true thanksgiving

The Holiday season! I love it! I am sitting at my desk, listening to Christmas music, sipping hot chocolate, thinking about the festivities to come in the next month or so. I looking forward to it even more this year for two main reasons. 1) Even though it's not Dani's first Christmas it's the first that she will register what's going on. I'm sure this excitement will continue over the next few years as she learns to anticipate the day in advance. 2) Donnie and Erin will be here twice over the next two months. This is the first Holiday season we've lived far away from them and I miss them. They are going to be here in two weeks for Thanksgiving!
Another reason I'm excited is this year we are going to serve the community on Thanksgiving. What a great way to remember what we have to be thankful for. I guess Burlington High School has a dinner every year on Thanksgiving Day. They serve lots of people there in the cafeteria and also deliver meals to people who are home-bound. Well, on Thanksgiving morning we are going to put meals together that are to be delivered to shut-ins. I am excited about it actually. I think it'll be a great way to celebrate the day together as a family.
It's been interesting to see the little sacrifices that we will make that day in order to serve and the reactions of some of my family members to those sacrifices. One person was really hesitant to devote 3 hrs to something else on Thanksgiving, and one was sad to miss the Macy's Parade, a tradition for them. I don't think badly of them for thinking of those things and being a bit hesitant, service always requires a bit of sacrifice. However, we all know it's worth it and are happy to serve those less fortunate on a day we celebrate how much we actually have. As evident by the amount of food I'm sure we will stuff ourselves with later that day. :)
I hope to continue this new tradition, especially as Dani gets older and can help too. I want her to never take any of our blessings for granted, even to the food we eat.