Thanksgiving Thursday

November 26, 2020 - Not your usual Thanksgiving. But then again, what has been normal about this year.

Today my family will celebrate with just the four of us at our house. We'll call grandparents and other family. We'll play board games that haven't been touched in a while. We'll create new traditions.

Then we'll start decorating for Christmas - which also means holiday music. Something I love.

But where is the Thanksgiving music you ask...Aside from the Adam Sandler song (and maybe "Mashed Potatoes U.S.A." by James Brown).

Well, singer-songwriter Ben Rector has changed all that. Having recognized there's a whole genre of music around Christmas, Rector set out to find the "sound of Thanksgiving".

“What’s crazy is that there’s so much shared experience around Thanksgiving, and a huge pool of nostalgia for everyone around smells and memories that pop up," said Rector. "So it was just interesting to me that no one wanted to put that into a song."

I hope the song can bring warmth and comfort to you all during this still very difficult time. I miss so many of you that I haven't spoken to or seen in so long and no matter the distance, I'm thankful for your friendship and love.

And maybe next year, when we hope that it'll be safe to travel, safe to gather in big groups, we'll have even more reason to say, "Thank god for this Thanksgiving Day."