by Liz Kennington

I love Thanksgiving! If I were to choose a holiday that I look forward to each year it would have to be Thanksgiving. It could very well be turkeys but not the eating kind. I have collected turkeys for years now and have even made many of my own, like the Butterballs, Jennie O and Norbest! I love the statuesque nature of pilgrims, stalwart and brave. Again, my love for collecting them has spilled over into making pilgrim dolls. Needless to say, my storage for turkeys and pilgrims has reached its limit.

The colors of Thanksgiving speak volumes to my soul. Warm browns, rich yellows, and sparkling oranges and reds all call out to me: “Drink us in. We are only here for a short while.” Don’t forget pumpkin pie. I wait each year for Costco to begin baking their pumpkins pies. I am simply hooked on Thanksgiving. While symbols are always a reminder of the holiday, the feelings that I get during this time of year are really why I think I love Thanksgiving.

I look around me and see how very blessed I am to live where I do and the circumstances that I find myself in. I have a great family and wonderful friends. I am blessed in every way possible. I have much to be grateful for. I am especially grateful for the God-given talents of great men and women around me. Just a few short years ago, at this time of year, my young granddaughter Lilly received an amazing gift: a new right ear fashioned from parts of her body.

Born 12 years ago with many birth defects including only a left ear, Lilly has grown in her ability to move through the problems and look at her strengths. She has confidence in all she does. When asked by her doctor if other children had made fun of her because she only had one ear, she was strong in her comments that no one had. She was ready to have the surgeries which would help her look and function more like other children. Because of the talents of a dedicated doctor who followed in his father’s footsteps, our granddaughter has a very real, living right ear.

Sitting with my daughter Amanda and son-in-law Spencer as we waited during Lilly’s 12-hour surgery, I had time to reflect on my own stay at Primary Children’s Hospital during the early 1960s. My daughter knew none of the circumstances which made it necessary for me to spend 10 days in the old hospital in the avenues of Salt Lake City. She was amazed at the stories I told of being in an oxygen tent because of breathing problems, having antibiotic shots every 4 hours because I couldn’t swallow pills, and how nasty crushed penicillin and ginger ale taste. I went home to several months of bed rest and home schooling.

Why do I share these stories of myself and my family? If we are only looking for dates and numbers, we will miss the essence of who our ancestors were, and what makes us who we are today. We need to look beyond the census records and put flesh to what makes our ancestors real people. What amazing stories Lilly will have to tell about her life. If her descendants only look at the records of her life, they will miss the bravery and strengths which have served her well to this point. They will never know what she has endured in her young years and why she is the way that she is.

I think so often about my great-grandmother Anna Larson who left Sweden after joining the Church. She came to this country with two of her brothers, one who never joined the Church. She learned a new language and married a man many years older than herself, becoming his third wife. She only had two children, one of whom died before becoming an adult. She was determined to make a difference, which she did. I never knew this woman but I often think that Lilly must be very much like her: determined, strong, and ever-willing to try something new.

What will you talk about around the Thanksgiving table? Don’t just discuss what each family member is grateful for. Share stories that each family member has inside of them. Who were their favorite teachers in school and why? What funny things can you share about meeting their father/mother? What do they know about your grandparents? What can they share about your parents, their grandparents, that might be of interest to you as well? The sky is the limit as to what to talk about, just get started. Consider recording the discussion and then uploading to FamilySearch.

This year during November I hope that each of us will look around and see how we have been blessed. What can we pass on to our families that will continue the gratitude we feel today? How can we make a difference in the lives of both our ancestors and our descendants? How can we make this Thanksgiving the great day that it was intended to be? We can start with sharing what we know and feel about our families, present and gone, but not forgotten.