Taking a little time off for the Holiday

[HEATHER28]

Hi Guys,

I am at work right now but, want to let you all know that I am going to update and post all the Google Alerts that I have tonight when I get home then I am going to take a little time off.

I have to work tomorrow and then I am on vacation. I have ALOT of stuff that needs to get done around my house and I am using my time off to hopefully get it done! So I wont be on my computer very much. I will be back on 12/01.

Have a Great Thanksgiving!

[HEATHER28]

Google Alerts are all updated and I am signing off! Everyone have a Great Thanksgiving (or atleast try too).

I will talk to you all next week :o)

[feelinghopeful]

Happy Thanksgiving, Heather. Thanks again for all you do.

[needhelp]

Heather, Enjoy your vacation, you deserve it! And Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Roy, yes, I was thinking of poor you yesterday on Thanksgiving, sorry you had to work.

Thanks for everything you both do! :)

[jenkelly15]

Wait so England doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving? Is America the only country that does? I was arguing with my hubby telling him Europe did celebrate it oops if they don't.

[Hua Kul]

Here is Abraham Lincoln's proclamation establishing a national day of thanksgiving to God in the U.S. Oddly, it was established in the midst of the Civil War. Lincoln invited "...my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands..." to celebrate the holiday, so roy if you have any American friends over there see if they will invite you to their house!

"The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

"No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

"It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."

Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863


God Bless,
--Hua Kul

[Bobbie]

Have a good time, Heather. You deserve it.

The date and location of the first Thanksgiving celebration is debated. Though the earliest attested Thanksgiving celebration was on September 8, 1565, in what is now Saint Augustine, Florida,], the traditional "first Thanksgiving" is the one at the site of Plymouth Plantation, in 1621, where the Pilgrams gave thanks.

Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday in the US.

Thanksgiving is on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the U.S.