Take a breath and enjoy Thanksgiving

This year, Thanksgiving comes at the very end of November. Shortly after digesting our turkey, we will be racing through December and arriving at Christmas. Many of us will travel, which presents a special challenge, especially this year, given the recent publicity about travel setbacks and nightmares. I think national news organizations would be disappointed if they couldn’t share pictures of unhappy holiday travelers standing in long lines and people sleeping on the floors of busy airports. Still, it is important that the effort is made and that family is prioritized. In the past, our family would always get together. Small children would gather around their own table, and adults were seated at the “big table.” Times change, and celebrations must too. So visits are now spread out, not on Thanksgiving, but special in their own way. It is always a time of thanks when we can get together.

Some traditions continue. Big Guy is the Pie Guy. He considers himself the self-appointed pie tester. In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, he begins bringing home the many pies that grocery stores and bakeries set out to tempt Thanksgiving dinner planners. There are many options for serving — warm or at room temperature? Whipped cream or not? He is a whipped cream guy and agrees that hand-whipped “real” cream is the best.

Although we will not be together this year, I am confident that each family will include some of our usual family favorites. Our traditional menu includes — "the" turkey (brined), cornbread stuffing (Pepperidge Farms), green bean casserole (mushroom soup), mashed potatoes (not instant), cranberry relish (homemade), goopy gravy, daughter-in-law’s spinach salad, and at least two kinds of pie.

Each year in my column, I share some interesting Thanksgiving history that may not be widely known. Most of us assume the first feast took place in 1621 at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts. A perfect Norman Rockwell moment.

Not so fast. In reality, Native Americans celebrated Thanksgiving as many as six times a year. They led hard lives and welcomed any opportunity to celebrate. Their celebrations always included a shared meal. Just think turkey six times a year.

Some historians suggest that the Spanish and the Timucuan Indians celebrated the first Thanksgiving in 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida. Others argue it occurred 40 miles further north and one year earlier. French Huguenots, Calvinists like the Pilgrims, celebrated the establishment of Ft. Caroline along the St. Johns River. “We sang a psalm of Thanksgiving unto God, beseeching him that it would please his Grace to continue his accustomed goodness toward us,” French explorer Rene Goulaine de Laudonnière wrote in his journal.

The Amelia Island Museum of History has engravings done by one of our earliest French visitors in its archives, clearly showing a Thanksgiving celebration. One illustration suggests that the Native Americans may have brought alligator to the feast. Maybe the Pilgrims had a better marketing person or a bigger budget, because they get all the credit in the history books.

Whatever the history, it is all about thanks and being together. I know our family looks forward to the fourth Thursday in November, complete with cool weather, friends and family, football games, a long weekend, one big meal, and then the treasured leftovers. Happy  Thanksgiving to you and yours.