Cheery Thanksgiving greetings to all!

Thanksgiving is a special season to give thanks, an excellent motivator to get our minds geared into a positive direction.

November seems like such an ideal time of the year for Thanksgiving, with a busy summer behind us. Our canning shelves are loaded to the brim with green beans, squash, homemade pizza sauce and ketchup, to name a few. Our chest freezer also reflects a bountiful harvest of corn, strawberries and peppers. It’s a blessing to have the garden emptied or almost, that is. I confess we still haven’t dug up our sweet potatoes yet. They’re covered with straw. Hopefully they have been kept safe from the heavy frost we had yesterday morning.

Despite the fact that Thanksgiving is a holiday to be thankful in a special way, if you are like me, it is so easy to get caught up in menus and plans that it is easy to forget the real core of Thanksgiving is to have a joyful heart.

To Grace, from Lagrange, Missouri, I was impressed with the idea you shared of how you used to have each of your children write several things on a piece that they’re thankful for and have them read it off on Thanksgiving Day. As you mention in your letter, it’s not about having them name the biggest, noblest items. It stimulated their young minds to be grateful even if it was things such as green glasses to drink milk with, your son’s being thankful for grandparents who aren’t looking when he breaks the chicken eggs or your daughter’s gratitude for seconds on cherry pie.

I was also impressed by an article I read with a list of questions designed to spark Thanksgiving discussions. There were thoughts as follows: who is the most consistently grateful person you know? What’s the one thing you learned this year for which you are most thankful? For what do you feel the most grateful to God for? If you could thank one person in your life for their influence on you (living or deceased), who would it be?

These questions gave me something to think about. Am I living in gratitude with God? Radiating his love and joy to those around me? I think what I am most thankful for over the past year is the faithfulness of God and the amazing gift of the Holy Spirit in ministering to us. As for the most grateful person I know? My husband! He can often see the positive in a negative and that has really helped me look at life in a different way. My husband, Daniel, keeps reminding me that the more we focus on others and their well-being, the less we’ll worry about our own misfortunes and trials.

And who would I thank for influencing my life? My parents. My mom and dad did a lot for me in laying the foundation of my life.

How about making pumpkin for your Thanksgiving dinner?

I know there are a lot of pumpkin pie recipes out there. I’ve had many different kinds. But when I tried my first piece of this pumpkin pie made by a lady in our church, I knew it ranked at the very top of the list. I knew I had to get the recipe. I have it and I am eager to pass it on to you. The recipe comes to us from our minister’s 102-year-old grandmother. This minister’s wife remarked how grandma’s pie always tasted exceptionally good, yet when she would try to make it, it just didn’t take like grandma’s. Also, when making this, you can use all milk, but using evaporated milk or cream instead of just milk will result in a richer pie, so that why there are cream and milk in the ingredient list.

Minister’s Grandmother’s Pumpkin Pie

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup brown sugar

1 rounded tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup milk

3/4 cup cream

1 cup pumpkin

Mix sugar and flour together and blend in eggs. Add remaining ingredients and pour into unbaked pie crust.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes and then reduce temperature to to 350 degrees and bake an additional 45 minutes until set.