We're having a white Thanksgiving!. Big, sparkly flakes of snow are flowing down and piling up as I write. (Can I believe a mere 10 days ago I plucked the last tomatoes from the vine?).
The pies and pilgrim hat cookies are done, but as there are still potatoes and sweet potatoes for 50 & 20 respectively to tackle in the morning before we trundle over the river and through the woods to a friend's house, I suppose I'd better wish you a Happy Thanksgiving now. The White House site has President Bush's Thanksgiving proclamation up, but this site has every Thanksgiving Proclamation ever issued by any President. (Before the official "Thanksgiving" holiday was created, Presidents used to call for national days of payer and thanksgiving more than once in a year; then the practice died out for a while, to be revived by Lincoln.)
My favorites are from Washington, Lincoln, Coolidge & Reagan (who just happen to be our greatest presidents, in that order, IMHO). Coolidge's after the death of President Harding is interesting. Tool around in the site and see what you find. You can tell who takes prayer seriously and who thinks of the proclamation as a formality, I think.
Here's a nice post at The Remedy on what Thomas Aquinas might say about Thanksgiving.
