Thanksgiving stories

Do you have a favorite story about Thanksgiving?  Something that happened at the table?  Something that happened on that day?  Or, do you have a folktale that reminds you of the joy of a grateful heart? One story that I love to tell during this season is the Japanese story, "Roly-Poly Rice Ball".  I found this story in Margaret Read McDonald's Twenty Tellable Tales.

The story has a common theme. One woodcutter is rewarded simply because he shared his lunch willingly with someone and was grateful for the gift he received.  His neighbor is punished for demanding a similar reward and showing bad grace when he received it.

The greedy are often ungrateful and the ungrateful are likely to be greedy.  The grateful, on the other hand, understand how to accept a gift and how to share it. 

My apple pie looked every bit as good as this!

We spent this Thanksgiving Day with friends, not family.  I was fighting a head cold and I avoided my immune-compromised father (chemotherapy) and my tiny newborn granddaughter for that reason.  (I did break down and take the last of the apple pie to my son and his wife but I sat as far away as I could stand it from the baby so I wouldn't breathe on her.)  Thanksgiving Day was a lovely day, warm and sunny, and spending it with my husband, my good friend and her husband and their two wonderful and goofy dogs was a blessing.

That said, I so missed the hustle and bustle of the holiday - which we have shared with our son, his wife and her family for several years now.  So I invited that crew and a few other people for Drop By for Pie.  It was last minute inspiration and Thanksgiving weekend is NOT a good weekend for last minute invitations.  But the people who appreciate my pie the most showed up. I got my baking urges out without adding significantly to my girth or that of my husband and our pie-loving friends got their pie!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and spent it with someone you love!