With stores already lighting their windows and Christmas music filling every waking moment, it is easy to forget altogether about the importance of Thanksgiving. Let’s be honest, what can be more important than a home cooked meal without dietary restrictions? It is that magical time of the year when elastic waistbands become a stylistic choice, when regulating calories and gym memberships fall to the wayside and we embrace that piece of pumpkin pie slathered in as much homemade whip cream as grandma can muster the way that God intended. Friends and family gather around the television watching the parade in the comfort of their turkey scented living rooms or venture outside for a semi competitive game of touch football, replete with the aches and pains of growing older come black Friday. Thanksgiving doesn’t expect anything from us, does it? We are enough for each other simply by being present. There is not the overpowering sense of expectation, no pressure except to look up from our phones long enough to recognize that someone woke up at three o’clock this morning just to make certain that our bellies were full. Thanksgiving is a simple day of warmth and relaxation, but it is filled with the quiet assurance that our lives are touched with grace, that each year we are given the opportunity to look meaningfully at our own bounty and say thank you. So thanks be to you who have touched our lives in numerous unseen ways; thanks to you whose courage makes our lives easier; thanks to you whose hands have opened to give, that we might share and love and grow together. Happy Thanksgiving from all your friends at The Lodges at Cresthaven!