Thanksgiving is a wonderful occasion. It is the one day of the year when we set aside our wants and needs to focus on being grateful for what we have.

In this life, the hustle to keep up with our daily chores and commitments often becomes overwhelming. Ambition and goals are wonderful, but sometimes they cloud our vision so that we are unable to appreciate the gifts we already have. It is such a relief to have a day used solely to give thanks.

It is amazing how much we may find we have to be thankful about this holiday season. My children are growing taller and smarter each passing day. It isn’t always easy to find the time to reflect on how far they’ve progressed in this life from the tiny, rose-cheeked infants they began as.

I love having the time to reflect on how much they have matured and grown. It is fun to flip through photo albums together and remember little phases they have each gone through — like when my oldest insisted on wearing bathing suits around the house all winter long at age 3 — and compare those to the personality traits they have had since birth.

In a year that has challenged so many in this country with financial hardships, focusing on the positives of life comes as a pleasant and well-deserved break. It is important to keep perspective during the hardest of times. Family and friends are our most valuable assets, and people fortunate enough to be from Harlan know they are plentiful and free.

For some, Thanksgiving dinner is a full-scale family reunion, with extended family gathering together to celebrate the season, while other families have cozier plans for bonding with the immediate family. Either way, Thanksgiving is a day for families to spend much-needed quality time with each other, eating traditional foods like turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Then there are the delicious recipes that individual families prepare unique to each household.

There are always an abundance of important ballgames played — or at least the people in my family who follow sports claim that some of them are crucial to the outcome of the season.

My sister and I always opted to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which makes it all that much more fun to watch it each year with my own children. I enjoy watching performances from bands, cheer squads, dance teams and floats; however, my favorite part of the parade is the balloons.

I love watching the enormous Kermit the Frog and Snoopy balloons from my childhood float through Times Square on my television screen, as much as my children love to see Elmo and Spongebob — an example of the time-honored and the trendy going hand-in-hand for the holidays.

Regardless of how we choose the celebrate this season, it is a special time of the year shared by all.

———

Angela can be contacted by e-mail at afmaimon@yahoo.com