Happy Thanksgiving!

Today, we celebrate that most American of holidays - Thanksgiving. 

While much of the day is filled with consuming - food, football and fine wines - many of us do stop and take a moment to think about what we are grateful for.

I'm grateful for my family, from husband & sons, to brothers & sisters, mom and mother-in-laws, and my cousins and "like family" friends.

I'm grateful to have a job.  I'm grateful for my garden - the broccoli is getting bigger by the day. 

I'm grateful for music and art and laughter.  I'm grateful that you've chosen to spend a minute reading my blog!

What are you grateful for?

Thanksgiving 1911

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! May you enjoy a day filled with family and friends.

A great column by Jon Carroll appeared today in the San Francisco Chronicle, and I particularly like these words of advice: "Many Thanksgivings are family gatherings, and family gatherings are often fraught. My suggestion is: Embrace the fraught. You'd miss the fraught if it weren't there."

Read the entire column here.

Thanksgiving Symbols

Not that these are the Native Americans one typically sees in Thanksgiving pictures or cards, but the Mystery Sender asks another provocative question: "Are we honoring the "First Americans" or making a spectacle them?" You be the judge.

Thanksgiving 1910

Talk about turkey-centric. Here's a few more Thanksgiving postcards, all embossed. I particularly like the one with all the flowers around the turkey filled oval. ->

Thanksgiving 1909

Thanksgiving postcards from 1909. 100 years ago, and many of the Thanksgiving traditions and images are still the same: the turkey (rarely do we see one feathered and still with its head on), the fall harvest bounty (pumpkins, squashes, grapes) and the cornucopia (seen on other postcards in this series).

Today you rarely see logs used as a type font (unless you're in a forested national park) and contemporary illustrations of kids don't resemble the one on the right. But, we'll probably have a cornucopia on our Thanksgiving table next Thursday, a (unfeathered and cooked) turkey will take center stage, and the table will be laden with fall harvest bounty.

If you are so inclined, it's not too late to send Thanksgiving postcards to your friends and family or download images from vintage Thanksgiving postcards to make place cards for your table.

Thanksgiving 1908

The beginning of a series of Thanksgiving postcards from 1908-1911, from my friend Debra's collection.

What looks like grey lines on the corn and the turkey, is actually glitter and both cards are embossed. It is hard to see that in a scan. I particularly like the feather on the right.

Today is Postcard Friendship Friday, so check out other postcards blogs if you get a chance.