Gratitude - Day 3 - Memoir Monday

It is not happy people who are thankful,

It is thankful people who are happy.

Now that my 31 days of writing is over, I thought that I would get back on track with some of the things that I normally write about.  Today, I wanted to share what Thanksgiving means to me.
I have had to learn about Thanksgiving the hard way.  I was divorced when my older children were young.  Thanksgiving became a time of sharing where everyone went different directions on different years.  Eventually, we were able to get it worked out, but not without all of us giving up something.
I learned that Thanksgiving is not a single day.  It is an attitude.  It can be any day or any weekend that I need it to be.  I learned that we could have Thanksgiving on Sunday instead of Thursday, that we could juggle the times between different families and that the thing that was most important was that we would all be together.
Over the years, I have given a lot up to try and keep my family together.  It was not always easy, sometimes it was more difficult than I ever imagined, but I think for the most part, we have succeeded.  We have learned that dinner does not always include turkey (especially if we are tired of it) and that it can be anything we want it to be.
Some years we dress up and some years we don't.  We have burned the turkey before, and had the fryer not work and had to pressure it one year.  We have even had fish sticks once because that was all we could afford.
It helps me so much to not think of Thanksgiving as a single day, but more as a season and an attitude.  We all pitch in and find something we love to bring and share and make and take home.
This year, our Thanksgiving will be on Friday after I get off work, instead of on Thursday.  We are having company that can't come until then.  So, we will do something else on Thursday.
For me, the best part of all is being surrounded by those that I love.  It is feeling a part of something that is bigger than myself.  It is being thankful and appreciative for the blessings that we do have, rather than the ones we don't.
Being thankful every single year, is a choice.