Tuesday, November 20, 2012

There are many things I am thankful for #9

It's so much easier to be thankful this week! Maybe it's the short work week? Or the fun things coming up? Or just gorgeous blue skies?

This week I am finding it much easier to be thankful for the little things as I notice them. Last night after seeing a friend, I reveled in how grateful I am to be able to spend time with good friends and that I have them. This morning, the parking lot I was in was next to a farm that had a llama as well as a number of horses and it was so nice to just sit and watch them for a few minutes. The combination of moments like that and hating to drive in the city make me so thankful for living in the suburbs. Also, twice this week I have seen people picking up trash or debris at a park or on the side of the road and have been thankful that they were willing to give of themselves in that way. Sometimes it just takes a little mindfulness to look around and appreciate what you see.

Part of my cheery disposition is that tomorrow is my favorite day of the year. No, I'm not forgetting a day on my calendar; my favorite day of the year is the day BEFORE Thanksgiving. Since I was in the first grade, so over 25 years ago (gasp!), my mother and I have gone to Plymouth-home of THE rock-on this day. More specifically, we go to Plimoth Plantation, a living museum where people represent colonists from the year 1627 and act and speak as if they were a specific resident in that year. Last year was extra awesome because I had just learned that my mother's family descends from a Mayflower passenger and we got to go into 'his home' in the colony and chat with him.

Not only do I love history and the strong roots that I have grown up with in the midst of New England, but I just adore traditions. This is the most salient tradition I have in my family, though there are many smaller examples. I am so thankful that my mother came up with this idea years ago and that she raised me to appreciate all that it teaches and represents. Through the years, different people have come along or dropped off but it has always been my special day with my mother. Even as an adult, I think it's great to have a mommy/daughter day each year!

For a long time, we followed this tradition to a tee. We would buy the same fudge afterward, visit the rock and then go to the same little restaurant. The last few years, we took it up a notch and have bought tickets to eat a Harvest Supper with the pilgrims after our visit to the village. They pray, they sing, they come joke with us at the tables, all in character. The food is all traditional to what they might have consumed in 1627....and they make a mean rice pudding!

So, I am really looking forward to all of that and a few days off. What are you thankful for today?

4 comments:

  1. I had no idea that they represented real, specific people! That's amazing. I've never been, but now I actually want to go. I wonder if the OSV characters are "real," too...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. no, OSV (because I have no idea how to spell that town) are not in character. It's really fun at Plimoth Plantation to try to trick them and get them to break character-talk to them about something anachronistic. It's impossible! I have studied hard to stump them.

      Delete
  2. You are so lucky you do that. It's on my bucket list to have Thanksgiving dinner at Plimoth Plantation one year. Who's your ancestor on the Mayflower? My husband is descended from John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley who both came over on the ship and married when the got to the U.S. Joseph Smith and the Bushes are also descended from them, among many others!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mine is Stephen Hopkins, the only settler who had already been to the US, as he was part of the Virginia colony, too. His wife was the mother of Oceanus the baby born on the Mayflower who later died. We got to talk to both of their characters last week.

      Delete