Saturday, November, 21, 2009

Ah, another beautiful weather day in NE PA.  We sure can't complain about the weather right now.  I'm busy thinking about Harley's upcoming birthday.  He will be eight!  I can't believe where the time has gone.  He is my little man.  His birthday is the Friday after Thanksgiving. Harley will be thrilled to have his Daddy home to celebrate with him.  :)  

Olivia and I are headed off to the barn in a few minutes.  Liv and Nick are doing really well. They are coming together and they are both working so hard.  Tomorrow is farrier day for Nick.  His last farrier was great.  Unfortunately he made some angle changes that really affected the hoof, and Nick's back, and will take some time to repair.  It will work out. 

After our Thanksgiving dinner we plan on heading to the movies.  It's our tradition and we all enjoy it.  We want to see the new "Christmas Carol".  It should be fun.  I only worry that Harley will be a little afraid of it.  He is very sensitive about ghosts and such.  I'll have to do some distracting.  Thanksgiving is such a nice holiday.  There are no expectations or gifts to be bought.  Just a time when being together is the most important thing.  Here are some interesting facts about Thanksgiving:

Though many competing claims exist, the most familiar story of the first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth Colony, in present-day Massachusetts, in 1621. More than 200 years later, President Abraham Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving. Congress finally made Thanksgiving Day an official national holiday in 1941.

The National Turkey Federation estimated that 46 million turkeys—one fifth of the annual total of 235 million consumed in the United States in 2007—were eaten at Thanksgiving.

  

In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. This harvest meal has become a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans. Although this feast is considered by many to the very first Thanksgiving celebration, it was actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops. Native American groups throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America.

Historians have also recorded other ceremonies of thanks among European settlers in North America, including British colonists in Berkeley Plantation, Virginia. At this site near the Charles River in December of 1619, a group of British settlers led by Captain John Woodlief knelt in prayer and pledged "Thanksgiving" to God for their healthy arrival after a long voyage across the Atlantic. This event has been acknowledged by some scholars and writers as the official first Thanksgiving among European settlers on record. Whether at Plymouth, Berkeley Plantation, or throughout the Americas, celebrations of thanks have held great meaning and importance over time. The legacy of thanks, and particularly of the feast, have survived the centuries as people throughout the United States gather family, friends, and enormous amounts of food for their yearly Thanksgiving meal.

All the above information on Thanksgiving is from the The History Channel.