I love the simple, thank you.. c
Yes, thank *you*… and enjoy the day and season! Mmmm… ahhh!
MMM.. ahhh, indeed! lets have lots of that!
Thank you for this post Cecilia. I am a bit chilled today and you gave some warmth. Today is all about individuals and families giving thanks for what they have and coming through where they have been. It is not about the stores.
Absolutely right Harold. and isn’t that such a relief! c
“where we can hold it in our hands like knowledge”— lovely Cecilia!
thank you, i hope you are having a great day and have a lovely weekend planned.. c
I love the pictures. I am always amazed by the sheer vastness of the American landscape. I’ve never visited the Great Plains or the prairies but one of my life dreams is to take a year off of everything and do 50 US states in 50 weeks on a motorcycle. The trouble would be planing it to make the most of each state at the right time of year. I’ve always thought New England would be a good time to be around Thanks Giving because it’s close enough proximity to be in New York City for Christmas? This is only based on watching masses of American media so I am more than open to suggestion.
It sounds like an awesome idea Dazzle. Though New York will be frozen at christmas and that might be interesting on a motorbike.. Sometimes we get a lot of snow out here however if you have time to get snowed in and out again and have some icy adventures it would be great. We drove route 66 and back from chicago to california last year in october and november and they were good months to be going through the desert. I am wondering now how you would join the states together! Sounds like a great life dream though. keep in touch on that one.. c
Unless I come into a fortune I can’t see myself doing it this side of retirement. It’s probably the ‘biggie’ on my bucket list. I have no idea how I’d fit it all in together, maybe snake across the country? If I do find a way to do it (and before I retire – I am always thinking of ways to finance it) then I will definitely let you know.
This year I have been spending a lot more time aware of thanksgiving and all it means then ever before. As you’ll no doubt remember Australia and NZ don’t celebrate it at all. But the way you sum it up here – less commercial, more about the food – makes me want to jump aboard the metaphorical gravy train. Happy thanksgiving celia! X
Thank you Aimee, It really is a lovely idea the way it has developed. It has become a day that families try their best to be together for not other reason than to be together.. and eat!.. c
Nice! It’s how I’ve experienced the holiday season for decades.
Thanksgiving is the best.
Regards – Dennis
Hi Dennis, This is what I love about Thanksgiving, such a good family and friends and food day.
I am thankful for you C, for your lovely blog; have a super weekend and enjoy all of the thanksgiving celebrations.
🙂 Mandy
Reading your blog makes me feel homesick. Thank you for this sensitive description of the best holiday we Americans have left.
Well, that is a lovely thing to say, though I hate to make you feel homesick, I know what that feels like. Hope you had a lovely thanksgiving day, Charlotte! c