#96 - Fast, Fun, and Faithful: Celebrating Thanksgiving

In this special Thanksgiving edition of Homeschool Unlocked, Monica and Jeronimo reflect on gratitude, family, and the rich history of Thanksgiving. Parents, do you ever feel like the holidays fly by in a blur, leaving you too exhausted to create meaningful family moments? This episode tackles the struggle of balancing the busyness of life with the desire to foster gratitude, faith, and deeper connections during the Thanksgiving season. It provides fast and easy ways to celebrate Thanksgiving meaningfully, even in the midst of a packed schedule.

https://1lnk.page/MonicaAviles

Transcript

Welcome to the Homeschool Unlocked podcast, the show that helps parents see homeschooling as a unique opportunity. So forget fear, you can inspire, you can guide your child. Homeschool Unlocked, it's not school, it's life.Hello Homeschool Unlocked family, I'm your host Monica. And I'm your host Jeronimo. Yes, and we're so glad that you're here.We're glad that you are spending this time, whether you're driving or folding laundry, or just sneaking in a moment for yourself. We wanna thank you for turning us on today. This podcast is all about helping you unlock the joy and the freedom that you have when you use homeschooling as a vehicle to build relationships with your children.We wanna inspire and encourage you to have the confidence to do that. Go ahead, grab your favorite cup of coffee or a cold drink, and let's get started on this special edition right before Thanksgiving 2024. If you're just joining us for the first time, we have six kids and we've homeschooled since the beginning.Now we understand that might not be everybody's story, but we think that whether you homeschool for a couple of months or for years, that it does allow for a unique opportunity to build relationships. And so you're gonna hear a little bit from our 17-year-old, sorry, she's 17, she's actually almost 18, and also our eight-year-old. Amen.And we're gonna talk to you a little bit about Thanksgiving on this special edition. Hey, Homeschool Unlocked family. My name is Mila and I am one of the Avila's kids, and I'm gonna tell you three things that I absolutely love about Thanksgiving.Now, my number one has to be my family. I love spending time with them, and I love how Thanksgiving just really makes you focus on the people around you and the community that you're surrounding yourself with. And for that reason, I will bring up my family so, so many times because I love them and they're definitely my favorite people ever.Now, my second thing is for sure sweet potato pie. I love it. I wait all year just so my mom can make it.I love watching her and I love telling people that I help her with it, even though I really don't. I just eat it. I love the marshmallows.I love the smell. It makes me so excited to eat on Thanksgiving day. And my third one is the extended friends and family that we surround ourself with during this time.Now, we usually go out and hang out with a family or two, and we really just get to connect with them even more and celebrate this time together. I am so, so thankful for my community and for sweet potato pie. And Mila, are there gonna be any munchkins this year at our celebration? No.Are you sure? No munchkins this year. Okay, I'm trying to get Mila to make her Glinda voice. Last week, she was Glinda the good witch in the Wizard of Oz.And she did a phenomenal job. She has the voice down. And so I was hoping she would not be muddled or anything, but maybe just give us a few lines.Why not? Alrighty, so I'll say one of my lines. I'll say, well, I'm a little muddled because I think that's a funny one. Well, I'm a little muddled.The munchkins called me because a new witch has just left the house on the Wicked Witch of the East. And there the house is. And here you are.And that's all that's left of the Wicked Witch of the East. What do you think about that, Geronimo? He's good. You did a great job.We love you. Love you guys. So in order to prepare for this episode, I asked Jeronimo, hey, Pop, what do you know about Thanksgiving? What do you already know about Thanksgiving? And he told me two things.So let's see if he says those same two things right now. My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is roasting the marshmallows. Yeah.Best part, best thing. Now, my second favorite thing is how I get to spend time with my family and I have a great day. Yep.And that's kind of along the lines of what he said the first time. The first time he says, it's a time where you eat turkey and you give thanks. To marshmallows and God, but mostly God.Yeah, yeah, yes. Yes, the marshmallows are totally not the center of the Thanksgiving celebration. We wanted to take some time and go back because as a mom of six children, there are things that I did with my older ones that I haven't done with the younger ones.Or maybe I haven't done, maybe because I was focusing on the older kids, I didn't really stop and ask the younger ones, hey, what did you get from that? What did you hear me say? What do you think about what we talked about? And so there are things that I've shared with the older ones that, although they may have forgotten already, the younger ones didn't really absorb. We went back and we spent some time looking at some videos today, right? We got some good videos, remember from where? From PragerU. We got some good PragerU videos and watched the videos and I had some information, some books, and we talked a little bit about Thanksgiving.So that's what we're gonna share with you today. So to start with, let's talk a little bit, Geronimo, about the Pilgrims. They were Puritans and they left Europe.But where were they living? What part of Europe were they living in before they sailed to what is now the United States? They were living in Holland. Do you remember that for real? Yeah, I mean, no. Well, now that I say it, do you remember it? And they did not leave because they were being persecuted.Some people think they were being persecuted, but actually they thought their kids would be getting too comfortable because they weren't being persecuted. So they moved into this, they sailed to this Indian place and they got shipwrecked there. And people thought they sold the village, but actually the people died because of a plague.And then they met the single best person to help them. He spoke English and he already understood Christianity. Okay, so yeah, let me clarify that a little bit.Excellent point. They were persecuted before. But then they moved to Holland.Yes, and when they were in Holland, they were there for, was it 10 years? Yeah, 10 years. And they were so comfortable, too comfortable for their kids, so they had to move. Yeah, so it brought up a good point, which is in order to help their kids not become seduced by all the comforts, they decided to leave Holland and sail to what is now the United States.And when they arrived, the village that they ended up in at first was actually abandoned because the natives who lived there- Had died because of a plague. Maybe smallpox. Yeah.And that first winter, was it a gentle winter? No, it was very harsh. And they, unexpected deaths happened, but then they met the Indians and they taught them how to survive in the winters. Yeah, the Wampanoag. Yeah, the Wampanoag and the most important chief in the land. Yeah, is Thanksgiving something that's celebrated all throughout the world? No, only in America, because this is, I think, the only place that this happened in the world. Yeah, it's a holiday that is, I'm not sure if there are other similar holidays in other places, but this is our national, this is our oldest national holiday because it's something that celebrates this special event.Occasion. Yeah, that happened in the United States. Well, what is now the United States.And so, what about, was there anybody who helped this become a national holiday? Do you remember the name of the lady who wrote, Mary Had a Little Lamb? Was her name, was her name Samantha Josiah Helga? Or was it Sarah Josepha Hale? First one. Nope, second one. And no one took, none of the presidents took it seriously, except for George Washington and the Civil War, and he made it an official day.Well, yeah, George Washington was our first president, and he did declare a day of Thanksgiving after the Revolutionary War, but Sarah Josepha Hale campaigned for 20 years, over 20 years, I think, to make Thanksgiving like a national holiday, and it wasn't George Washington. It was a different president. But she did publish and everything.I think it was. It was, who was president during and after the Civil War? Was it Eisenhower? Teddy Roosevelt. Roosevelt or Lincoln? Roosevelt.Nope. Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln.Yes, Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War, he declared Thanksgiving a national holiday and celebrated on the last Thursday of November, because gratitude, right? During that time, America was very divided, and gratitude is so powerful. Gratitude is stronger than even guilt.Gratitude is more powerful than anger. Yeah, and shame and anger. And so he said that the last Thursday was a time to build unity and declared this Thanksgiving time a national holiday, but it wasn't until later, and it was Franklin D. Roosevelt who signed legislation that made Thanksgiving permanent on the fourth Thursday of November, and it ended up then extending into a holiday shopping season later on during the Great Depression.So, anything else that you remember about Thanksgiving? I think I remember how Abraham Lincoln was actually one of the best presidents, because he made it happen, and without that, I don't think we would be like here today this happy. Okay, okay. Thanksgiving is very powerful.So, homeschool unlocked family, whether you keep it simple and maybe just put some craft paper on your dining room table so that people can write little things of Thanksgiving or draw pictures if they're not able to write yet. I mean, the younger ones, they can draw some pictures or you make like a little Thanksgiving jar. It's a great time to just thank God, read Psalm maybe 100 together and give thanks for this beautiful time.Celebrate the yummy dishes that you make because traditions are a great way to build memories, right? What's something that you remember from past Thanksgivings? Besides maybe the sweet potato kind of souffle pie thing that I make, anything else that you remember? The best pot is the turkey pot. The turkey. All right, whatever.And if you have a little one, give him the turkey. Five seconds, sleepy time. Yeah, turkey puts people to sleep.Very quickly. In my experience, it's very quickly. Okay.It's great for naps as well. Okay, all right. We're so thankful for you.So Jeronimo, why don't you close us out with prayer? God, thank you for sending your son down to die on the cross for us and he gave us the greatest present of all, salvation. And we bless you and we thank you and we want to worship you in all moments. And we love you because you first loved us.In Jesus' name, amen. Yes, thank you for loving us. In Jesus' name.Amen. Thank you for spending time with us today. Check out our link below and subscribe to our podcast.We hope that we helped you by unlocking a new way of seeing homeschooling. Who else needs to hear this? Only you know. So take action and share it because remember homeschool unlocked.It's not school, it's life.