A Season To Be Thankful (Rachel Harris)

November is my favorite month of the year. It’s true. I mean, I love me some Christmas, and May kinda rocks since it’s when I was born, but whenever my calendar page turns to November, I get a giddy smile on my face.

November is the month I got married. It’s the month my first child was born. And it’s the month my first ever novel was completed. It’s filled with yummy scents and beautiful colors, and the weather down here in the South is actually tolerable. Charlie Brown is on my television, football season is in full-gear, Christmas music first begins to play, and stores have excellent sales. But the main reason I love November is that it is home to my favorite holiday.

Thanksgiving isn’t about the presents. It’s about family. It’s about taking time to remember the good things that have happened over the past year, celebrate our heritage, and eat a ton of delicious food. It’s even the month I get my craft on…or what passes as craft, since I happen to be the least artistically gifted person I know.

Every year as the decorations start rolling out, my girls and I tape up a poster board with the truck and bare branches of a tree. During the days before Thanksgiving, it is our job to fill the tree with leaves. These leaves are all different colors of construction paper, and written on them are things we are thankful for that year. When guests come to visit, or arrive on the big day itself, they too get to add to our tree of Thanksgiving.

These trees become decorations in the years to come, and each year we are able to read and reminiscence, and often laugh, at what we were thankful for that year. The year the Saints went to the Super Bowl, our tree was filled with leaves saying Who Dat! It doesn’t matter what the leaves say, what matters is that they are there. And when we read leaves from friends and family members who have passed away, they become that much sweeter.

This November, I’m thankful to be a published author. I’m grateful for the friendships I’ve made, the memories my children and I have made, and for my amazing husband who is always supportive but especially this month as I write my first full-length adult novel for Nanowrimo. And I’m really grateful that for the first time in a long time I’m letting someone else doing the Thanksgiving cooking (he he). But mostly, I’m thankful for the chance to be surrounded by my family and simply enjoy them.

What about you, beautiful readers? What are YOU thankful for this November?