U is for An UNEXPECTED Blessing

Debra's Thanksgiving heroine shares one important trait with her.

I have one rule in my house this time of year. There can be nothing having to do with Christmas before Thanksgiving. Don't get me wrong. It's not like I don't like Christmas, because I truly do. I just want it to wait it's turn. When trees come out in the stores before Halloween and shopping ads start not too soon after that, it's a bit much. Plus, it skips over one of my favorite holidays.

Poor Thanksgiving. It gets sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas and is often forgotten in the rush of things. Which is a shame, because it's such a wonderful holiday. A time to simply be together with family and friends. No one is begging for candy. There are no last minute gifts to buy. Not to mention the oodles of the best comfort food in the world to consume.

In An Unexpected Blessing, Katy shares my thoughts on this.

When the rest of the stores on Main Street are displaying Christmas wares, she convinces her boss to do an autumn cookbook display at the bookstore where she works.

The next day at the bookstore, Katy stepped back to admire her handy work. Colorful autumn garlands made of silk leaves and acorns draped the inside of the display window. Anna’s cornucopia sat in the center of the case. Plastic fruit spilled from the curved wicker horn. A variety of cookbooks, nestled in piles of faux fall leaves, surrounded it.

She glanced over to where Anna was stapling a large sheet of paper to the bulletin board next to the door. Usually the cork displayed flyers and announcements, but those had been removed and lay in a scattered pile at her feet.

“What’s that?”

“A list of a thousand things to be thankful for.”

When houses are already decked out for Christmas she's annoyed.

[She]stared out the window as houses flashed by. They passed one whose bushes were lit up with multi-colored lights. A gleaming plastic Santa and his eight reindeer adorned the roof.

“Ugh. Christmas lights.”

“You don’t like Christmas?” Joe’s surprise was evident.

She turned toward him. “I like Christmas just as much as the next person. But it needs to wait its turn. It’s not even Thanksgiving yet.”

“Oh.” He sounded like he was trying not to laugh.

She studied his profile, but couldn’t make out his features in the dim, green glow of the dashboard lights. “Are you making fun of me?”

“Nope.”

Did the corner of his mouth twitch?

She folded her arms across her chest. “Good, because I’m serious. Thanksgiving gets sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas and is virtually forgotten. Tell me, when’s the last time you saw a display of Thanksgiving decorations? Or candy? Or anything?”

“I saw frozen turkeys at the supermarket the other day.”

“That’s not what I mean. Oh, never mind. Everyone thinks I’m crazy.”

He pried one arm away from her body, and then folded his hand around hers. “I don’t think you’re crazy. I think you’re sweet.”

And when there's a layer of early snow on the ground, she's severely disgruntled. (Kind of how I felt last weekend with the pre-Thanksgiving dump of snow we got here in the Midwest.)

She peeked over his shoulder and moaned. A light dusting of snow covered the lawn. It sparkled in the sunshine. But she couldn’t appreciate its beauty. “No,” she whined. “It’s only November. It cannot snow.”

Joe raised an eyebrow.

She paused in her tirade to appreciate the effect it had on his face. But only for a brief second. “Snow is for Christmas. Not Thanksgiving. Ugh.”

He chuckled. “Wow. You are really hung up on that, aren’t you?”
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Katy took Kyle's hand to guide him down the slippery stairs. Ignoring the sled at first, he flopped down and rolled in the snow. His high-pitched giggles filled the air. Patches of grass appeared as he cavorted, reinforcing the hope it would melt before too long.

Joe put his hand on Katy’s shoulder. “See? How can you hate the snow? He’s happier than a pig in mud.”

Katy refused to be swayed. “I’ll take the mud. It’s the proper ground cover for November.”

May you and yours have a blessed and Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Reading,

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com