O-mama - Opinionated Moms

• Virginia Kroll • 10 Comments
• Tagged in: For Kids

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In my extended family, I have by default become the unofficial Thanksgiving hostess.   No one else wants to deal with the mess, or the hassle, so I have taken over.  Ever since my first daughter was born and I went into my first post-partum “mole” period, I’ve been hosting—that baby is 10 now and her little sister is nearly 8!  And, my husband would just as soon stay home for everything, so it works out for him as well.  So, altogether, we have around 12-15 adults, depending on great grandparents and how many strays we’ve brought in and 11 kids—10 of whom are under 7 –that number soon to grow as twins are on the way for my youngest sister—so, 13 at the kids table next year.

 It is by far my favorite holiday.  I love to cook. I love team cooking and cooking all day.  I love to create original and homemade/garden plucked centerpieces:  cattails and carrots—persimmons and poppies!   I love starting to drink champagne early. I love the fact that the entire holiday is one day—all set up, clean up, etc. can be accomplished in one day—there is no “Thanksgiving Season.”  The only thing you have to do ahead of time is shop for food.  Bottom line: I am thankful for Thanksgiving.  One of the kids always says grace—usually something charming and sweet that they’ve learned in chapel at their charming and sweet Episcopal school.  We go around the table and say what we are thankful for: “I’m thankful for Legos!”  “I’m thankful no one made me sit next to Austin” (one of the rowdier cousins—famous for one year starting the ill fated “giblet fight”)!  Then, the grown-ups take their turn, “I’m thankful we are all safe,” “that we are all healthy,” “that we are all together”—cliché, cliché, but only because they are sooo true!  My husband generally remembers to thank the boys overseas and we all raise glasses to those kids fighting for our safety.  My 93 year old grandmother thanks God and everyone for giving her the chance to see and hear with amazing clarity her 11 great grandchildren…

 So, get to the book already….!  Grandma Grace—in the Thanksgiving Bowl (by Virginia Kroll) has a similar tradition—when her relatives arrive for the holiday at her home, they must write what they are thankful for on a little piece of paper and place it in a bowl.  Before the meal, Grandma reads the papers and the family guesses who wrote what!  The family is big and happy and the illustrations are beautiful and engaging.  Thanksgiving goes off without a hitch, but it’s what happens to the bowl from the end of one Thankgiving to the following year is what makes up most of the book.  Kroll describes the various children and animals that find the bowl useful as we move through the end of Fall into Winter and finally Spring and Summer.  Eventually, the bowl makes it back to Grandma’s yard just in time for Thanksgiving traditions again.  Nobody even realizes it’s been gone!  But the reader knows that the bowl has provided shelter to birds and mice, became a toy for some children, and a boat for more animals—that is has been a “vessel of gratitude” just as it is at Grandma’s house.  The Thanksgiving Bowl tells a simple story of a favorite holiday, but carries with it an undercurrent of spirituality and “world connectedness” without being overbearing in its message.  In other words, your kids will get that feeling of goodness and sharing without a lecture from you!