giving thanks

It’s Thanksgiving Day in Canada. It’s a day of thinking of all that we have to be grateful for, of celebrating the harvest, of joining with family and friends to feast on turkey and pumpkin pie (unless you’re a farmer, in which case you’re likely very busy getting the crop off the field and the grain into the bin before winter). In Canada, Thanksgiving has nothing to do with Pilgrims, or Plymouth Rock — although when I was a child, we dutifully colored pictures of Pilgrims in tall hats and buckled shoes. I suspect that most of the Thanksgiving-themed coloring pages available in the early 1960s had been produced in the United States. With the smell of grain dust in the air, the crackle of leaves underfoot, and the bounty of vegetables from the garden, the Thanksgiving emphasis in Canada has traditionally been on the harvest (and the aforementioned turkey and pumpkin pie). Kidzworld has a great overview of Canadian Thanksgiving at this link. And, of course, gratitude is of prime importance on this day of thanks-giving. Thinking of all I have to be grateful for produces a very long list. Click on the magic words to learn a few of them…