Last year I was looking for a way to make Thanksgiving really special. My family lives in Canada and Papa the Farmer’s family also lives out of state so sometimes these family holidays can feel lonely. I got the idea to dress the children up like pilgrims and go visiting some of our neighbors who for various reasons might not have another visitor. We took each person a bag of genuine pilgrim food (also known as popcorn). (Click here to read the full post from last year!)
We had a blast! It was the best Thanksgiving we had ever had and I definitely wanted to make it a yearly tradition. But as this Thanksgiving drew closer I found myself not wanting to go. Several of the people we visited last year have either died or are in nursing homes this year and for various reasons can’t receive visitors. Driving past their homes and knowing they aren’t there anymore is just so hard and sad.
Papa the Farmer encouraged me to come up with a list of people to visit anyway. The children have outgrown last year’s pilgrim costumes and they wanted to be Indians this year, anyway. A quick Google search helped me to find a tutorial about how to make an Indian headdress quickly out of construction paper. Papa the Farmer popped some genuine pilgrim/indian food and within the hour we had two little Indians ready to deliver Thanksgiving treats to the neighbors!
We tried to turn the littlest Farmhand into a genuine Thanksgiving pilgrim man (complete with a full beard and moustache… It was Farmboy’s outfit from last year) but he wouldn’t have anything to do with it…
No, No, No! Get that funny looking hat off of me!!!
So we talked him into being the official popcorn-bearer. He wasn’t too happy about it at first. I think he was afraid we might try to sneak that funny looking pilgrim hat back onto him! But he cheered up as the day went on:
He carried the popcorn to the neighbors and the Little Indians serenaded our new friends with our favorite Thanksgiving Scripture Song:
Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name,
Bless His name, bless His name
Be thankful unto Him and bless His name,
For the Lord is good!
Psalm 100:4
