Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is not a national holiday where my parents come from.  Turkey isn't a traditional meal, and you won't find many pumpkin pie recipes in Swiss cookbooks.  My mother never had to think about roasting a bird for 8 hours, or cooking yams, or finding just the right cranberries before she came to Canada, and yet somehow over these last many decades her ignorance of all things Thanksgiving has turned into this:

And when I find myself sitting a long table, adorned with tributes to Fall and filled with all the people I love, eating a perfect Canadian roast turkey dinner (with the best stuffing ever), I find myself having a lot to be thankful for.  She didn't have to take the time to learn how to make all of this, nor did my parents have to adopt this holiday, we would have been fine with out it, but they did so that they could share with us all the sides of our heritage. And Mama, I am thankful.

I'm not exactly sure how to teach Jake the importance of this holiday. In fact, I am not convinced that thankfulness is something that can necessarily be taught.  For the most part, I think that the true meaning of gratitude is something that Jake will just come to understand on his own.

Of course we do all the usual things parents are supposed to do, like take every opportunity we can to teach Jake how to say "thank you" in every language we know, or pausing before each meal to give thanks, and at night before sleeping I always make sure to cuddle him close as we murmur a little prayer of thanks for all that we've been given throughout our day.

Yes, that is Jake's face behind the serving spoon. He's reaching for the yams.

So while my husband and I try to be as aware as we can to insert our "thank yous" consciously and meaningfully into our daily routine, we are also trying not to stress too much about it. At the end of the day all we can really do is surround him with family, home, and heaping spoonfuls of love and just hope that he gets it.

And maybe one day, once I have slaved for many years to perfect my own version of a Canadian-Swiss infused thanksgiving, he will look at me with his cheeks stuffed full and say "thanks for dinner mom."  And I'll know: he's got it.

 Hope you all had an equally happy Thanksgiving!