Seven sweet and wonderful brief stories to brighten your Thanksgiving

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Each  of us who work on The JOLT come from different backgrounds and traditions.  Here are a few wonderful and sweet stories with which we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.

Our family's new tradition

Each year at Thanksgiving, time feels rushed. Gotta get the shopping done, make time to see both sides of the family, and hurry to make dinner on time. Each year, we still find time to truly say thanks--whether that's a prayer around the table, casually in conversation, or in response to something truly remarkable that's happened over the past year. 

A few years back, I bought a fabric hanging screen printed with a tree with numerous blank leaves. The intent is to write something you're thankful for in each of the leaves. So for the past few years, my family of four has contributed something they’re thankful for. At age 7, my youngest wrote "Obi" the name of our dog. My oldest, moving into his teen years, had written "entertainment" as a nod to his video games. Last year, I wrote "cozy socks".

As we approach the bend of 2021 and I unpacked our thankful tree, those things we gave thanks for--while still valid--seem quite quaint. It's amazing what a year of political upheaval, a brutal pandemic, and increasing financial strain can bring, which is a lot of humility and perspective. 

So this year, as a family, we have chosen to add some bigger concepts to our thankful tree: education, activism, and democracy.

     ~ Nikki McCoy  

Thanksgiving Reflection 2020

Thanksgiving is finally upon us! I feel for many, 2020 has been a year full of challenges for which we may not have been thankful! Yet the year has been full of blessings. I feel that this was a year in which I was reminded of the value of relationships and family, and I am thankful for the many wonderful people in my life. I’m thankful for a good life in Olympia, Washington, where I have found blessings beyond what I could have ever imagined when I moved here years ago with just a guitar and a suitcase full of clothes. A friend of mine recently told me that she has been practicing gratitude – simply the act of identifying things she could be grateful for in her life. Perhaps we can all practice gratitude. As we move through and beyond the year 2020, let us recall these words: in everything give thanks.

     ~ Dan Hu

Frog Eye Salad - A Family Favorite

Frog eye is a dessert salad with pineapples, mandarin oranges, whipped cream, coconut, and marshmallows, all mixed in with a tapioca pearl custard. This salad has always been a staple part of my family’s Thanksgiving meal. Although it sounds crazy, this fruity dessert has been a must-have component since I can remember.

Every year, I wait anxiously for Thanksgiving, not for the turkey or the mashed potatoes, but for this delicious salad that fills my belly and keeps the family tradition living on.

With every glorious bite, fond memories of Thanksgivings past flood back and remind me of all the things I am grateful for.

     ~ Olivia Alvord

Maybe a little science with your cranberries?

Besides the food and family time, I’ve lately thought there’s a higher purpose in Thanksgiving. This purpose? It’s a day when many people set aside a few moments to actively express their gratitude.

Maybe you’ve heard it said, as if it’s a fact, that “you can’t be both anxious and grateful at the same time.”

Science, if you still believe in it, suggests that there’s some truth to this idea. Simply put, feeling gratitude both injects a little dopamine into your brain and cuts off access to the fight-or-flight survival thoughts that pump in adrenaline.

My experience is that I can focus on only one thing at any moment. I can focus on how to tell someone that I appreciate something they did. I can focus on my anxiety about getting the bills paid. On gratitude for having a solid roof and a warm heated home. Sadness about the loss of a friend to the virus. Grateful for the operators of the solid waste truck picking up today. Disappointed about having no guests tonight.

One thought cuts off another. The whole science-of-happiness industry seems to be focused on helping people train themselves to recognized which thoughts to choose, keep or toss out.

For a couple of years I kept a Gratitude Journal most days. My task was to write down at least three things for which I’m grateful. It always worked to elevate my feelings and I plan to resume the habit. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

     ~ Danny Stusser

A promise for next year 

Gathering with my family for Thanksgiving has been difficult for the past three years. That’s a fact of life you’re faced with when you move 2,000 miles away from the place you were born. In years before, work and the complications of travel kept me from visiting home. But 2020, I told myself last year, would be different. In 2020, I was going to do everything I could to get to my parent’s house in Indiana, where I would stuff my face alongside my siblings and cousins. 

The sad reality is even if I were to recklessly board a plane (which you absolutely should not do, at the risk of catching and further spreading COVID-19), there wouldn’t be much of a gathering to go to. Thanksgiving at the Neuenschwander household has been called off, except for just a few people.

It’s sad to think that my favorite holiday has been derailed, but its heartening to know that my family and I are focusing on each other’s health enough to make the difficult decision. Making sacrifices can be just as big a gesture of love for others as gathering for a meal.

But I’ll make it in 2021, I promise.

     ~ Cody Neuenschwander  

An Overseas Thanksgiving Family Tradition

During the time our family lived and worked all over the world, we celebrated Thanksgiving, our favorite US holiday,  while observing a Woolman family tradition — the reading of the US Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights — one sentence at a time by everyone at the table. We did this to both remind ourselves about and to share American values and we did it in Thailand, The Philippines, Italy and France and, this year, we will read on ZOOM.

One brief story will suffice.  In the Philippines, we lived in a large old house with a huge rectangular garden. We assembled an 80’ long row of tables that cut diagonally across the lawn.  More than 60 people (from more than 20 countries) and three large turkeys joined us. 

We distributed copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.   Marcia  read the first sentence, “When in the Course of human events it becomes  necessary to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…” Then each person around the table read a sentence in turn.  When it came to our friend, Detlef Blettenberg, he said, “Before I read my sentence, I want to remind everyone that, but for one vote in the Continental Congress, we would be reading this in German!”  

     ~ Denny Hamilton 

[Editor's Note:   With apologies to Frederick Muhlenberg, first speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the story about America almost becoming a German-speaking country is apocryphal. But the setting and timing must have made it hilarious!] 

Thanksgiving Memories

I have always loved Thanksgiving. My Mother was a fabulous cook and the house smelled delicious all day long.

A beautifully browned turkey, dressing that was never too moist or too dry, mounds of creamy mashed potatoes and enough homemade gravy to drown everything on your plate. 

But best of all was my Mother’s cranberry salad and the black pitted olives we were allowed to slip on the fingertips of one hand for an “appetizer”.

Fast forward and it was my turn to prepare the dinner. And my Mother brought her cranberry salad and enough black olives for all the grandchildren to have their appetizers loaded on their fingers.

Fast forward again and now my four daughters worked together to bring side dishes, desserts and roast the turkey. My Mother was no longer with us, so now it was my turn to bring her cranberry salad and enough black olives for my grandchildren’s fingertips.

Now my grandchildren do the bulk of the cooking. New people have joined the family circle and brought their favorite dishes with them. Sadly, we will not all be together this Thanksgiving to enjoy them.

But next year we will, and I will bring my Mother’s cranberry salad and enough black olives for my great grandchildren to slip on the fingertips of one hand.

Thank you, Mom, for all the memories.

     ~ Kathleen Anderson

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  • DanaMadsen

    Thanks, Danny! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours too!

    Thursday, November 26, 2020 Report this