Giving thanks this week?

We are, amid the traditional turkey dinner, requisite football game, mid-afternoon catnap and other trimmings of the holiday.

Thanksgiving has been one of my favorite holidays for as long as I remember, although its significance has shifted over the years......from a day of turkey and football in excess to a day symbolic of the many blessings life has bestowed upon us.

Sure, there are rough spots along the road of life, but they should only make you appreciate the good things you have all that much more.

Family gatherings are a Thanksgiving hallmark which exemplify the spirit of the holiday.

I remember more than one household full of relatives on Thanksgiving Day, the kitchen bustling with cooks while everybody else spent the day catching up and debating important issues like whether the Vikings were going to make the playoffs.

We had the traditional “kids’ table,” and it was a rite of passage when one grew old enough to join the adults.

Kathy’s family gathered in many years past for large gatherings as well.

Matter of fact, my introduction to the Alvey clan came at one such holiday. That was a “total immersion” but also a wonderful day.....although I quickly gave up on trying to keep everybody’s name straight. In the spirit of the holiday, their home was open to all comers and nobody stayed a stranger for long.

Thanksgiving doesn’t have to be about large gatherings to be memorable.

Life has brought Thanksgiving celebrations large and small.

For several years in young adulthood, when work obligations prevented me from attending family Thanksgivings away from home, the holiday was one my grandfather and I spent together. We would leave the cooking to others, finding an open restaurant (not always easy on Thanksgiving Day in rural Iowa) for our holiday dinner.

More recently Thanksgiving has been a smaller family affair for Kathy and I, and is shaping up that way again this year.

We enjoy the day regardless, in part because we both have an honest, deep appreciation for our blessings.

We are constantly acknowledging our good fortune. On Thanksgiving we do the same, but there’s turkey and mashed potatoes involved.

What do we have to be thankful for?

Each other. Our families. Our jobs. A roof over our head and food on the table. The people who surround us in our communities. The ability to help others, if even in small ways.

I could fill this entire column but, well, you get the picture.

We’re reminded on Thanksgiving that the things most important to us are not a new car, a 54-inch flat screen television or the new house in the ritzy neighborhood.

Nice, to be sure, but what we celebrate each Thanksgiving are not “things” but each other and the life that we share.

And we never take those blessings for granted.

It troubles me, though, that gratitude and appreciation sometime seem to be in short supply in today’s world.

Almost everybody I know has some reason to be thankful, even if they are going through struggles in their life.

But not everybody takes the time to pause and acknowledge their good fortune as they go about their busy lives.

Some are so focused on the troubles in their lives that they don’t see the blessings in front of them.

Others are cocooned in an entitlement complex.....going through life blissfully unaware that they are owed nothing or feeling compelled to be grateful for things that are simply what they deserve.

Know somebody like that? Most of us do.

Enjoy the day, whether you’re having a quiet Thanksgiving or a full-house holiday.

And don’t forget to give thanks.