What about Thanksgiving? You know, the holiday that falls after Halloween and before Christmas? You’re not alone if you forgot. Spend some time looking around and you won’t find much to remind you. It seems that everyone wants to skip Thanksgiving and go straight to the “Christmas Season”. Grocery stores dedicate two aisles to Christmas stuff but only a couple of turkey balloons and some cardboard Pilgrims and Indians say it is Thanksgiving. My mother-in-law told me that she must have missed her chance to buy Thanksgiving napkins because all she could find were Christmas ones. That was 5 days before Thanksgiving! It is too bad that we are all in such a hurry to get to the “Christmas Season” that we skip over a great holiday.

To me, Thanksgiving is all about families spending time together, expressing what they are most thankful for and enjoying great food. Then, to top it all off, you get to sit around and enjoy a couple of great football games while you wait to have leftovers! Nothing can top that! In addition to enjoying time with our own families, I think this is a great time to get involved in our community to help ensure that everyone has the opportunity to enjoy this time together. For more than 30 years the Alliance for Children and Families has dedicated the week of Thanksgiving as National Family Week. The National Family Week premise is: Children live better lives when their families are strong, and families are strong when they live in communities that connect them to economic opportunities, social networks and services. If you are not sure how to get involved they give the following suggestions: