It’s Thanksgiving week! Time for turkeys and family gatherings and for everything to look like a Norman Rockwell painting. Except–it won’t, probably. And that’s ok. Whether your Thanksgiving is picturesque or not, we hope you will find gratitude.

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The Best Books to Read with Your Kids to Celebrate Thanksgiving

The good folks at Redeemed Reader have collected a list of Thanksgiving books for your family.

We’ve chosen some of our favorite books to read with our kids for Thanksgiving. Many of these books tell the story of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving in the United States. Some tell how many cultures around the world show their gratitude and celebrate harvest time. Others are fun or inspiration stories of families and friends coming together to share a meal and express their thankfulness.
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(14 Ways) How to Raise Grateful, Thankful, Joyful Kids: When You’re Tired of Kids Complaining

Cultivating gratitude in the kids in our lives might be one of the hardest tasks we have.

How long do I really have to figure it out with my kids how to live a joyfilled, grateful life?
So my husband might find himself married to a woman he loves being with. A woman who knows how to laugh at the days to come?
So our children have these memories of a mama who smiles easy, listens long, makes jokes and praise and all these good days out of crazy messes.
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He Gives His Beloved

Lore Wilbert considers the gift of sleep and the act of trust.

I committed the cardinal sin of the insomniac which is to never let caffeinated nectar pass into my bloodstream past 10am, which is why at 12am, slathered in CBD oil and lavender, I am still wide awake. The cause for caffeine was good: we attended Say Yes, A Liturgy of Not Giving Up on Yourself, by Scott Erickson, but the insomnia, oh the insomnia.
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“What’s a Casket?”

Jenny Solomon wrestles with a difficult question.

“What’s a casket?” Those four words clatter onto the dinner table like a dropped fork. You are a young boy asking a simple question. I pause to look you over—noticing the mouth those words come from. It’s a mixed-up assembly of full grown and babies. One of your loose teeth dangles, hanging on by a thread. The next bite of the world is sure to pull it loose—proving it’s apostasy. It’s my turn to speak and I hesitate. I’ve spent the last six years protecting you from yourself and protecting you from the world.
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Feasting

Aimee Davis recalls why feasting pricks her heart with joy.

My childhood is filled with so many visions of gathering and feasting. One of my clearest memories growing up was of Thanksgiving. We would take the forty-five minute drive up the back-roads to my aunt and uncle’s house. The house would be filled with cousins and all sorts of other family members. We would fill up all the tables in the house and feast on food that I looked forward to every year.
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The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh

James D. Witmer reviews this beautiful picture book.

Thanksgiving is a great holiday. Not only is it specifically devoted to the virtue of gratitude over consumption, but it even offers us a way past the too-abstract notion of “being thankful,” by means of a story.
Yes, I mean the story of the Pilgrims who settled at Plymouth. It’s a complex story, with plenty of food for thought about the effects of colonialism, the experiment in communal living, and so on, and we probably take it too much for granted.
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