As we kick off Thanksgiving 2020, let’s remember what we are truly thankful for: A Father who cares about us, a Savior who intervened for us, and the Spirit who never leaves us alone in the trenches.

Yet Thanksgiving 2020 is going to look different.  Period.

While social distancing may have changed how we will meet for this holiday, it doesn’t have to change how we will feel.  We will feel blessed, thankful, and probably greatly stressed.

The stress has gotten to us, and it’s not the normal stress of timing everything in the kitchen.

The “normal” stress of making sure the table is set, checking the guest list, making sure that Uncle John sits next to Uncle Joe, having enough food on the table, making sure the Lions are on television, and ensuring who will get that wishbone aren’t our main worries this year.

These things matter, but so does gathering around the table and letting the Lord know that we are thankful for another trip around the sun as we enter these cold winter months.

What will my Thanksgiving look like?  My husband and I will join my parents for dinner.  We will bake, cook, and join my brother’s family on WhatsApp for dinner.  We will have just the four of us, since New Jersey has limited the number of people to celebrate under one roof to 10.

Even as I write this, I’m having trouble building a menu and grocery list for my mother.  Following this blueprint ensures that she will not only have the turkey, cranberries and green beans we need for the big day, but also what we need for the following week.  Any Thanksgiving dinner that fails to sustain you through the following week needs hasn’t reached its full potential.

During Mass the last few weeks, we have read through the letters to the Thessalonians.  These take a while to unpack so that we can appreciate the sections of thanksgiving and encouragement intended for the people of Thessalonica.  Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy emerged as prophets for the sake of this group of people. The Thessalonians received these prophets who had written letters to them, hoping that they would make life choices leading them closer to Christ.  These people eventually became examples for people in Macedonia and Achaia.

1 Thessalonians 1:5 illustrates that sense of thanksgiving: “For our Gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and [with] much conviction.  You know what sort of people we were [among] you for your sake.”

In itself, Thanksgiving is a simple prayer of giving thanks to God.

Thanksgiving this year will feel mostly different, but some things will remain the same. Like apple pie.  The apple pie pictured here comes from Woman’s Day magazine from 1996, and the magazine posted it to the website in 2011.  The original recipe in the magazine has torn edges, grease stains, egg whites and apple juice all over it.  Yet this pie will still find its way to our table and evoke memories from the first time we made it, including our attempt to cut the apple peel into one long thread.

While making your list and checking it twice . . . adding the sugar, both brown and white . . . take time to remember the reason for this season: Thankfulness.

My family is thankful this year for so many things, especially my nephew entering the world during this unnatural summer.  Everyone in my family has found a way to stay healthy.  We’ve celebrated birthdays on Zoom and held Facebook parties.  Anniversaries included masks at restaurants outside or with takeout.

As we move into the holiday season, let’s be thankful for what we do have.  We are about to enter the most beautiful preparation of our heart.  Let us  enter Advent with a grateful heart and a full belly.

As the Venerable Fulton Sheen said, life is worth living.  Life is worth living no matter whether we are together or apart.  Let us be grateful.

Here’s a recipe for apple pie!