Happy Thanksgiving

Over here, we have a holiday called Thanksgiving that sort of kicks off the annual holiday season. It's my favorite, because it's not commercialized. There are no Thanksgiving sales, no Thanksgiving gifts, etc.

You can buy a Thanksgiving card I suppose. The holiday is centered on a big feast with lots of traditional food, and the idea that one should take some time to reflect on what one is thankful for, such as loved ones, good health, a roof over one's head, and so on.

This year, having been a rather tough year, I'm thankful for being here, still putting one foot in front of the other. I have, for the most part, good health, although various body parts are starting to rust and squeak, just like my 13 year old car.

The thing I'm MOST thankful for is stumbling across this website, back in March, when I was contemplating quitting smoking. By happenstance, I found it the day before the annual No Smoking Day and decided that it was a sign from the Universe telling me to go ahead and quit for good.

So I did, on March 14th. I quit cold turkey (how appropriate, since turkey is the centerpiece of most Thanksgiving meals). I've struggled and I've coasted and everything in between. I'm still not smoking, after 253 days, and recently successfully navigated an overwhelming (almost) personal malaise when my desire to smoke returned.

So today, on Thanksgiving, I'm grateful to you, thankful I found this site, and proud that I'm an ex-smoker.

[nsd_user663_42390]

Great post

It was great to read that Dgee! Happy thanksgiving

[nsd_user663_53658]

Happy Thanksgiving DGee, my aunt lives in California and loves Thanksgiving.

I think it's a brilliant holiday. I wish we had an equivalent over here, we should all take time out to think about the things to be thankful for.

Your post is beautiful. Makes me realise how lucky I am to have found this place!

What a quit DGee, wow

[AngryBear]

Great post DGee, only thing is, I want a turkey dinner now :rolleyes: enjoy your day .......

[nsd_user663_53202]

Lovely post DGee

[nsd_user663_52845]

Happy Thanksgiving DGee

That was an uplifting, revealing and honest post to a newbie like me, and for that I thank you.

Surely you shouldn't be rusting in San Diego?!? It never rains does it?

When I was a wee lad (1970's) we did have something similar in school. It was the Harvest Festival. (Do we still have this in schools?)

I suppose that was our version of Thanksgiving, being thankful for all the wonderful food that we had "grown" through the summer!

In reality this actually meant taking tins of peaches, peas, beans etc in to school and going to the front of the hall one at a time to put them on a table whilst everybody else sang hymns

This was preceded by a many flustered mothers the night before frantically rummaging through the cupboards to see what we could spare!

I think the food went to local pensioners homes if I remember correctly.

I do wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and hope you stay on the path to guide the rest of us.

Take care

Greg

[nonico 7 Years Smoke Free]

Thanksgiving

Hi DGee

Enjoy Thanksgiving & have some hot turkey while you're cold turkey.

[nsd_user663_20558]

Happy turkey day DGee.

Unusual these days to have any celebration that isn't utterly ruined by commer******m.

Still, there's always Black Friday for those suffering from shopping withdrawal, hey?

Great to see you're still going strong. REALLY glad you got through the rough patch.

Helen x

[Unah]

Black Friday q:eek: I went to Toysrus at 5 am and the queue for the check out was round every aisle and out the door. That was 4 years ago and I would never do it again.

[Unah]

Supposedly the best shopping day in the year in America. Get some here too. Amazon have Black Friday deals but they aren't so great. I'm just going to have a look at Macy's because they deliver here.

[nsd_user663_53753]

Happy Thanksgiving Dgee.

[nsd_user663_50109]

Happy thanks giving..

Have a lovely day x

[nonico 7 Years Smoke Free]

Black Friday

Hi Karri - Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving ( which is always on a Thursday). If it's the best shopping day in America the parallel in Australia is Boxing Day - that's when the shops here have their big sales.

We have nothing similar to Thanksgiving here - I think it's strictly American. But then again we have the Queen's birthday

[Hidden]

Black Friday actually kind of sucks...

Black Friday has become an abomination here in the colonies. What used to start at midnight on Thursday night/Friday morning now starts ON Thanksgiving Day, which means the non-commercialization of Thanksgiving is kind of lost when millions of people jam parking lots everywhere just to get a deal on something for Christmas.

It's really rather sad to watch. Every year, someone gets hurt (even shot or stabbed) in a crowd of people at a mall somewhere. All to BUY something to help celebrate Christmas.

I never shop on Black Friday no matter how good the deals are supposed to be. To me, it just demonstrates how shallow people can be, how thoughtless, and how commercialized our holidays are. The poor retail clerks who are already subsisting on minimum wage now have to give up their holiday to work on Black Friday.

I can't stand it. YMMV, of course!