In spite of 2020 and all that has happened this year, there is so much to be thankful for. Yet, when our minds slow down during quiet moments the future can feel uncertain and scary.

I hoped there would be moments of quiet and reflection over the Thanksgiving week. But in addition to finding ways to quiet our minds I wanted to provide opportunities for us to consider and enjoy all of the things we have to be thankful for.

I started reflecting on Thanksgiving 2019 and having all of Calvin's family in town with us and my sister, her husband, and my nephew. This year there was no family outside of our little group of 4. So I kept thinking about how we could make this Thanksgiving as special and memorable as they've been in years past.

The weeks prior to Thanksgiving we were all hit with a significant round of sickness. We needed to stop and rest earlier than expected. Walking into the week of Thanksgiving we all felt worn down and a bit like a marathon runner who was crawling towards the finish line.

I started feeling the importance of making this year special in spite of the pandemic and our own sickness.

It's becoming abundantly clear to me how quickly these younger years with the boys are going by. Both Emet and Abner have grown up in significant ways over the last year and they've grown out of and moved on from so many of the things they did that we loved and weren’t ready to let go of yet.

We want to make these holidays memorable and make every moment count.

But what I found to be true this year, is that making the holidays memorable isn't about trying to make it better by doing more things. Truly, what made this Thanksgiving so special was pouring our efforts into cultivating thanksgiving in our hearts for everything we have with one another and recognizing moments to be thankful for as they're happening.

This Thanksgiving, what we did wasn't much different than years past. We finished shopping on Monday and Tuesday, and spent Wednesday cooking and prepping for Thursday. We started Thanksgiving with breakfast together, watched the parade, and (of course) the dog show. We put together puzzles and even went outside to throw a football around with the boys. Dinner was full of all the traditional Thanksgiving food - it was very good. The evening closed with watching a Christmas movie and welcoming in the holiday season together. We fulfilled our tradition of getting the Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving by visiting our favorite plant nursery.

All of these things were great, but what made them stand out this year was actively making the effort to identify things to be thankful for in each moment along the way - imagining the floats through the eyes of 2 year old Abner, seeing the boys giggle at the dogs as they ran across the screen, cooking in the kitchen with Calvin and sneaking a kiss in here and there, the glow of the candles at dinner as we ate together, the genuine happiness on the boys’ faces as we threw the football in yard, and watching the boys run (hand-in-hand) through the Christmas trees.

These are the moments that make up our lives and become the memories our boys will look back on when they're older. My hope is that they're full of memories of love and the joy of being together.

We have used Thanksgiving as a launch point for this holiday season. To build into our practice actively identifying the things we have to be thankful for in each moment - as they happen.

2020 has been a doozy of a year! What did you do this year to make Thanksgiving special for yourself and your family?

Here are some photos and video recapping our time together.

| Credits: Author - Jacintha Payne; Photography - Jacintha & Calvin Payne |