Thanksgiving Comes First

A number of years ago, my swell pal Suldog began a campaign for stores to stop with the drive toward Christmas beginning earlier and earlier each year.  This year he has an article published in the Boston Herald.  Please go read it, but not until you read and comment here first.  (No, I'm not being a total narcissist.  Suldog would make a similar plea if things were reversed and he'd have some crazy long parenthetical side as well.  I'm just mimicking him because that is a form of flattery and he really is a very swell pal of mine.  HIS WIFE [the all caps are how he denotes her on his blog, and hey look....a parenthetical within a parenthetical!] is also super swell.) Let's face it, when Christmas displays start cropping up in stores alongside the Back to School merchandise it's way too freaking early.  That's just obscene.  Something has to be done.

Now Suldog made his plea for holiday orderliness and folks to join him back in October.  Part of me wants to say I was waiting for Halloween to pass first because really Halloween comes before Thanksgiving but mainly I am just way behind on all manner of things.  (The dust bunnies in my house have evolved into dust gorillas and the stack of ironing....Lord have mercy...) If memory serves, he also tagged me in some sort of meme thing way back in September.  I'll get there eventually.  One can't rush things.

Which brings me to my point, and I do have one.  To everything there is a season.  September is for getting back in the school groove.  October is for my birthday, changing leaves, and Halloween. (And may I just say I don't mind snow in its proper season but when we get 8 inches dumped on us BEFORE Halloween it's enough to make me want to petition whoever is in charge of that.  Not that I think it will get me any more than perhaps a thunderbolt at my impertinence.)  November is for Thanksgiving and December...D-E-C-E-M-B-E-R...is for Christmas.

There is a rhythm to the year and November is for raking up the last leaves from the yard, making sure everyone is ready for the cold weather, and giving thanks.  (Unless you're Canadian, then you do all this in October.  Nonetheless, Thanksgiving still comes BEFORE Christmas.)  The clocks have changed so the evenings get darker earlier and they shorten throughout the month.  The various critters that hibernate are getting ready to do so.  Life slows down.  The slowing pace should allow for some contemplation and give an opportunity to pause and be grateful for whatever good the year has brought or if it was full of trial and tribulation at least to be glad for having survived it.  (I believe that gratitude for mere survival was an element present in the first Thanksgiving.)

So allow me to say it along with Suldog and all the other folks who have joined him in his effort.  When you see displays in stores or hear music on the radio or see specials on TV (I nearly had a conniption when I saw the Grinch Who Stole Christmas being aired the other night and my family knows I just won't tolerate Christmas movies until after Thanksgiving.)  I'm not being a Grinch about Christmas.  I just don't want Thanksgiving stolen away from me, especially this year.  It was a hellacious year but 1)we survived and 2)the blessings we've received are so worthy of being noted and savored in gratitude.