When you're at the Thanksgiving table, do you all go around the table and talk about what you're actually thankful for? If so, what are you thankful for?

We don’t do it at my house, but sometimes we do it when we have dinner at other people’s houses.

At this moment I feel thankful I’m not severely disabled or dead yet. I just found out a friend had a heart attack, and another gentleman I met at the hotel had a small stroke. They are both in their early 50’s. I have been feeling like I have put my body and mind through too much stress and bad diet the last few years and that it must be affecting my health. I’m afraid a bad event could be likely.

I’m also thankful to have warm shelter whether it be in FL or OH.

I guess I’m dwelling on the bottom rungs of Maslow’s hierarchy right now. Grateful for the basics.

Grateful to have come through a rough few years happier and more together than ever. Grateful for my wonderful sons and the relationships we have re-established with each other as adults. Grateful for excellent health. Grateful for my wonderful friends – both old and new, online and in real life. Grateful for being financially secure and realizing that I have the ability to manage money and run a household on my own. Grateful that Paris didn’t affect my own.

And grateful for having known Gail.

We’re not a very openly emotional family. The one time we tried doing that it was really uncomfortable and awkward.

Yes.

I am very thankful for family, my wonderful husband, and my friendships which have endured years and distance.

@CunningFox: What are you thankful for?

Yes, my daughter insists on it.

It’s certainly uncomfortable for some family members who don’t do feelings, as it were — but we do it anyway.

I’m perpetually thankful for my wife and daughter, but I always try to say something specific that is of the moment.

We started this same tradition years ago and I am always thankful for the health of everyone and celebrate the little victories that happened the past year.

It depends on the get together. Yes, with family in the past, with some friends and certain family in the present. Other times no.
I’m thankful this year that I have survived a really rough few years and while far from perfect I am thankful that I am resilient, adaptable and that I keep on keepin’ on.

@jca Even though we don’t do that whole thing, I still do think about what I’m thankful every thanksgiving and I’m sure my family all does the same, we just keep it to ourselves.
I’m thankful for my sisters, my parents, my dog, the nice house I live in and that we have a big backyard with forests to explore. I’m also thankful for my teachers and the education that is available to me. Thankful that I get to experience life and I have a long road ahead of me.

I’m grateful for life. It was a few years ago I tried to end it, so I know gratitude.

Yes we do, and this year we have so much to acknowledge, from a new grandchild to surviving heart surgery!

We don’t do Thanksgiving, so no – but if we did, I would mention the fact that I feel safe in my part of the world. I’m thankful that my government is, so far, acting more humanely than I would have expected them to in the refugee crisis. I’m thankful that my little sister is much happier than she used to be, and that my best friends and I have repaired our relationships. Lastly, I’m thankful for the fact that my new independence as a dog trainer does not scare me anymore. I am also perpetually grateful for my family, my friends, my dogs, books, music, solitude and chocolate.

No. We just talk and laugh This was at the Thanksgiving Table about 6 years ago. The story was, as usual, at Chris’ expense. He laughs harder than anyone at his Stupid Chris Stories!

We never actually got up and said specifically what we were thankful for, but it was obvious that we were very happy and thankful to be together. Every once in a while one of us would stand, impelled to give a toast to express a warm thankfulness that we were together. Mostly it was constant cross chatter and laughing—and an implied truce over our small disputes enforced by our matriarch, our mother. She also ensured that any new girlfriend or boyfriend or new spouse was never left on the sidelines and brought up to speed. She would always insist the new ones would have the seats next to her at the head of the table so she could fill them in on backstory and color whenever the new one looked lost as to the many concurrent conversations. These family celebrations were held in the home that we spent our last ten years in together before we all individually struck out on our own into the world.

Now, years after our parents passed away and the home place was sold long ago, and as we dwindle in numbers and are strewn far and wide, these family celebrations are cherished memories that we re-live in phone calls and emails on the holidays. Good times. Really good times.