Happy Thanksgiving??? Pass the Mac ‘n Cheese!

Let me begin by saying I want to offer a humble apology to the brilliant minds and exceptionally attractive people in the meteorological community. I greatly underestimated your power to not only predict, but control the weather to exact your revenge on smart-aleck bloggers. Since my last blog was posted ("Thoughts on Meteorology…") the temperature dropped 30 degrees in less than 48 hours and has been snowing. Do I need to offer up a bucket of chicken as a sacrifice like Cerrano (aka President David Palmer) did to Jobu in Major League ("Hey, bartender, Jobu needs a refill")?

No, I'm not talking about Thanksgiving because instead of a "March" we've been blessed (thank you, Storm Team) with a second "November" (sans fried turkey and football). I'm talking about Thanksgiving – specifically, being thankful - because…well, is there a bad time to be thankful? Plus, any loser can be thankful on Thanksgiving.

On Sunday, we missed church and had a family devotion time instead. (Just in case Reverend Al Green, Father Guido Sarducci or, more possibly, our own pastor is reading this…I am not advocating skipping church, but stuff happens). The devotion was quite simple. We read I Thessalonians 5:18 ("In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you") and then we all took some time and made a list of the things we are each thankful for (or "made a list of the things for which we are each thankful" for the grammar police out there). Whenever someone is asked that question, they tend to gravitate towards the higher concepts of their lives and we did some of that, too. As we each read our lists aloud all the expected items were accounted for: family, peace, God, work and friends were on every list in some form. The Tall One (that's the Wife's name for our older son) predictably included his girlfriend on his list. The Wife and I had her on our lists, too. I was thankful that she was a nice and godly young lady - which she is.  A very sweet girl. The Wife was thankful she was "not a ho". Same thing, right?

The Tall One also had his car on his list and lacrosse. Lacrosse? I didn't even know he liked lacrosse. He then clarified "THE CROSS". Oh, ok. I get it.

However, the list from The Short One (the Wife's name for – you guessed it - our younger son) may have been the most interesting. A 12-year old boy's list includes some of the higher concept things (peace, love, freedom and Jesus were all there) but some very basic things, too. Contact lenses (he just got them a couple of weeks ago), Xbox and mac 'n cheese were all on his list.

We discussed that it is important to be thankful towards others because, as the Tall One pointed out, it makes them feel good and appreciated. We also believed that expressing thanks to someone (aka the "thankee") acknowledges the importance of who they are to us. And, (whether the "thankee" be God or another person) it also reminds us (the "thanker") that we cannot exist, let alone thrive in this life, on our own.

My unscientific and scarcely researched conclusion is that as we get older we can easily enumerate the universally important "high concepts" for which we are thankful. We go there first because: one, we gain a better understanding of their importance as we mature; and, two, those are the things that we are supposed to put a list of things we are thankful for, right? However, losing a sense of thanksgiving about the "basic elements" of life (insert your version of "mac 'n cheese" here) implies that we not only may take it for granted, but that we no longer require the participation of God or any other "thankee" in the so-called little things of our lives.

So, while it is not Thanksgiving – actually, it may be Thanksgiving in Canada. They are on the metric calendar and I'm not good with the Metric to American conversions – where was I? Oh yeah…So while it is not Thanksgiving, take a moment to consider the "little things" in your life that you can be thankful for. Specifically, think of those things about your spouse that while they may not go unnoticed by you, they may not get mentioned often enough.

For the Wife, I am thankful that she doesn't cook meals that she knows I'll hate. I know that's not always easy on her, but I can't remember the last time there was a brussel sprout in our kitchen. I'm thankful that she plays golf. I know it's not the Wife's favorite thing, but she took up golf so she could spend time with me and the Boys. She made that become our "family sport". I'm also thankful for when the Wife dresses in the background color of this blog site. The Wife looks so good "someone should put her on a plate and sop her up with a biscuit" when she's in this color. (Seriously, there was a time when everything I bought her was this color). Finally, I'm thankful when the Wife wears boots. She can rock a pair of boots. So, for our anniversary the Wife may be getting a pair of light blue boots. Don't tell her though; I want it to be a surprise.

To you, dear reader, I leave you with the immortal words of Elvis Presley, "Thank you, thank you very much" or as Latka Gravas would say "Tenk you veddy much".