Well I'm getting ready, ya'll, I'm out there every morning, jogging, lifting weights, doing all the cardio I can stand, cause I'm going to be ready.

 Ya'll, really don't believe that, do you? It's a nice thought though. But I am getting ready, cause next week is Thanksgiving.  

Yep, next week is the official beginning of the holiday season, and let me be the first to say “Merry Christmas” to you, and I did say “MERRY CHRISTMAS” and I didn't stutter either.

 Yep, next week is Thanksgiving, turkey, dressing and the whole nine yards. That's what's gonna be happening around the Bruce household. Though to be honest, I don't eat like I used to. I don't get over it quite as easily.

Back when I was young, I use to hit it hard. Then all of us would head out side and play football, and before you know it that big meal would be run off. Now, like most of us, I hit the chair, and be miserable the rest of the day. It ain't worth it, like it used to be.

Next Thursday, I cook turkeys. Now Mel, she'll buy them, plus gather the other couple for some relatives I wind up cooking for. She'll clean them, sauce them, pan them up, then bring them out to me.

 Me, I'll pour the grease in the cooker, then plug it up, and wait till it heats up. Then, after I pull them out, her and the girls will cut up the turkeys “I cooked.”  After all, ya'll, somebody's got to get the credit.

I look forward to this every year, getting out there, just me and the radio, it's always tuned to a Christmas station, kinda getting me in the mood for the coming season.

 If Mel and the girls aren't in and out, somebody always stops by. Or calls, “You out there on the porch?” And every now and then I call some folks I hadn't talked to in a while, kinfolk and friends, just to catch up.

I don't know how to explain it, other than to say it's sorta a calming and reflective kind of day.

And as I sit out there, I'll sit back and think about all that's happened through the year.

To say the least, it has been  interesting. To say the most, we have been blessed.

 This year has been filled with losses for us, but with the losses, it's made our family stronger than ever.  It's funny how life does that.

 It started with us losing several of our friends at church, and I mean several. Then Joel's wife got sick, and in the same couple weeks, we lost Momma.

 But if there was ever one thing my Momma and Daddy ever had, that was there faith, and they passed that along to us, and through that faith we always knew that God would provide.

 It might not be what we wanted, or how we wanted, but it would be what we needed. And that's what He did.

Joel's wife got better, and we made it through Momma’s death, even though it was tough. And each day, it's a challenge.

A month or so ago, a lady who is almost as dear to my heart as Momma is, (I don't say was, that's like saying, when she left, my love for her left), came down with a diagnosis, that stunned us to the core.

But by faith and the help of modern medicine, she's coming back strong too.

 And that's what Thanksgiving really is all about.

 Though it's seems with all the historical revisions going around now we somehow have let the so called “intellectuals” tell us that’s not how it was.

 The Pilgrims, they came here for religious freedom, period.  And it was rough as a cob.

If you don't understand that one, ask your Granddaddy. The first year, they almost didn't make it, a lot of them didn't.

 Seems like they didn't get here till fall. Folks down here in the South, it might not have been that bad, but up North, it snows in October. But with their faith, and the help of some local Native Americans, they made it through that first winter.

And that takes some faith, ya'll, when everything in the world seems to be against you, and you keep on keeping on, when every bone in your body is screaming at you to give up.

 But in your heart of hearts, you know your doing what your supposed to be doing, and if you keep at it, He'll help you find a way to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

And that's what they did. And when that goal had been reached, they came together, to say thank you.

 And so they held a feast, with the bounty that this new world had brought forth to them, called together all their friends and family, and thanked God for all the blessings He had given them.

Isn't that what Thanksgiving is really all about, or have we just turned it in to a buffet before the football game?

Robbin  Bruce is an Andrews resident. He may be reached via e-mail at robbinbruce@yahoo.com, or by letter in care of this newspaper, P.O. Box 2778, Georgetown, S.C, 29442.