Scripture
D & C 59:7
7 Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.
Hymn
I am Glad for Many Things Primary Songbook pg 151
I am Glad for Many Things, Many Things, Many Things.
I am Glad for Many Things That are Mine Today.
Thank you, Thank you, My Heart Sings, My Heart Sings, My Heart Sings.
Thank you for the Many Things That are Mine Today.
Count Your Many Blessings Hymn 241
1. When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings; name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
[Chorus]
Count your blessings;
Name them one by one.
Count your blessings;
See what God hath done.
Count your blessings;
Name them one by one.
Count your many blessings;
See what God hath done.
2. Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings; ev’ry doubt will fly,
And you will be singing as the days go by.
3. When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you his wealth untold.
Count your many blessings; money cannot buy
Your reward in heaven nor your home on high.
4. So amid the conflict, whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged; God is over all.
Count your many blessings; angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.
Lesson
What holiday is on Thursday?
What do we do on Thanksgiving?
Why do we have Thanksgiving?
*For Younger Children* (Share this story) Rescuing Thanksgiving
Cast me not off in the time of old age (Ps. 71:9).
Walking home from school in the autumn rain, I sloshed through every puddle. Little rivulets of cold water drizzled down my head and plopped to the hood of my blue jacket. I usually forgot to tie the hood over my head, so it just hung over my shoulders, catching raindrops.
“Hi, Mrs. Carver,” I called as I neared the small yellow house down the street from ours.
“Darcy, just look at you—you’re soaking wet!”
Mrs. Carver closed the mailbox and peered at me from under her plaid umbrella. Juggling the umbrella and a little stack of envelopes with one hand, she reached for my arm with the other. “Come on in and get dried off.”
I followed her as she shuffled up the concrete walk to her front door. When she opened it, a fragrant warmth met my face. She smiled. “I just baked some gingerbread. Would you like a piece?”
As I nodded eagerly and stepped inside, she reminded me to wipe my feet. Then she hung my dripping jacket on the back of a kitchen chair.
“Land’s sake, girl,” she said, passing me a hunk of warm gingerbread, “I hope you didn’t catch cold out there in that freezing rain.”
“Not me. I like rain. This is the best time of the year. Next week isThanksgiving, you know. Wow—this gingerbread sure is good!”
“I’m glad you like it, Darcy. I used to make goodies for my son when he was your age.”
Adjusting her glasses, Mrs. Carver thumbed through the little pile of envelopes. I glanced up between bites of gingerbread, wondering if she’d found anything interesting in her mailbox.
“I’m waiting to hear from my son,” she told me. “He’s coming home forThanksgiving.” A hopeful smile creased her face.
“We’re going to my grandma’s house,” I said, wiping my hands on a paper napkin. “My cousins will be there, too—I can’t wait! Well, thanks for the gingerbread. I’d better get home.”
I grabbed my jacket and headed for the door. Mrs. Carver sat still in her kitchen and watched me go out into the rain.
“When are we leaving for Grandma’s house?” I asked Mom a few days later. I hadn’t seen my cousins since last summer. My favorite cousin, Trevor, was in the fourth grade too.
“Very early Thanksgiving morning. It’s a long drive.”
“What if there’s a lot of snow in the mountains?” Amy wanted to know. My younger sister didn’t like long car trips, especially in the winter.
“Dad will just stop and put chains on the tires—no problem,” I assured her.
Curling up in the window seat in the family room, I watched dozens of raindrops drip from a branch of a cedar tree. They splattered on the yellow and brown leaves that layered the ground. A squirrel skittered across the branch and up the tree to the roof of our house.
I wonder what he’s doing for Thanksgiving. I grinned at the thought of a squirrel family gathered around a Thanksgiving feast. Then I daydreamed about Grandma’s cheery smile and Trevor’s dumb jokes. Just four more days until we’d sit down to a big turkey dinner at Grandma’s house! Mashed potatoes with her good gravy, pumpkin pie . … My mouth began to water.
Every day after school, I passed Mrs. Carver with her plaid umbrella, checking her mail. I could tell by the look on her face that there was still no letter from her son.
The day before Thanksgiving, she called to me. I liked her smile. In a lot of ways, she reminded me of my grandma.
“Hi, Mrs. Carver,” I said, wiping a strand of wet hair from my forehead.
“Oh, Darcy, why do you think that jacket of yours has a hood? It’s supposed to keep your head dry.”
She bent down, holding her umbrella over both of us. “Come on in. A letter came from my son.”
I followed Mrs. Carver up the walk to her door. She stepped a little faster than usual, even though she was trying to keep the umbrella over my head. Inside her warm kitchen, she handed me a yellow towel and a freshly-baked chocolate chip cookie. “Here,” she said. “Dry that wet hair. Then you can eat that cookie. Chocolate chip was always my son’s favorite.”
I rubbed the dampness out of my hair and sat at the table to eat my cookie. Mrs. Carver opened an envelope and pulled out a single sheet of white paper. As she read the letter, her smile faded. “He’s not coming! My son’s not coming home for Thanksgiving, after all.”
Mrs. Carver seemed so surprised and hurt that I didn’t know what to say. I just watched her take off her glasses and wipe her eyes. Then she turned and gazed out the window. “When is it ever going to stop raining?”
“Uh, maybe your son is just too busy,” I suggested.
“Yes,” Mrs. Carver said, almost in a whisper. “He’s too busy.”
I had the feeling she wanted to be alone, so I muttered a thanks for the cookie and crept quietly out of the house.
On the way home, the gray, swollen sky seemed to close in around me. Whipping down the street, a sudden wind picked up some damp leaves and slapped them against my shoulder.
“Don’t forget to wipe your feet, Darcy,” I heard Mom say as I took off my jacket in the hallway. She was sitting on the couch in the family room, thumbing through a magazine without looking at the pages. Amy was slumped next to her. It seemed like a long time before anyone said anything. That was pretty unusual at home. Finally Mom set down the magazine and turned to me with her serious look.
“Darcy, we can’t go to Grandma’s for Thanksgiving. There’s a blizzard raging in the mountains. Your dad says it’s too dangerous to drive through the pass when the weather’s this bad.”
I just stared at her. No Thanksgiving at Grandma’s! I crawled up on the window seat and tried to keep from crying. Some Thanksgiving we’d have with no cousins and no Grandma! Even though I figured my sister was just trying to cheer me up, it bothered me when she came over, chattering on about some silly thing. Then she scolded me for getting home late from school. “I’ve been home for ages. What took you so long?”
“I stopped to see Mrs. Carver.”
“Oh?” Mom asked. “How is she?”
I sat quietly for a long time, thinking. “Mrs. Carver is going to be all alone for Thanksgiving. …”
Mom came over and put her hands on my shoulders. “Not if I know my Darcy, she won’t. Don’t forget to put your hood up when you go to invite her.”
Picking up her notepad and a pencil, Mom started making plans for Thanksgiving at our house. I looked out into the backyard. It had finally stopped raining.
*For Teenagers* (Share this story) Two Thanksgiving Turkeys
We lost everything after Daddy died, including two of our three farms. Our money had gone to pay Daddy’s medical bills and, eventually, his funeral expenses. By the first of November, we found ourselves living in a small trailer court just outside of town. Each of us tried to find work to help out. I was fourteen and found a job in a fast-food restaurant working seven hours a day after school for $1.30 an hour.
As Thanksgiving approached, I found little in my heart to be thankful for. Mother bought a sorry-looking goose at the grocery store for ourThanksgiving feast. She tried to be cheerful and set a holiday mood. We responded as best we could, but our hearts just weren’t in it. It seemed no one cared about us and that all the promises we had heard at Daddy’s funeral had long been forgotten. We felt totally alone.
Then the day before Thanksgiving, we heard the doorbell ring. Mother went to the door, and the rest of us curiously gathered around. When Mother opened the door, no one was there. We looked around, puzzled.
“Look at that!” shouted my older brother, pointing to a twenty-pound Tom turkey on the front step. Our excitement mounted as we peered into the darkness to try to catch a glimpse of the generous giver. We couldn’t see anyone, so we hastily brought in the turkey. We danced and hugged each other, our faces radiant with the joy of receiving.
Then, quite unexpectedly, the doorbell rang again. We quickly hushed each other as Mother opened the door, and again we found a huge Tom turkey! Again we couldn’t see anyone. We brought in the turkey and set it beside the first one. How wonderfully strange! Two turkeys forThanksgiving! I thought it must be some kind of dream, yet there they were, two turkeys side-by-side on the kitchen table. Mother got the goose out of the freezer, and we laughed as we compared it to the two heaven-sent birds.
A third time the doorbell rang. This couldn’t be! We looked around in puzzlement at each other. Again the scene was repeated, with one exception—this time there was a basket full of fruit, homemade rolls, and canned goods for our Thanksgiving feast. We stared in awe.
Mother’s eyes were full of tears as she motioned for us to kneel in prayer. She thanked the Lord for his graciousness and great love in sending these gifts to us through good people who cared. When the prayer ended, Mother looked at each of us and said, “Children, someone has made a mistake. We have two wonderful turkeys, and we need only one. Who shall we give the other one to?” Our faces beamed with joy, and tears swelled in our eyes. It was our turn to give.
Once more the scene was repeated, but this time we rang the doorbell. A mother answered the door, with her children curiously gathered around. They looked around—puzzled. They peered into the darkness, trying to catch a glimpse of the givers, but they did not see us. We sat very still in our hiding places, our faces radiant with the joy of giving. We wanted to remain anonymous. If they didn’t know our name, then tonight in their prayer of Thanksgiving, they would give thanks to Him who is ultimately the Source of every good gift.
Thanksgiving is a time to express gratitude and recognize all of our blessings.
Treat
Turkey Cupcakes or Pilgrim Hat Cookies
Turkey Cupcakes
Ingredients
- Cupcakes, tops flattened and lightly frosted
- Oreo cookies
- Whoppers
- Miniature Reese’s peanut butter cups
- Candy corn
Assorted icing – yellow, white and red
Instructions:
Guacamole/Goat Cheese Layer
- I am going to send you over to Our Best Bites for the step-by-step instructions on making these. Sara did a seriously awesome job of walking readers through how to make them, and I definitely couldn’t do it better! Plus, her turkeys are so stinkin’ cute. They would certainly take 1st prize in a turkey beauty contest. But my guys were just as delicious
(From Brown Eyed Baker )
Pilgrim Hat Cookies
Ingredients
Guacamole/Goat Cheese Layer
- 1 Package of fudge striped cookies
- 1 Package of miniature peanut butter cups
- 1 Tube of decorating icing (orange, yellow or white)
Instructions
- Lay the fudge strip cookie upside down on a plate or piece of wax paper, so that the chocolate bottom is facing up.
- Take the tube of decorating icing and squeeze a dollop of it onto the center of the cookie.
- Take a miniature peanut butter cup and unwrap it. Place the peanut butter cup (wide part down) on top of the dollop of icing and press down.
- Take the tube of decorating icing and squeeze a little dot onto the peanut butter cup, so that it resembles the buckle of the Pilgrim hat. Let the cookies sit for a few minutes so the frosting can set.
- ENJOY!!
(From Mommy Savers )
Activity
1- Play Duck, Duck, Goose! However, instead of saying: “Duck, Duck, Goose” try saying “Duck, Duck, Turkey!”
2- Turkey Hunt! Prepare for the game by drawing or pasting turkey pictures on a dozen
or so index cards – stickers will work as well. To play, everyone leaves the room except the leader. The leader hides the cards around the room. Hunters return and begin the hunt. As each turkey is found, it is brought back to the leader who corrals them in a separate pile for each hunter. When all the turkeys have been found, the hunter with the most turkeys is the winner and becomes the leader for the next round.
For older Children: “I’m Going to Thanksgiving Dinner And I am Thankful for….” (Similar to “I am going on a Picnic Memory Game”)
1- Players should arrange themselves in somewhat of a circle or such that it will be easy to remember who follows who. Pick someone to be the starting player. That player says, “I’m going to Thanksgiving Dinner, and I’m Thankful for…” What follows is a word that must begin with the letter A.
2- The next player says, “I’m going to Thanksgiving Dinner, and I’m Thankful for…” This is followed by the “A” item stated by the first player, and is followed by a “B” item of the player’s choosing.
3- The next player says, “I’m going to Thanksgiving Dinner, and I’m Thankful for…” This is followed by the “A” item from the first player, the “B” item from the second player, and then a “C” item of his/her choosing.
4- Play continues in this manner. If a player gets stuck and can’t remember one of the items in the list, that player is typically out of the game, and play passes to the next player. This rule, of course, can be modified for children who can be given hints.
5- The game is typically over once Z is reached. A variant is to continue back at A, but choosing different words for each letter than you did the first time around. The challenge would then be to start with the original A-Z list, and then wrap around to the second one, and so forth.
