Here in the United States, we get to have what I think of as "a triple" as far as autumn holidays go. Here in our home it ends up being "a quad" of autumn holidays starting with my birthday on September 29th. With the passage of my birthday, I enter my favorite time of year because there's a holiday for each of the next 3 months. October has Halloween. November has the American holiday of Thanksgiving. Then December has Christmas.
As long as I can remember, I've enjoyed milking each month's holiday for all it's worth. I don't like to look forward to Christmas until Thanksgiving is over because it's been more fun for me to focus on Thanksgiving as a wonderful holiday in it's own right. I think I was in kindergarten when I was introduced to colored popcorn, cornucopias spilling out fruit, gorgeous ears of dried Indian corn, and pilgrim hats made of construction paper. The russet tones of autumn were a treat for my eyes then as they are now. So many rich colors to enjoy.
As the world of retail has continually pushed aside Thanksgiving in order to fill the store shelves with Christmas merchandise, they've also taken to playing Christmas music earlier and earlier. I try my best to ignore it and turn my attention to the annual store displays full of roasting pans, jars of marshmallow cream, cans of cranberries, and canisters of wonderful spices that mean its autumn. I've always been a huge fan of the whole aspect of baking for the Thanksgiving holiday. Mind you, I rarely do it myself, but the idea of it makes me all giddy inside. It brings back memories of how my mother would start baking around on the Monday of Thanksgiving week (Thanksgiving is always the last Thursday of November). I knew when I came home from school that there would be wonderful aromas meeting me as I opened the front door. It was so exciting to think about.
In this spirit, I set up a Thanksgiving still life and photographed it and then brought it into Photoshop to transform it into the "painting" I was seeing in my head. American Thanksgiving is November 27th this year--only a week and half away. I created this as a desktop image for myself so I could decorate my computer, and I'm sharing it (for free) with anyone who wishes to download it from my Flickr photostream. Click here to go directly to it.
Cindy, this photo is just incredible! Lots of random thoughts--1) I was born Sep 27th so I feel the way you do about the whole last third of the year. I hate the way Thanksgiving is getting lost between Halloween and Christmas. It's disgraceful! Growing up, no Christmas music was allowed to be played in our home before Thanksgiving evening because my dad thought it diluted its effectiveness. We associate certain feelings with music and if you listen to Christmas music in July, you are going to associate it with swimming pools and sunshine, etc. We do the same at our house. I am probably being dumb not to know this--but do you sell calendars of your work? Are you doing to do a 2009 one? This would be such a great November photo (I am partial to it partly because it has pink in it). Anyway, I would want to buy that calendar if such a one existed. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWell said! I love Thanksgiving. And I do cook the whole big meal! Your photo is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Penny
Lovely post Cindy. I love Thanksgiving. I love everything about it, but mostly, I love having a season of gratitude to remember my blessings. Gorgeous print too. A perfect reminder of the season.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Cindy! In Canada we celebrate in early October, perhaps because the harvest comes in earlier? I'm not sure why. Anyway, have a wonderful holiday :)
ReplyDeleteLovely! I like decorating my computer too. Right now it has the picture of my jack o'lantern that says "Welcome Infidels." Makes me happy every time I see it!
ReplyDeleteWow, that is really beautiful. Your photoshop talents are enviable! I love Thanksgiving too, somehow it's got a bad rap the last bunch of years cause of the politics of the past. It's truly a day of thanks, what could be more important?
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful. You did a wonderful job of 'shopping this to look like a painting. It now resides on my desktop!
ReplyDeleteLove you,
YLA
I agree with you- I like to savor each holiday for its own unique merits. I don't want to see Christmas decorations until the day after Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteSo classically beautiful, Cindy! I love Thanksgiving, too. It just means family, love, togetherness, and happy times to me. This year, we are going to our younger daughter's house!
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving next week, Cindy! You are doing some cool things with photoshop!
ReplyDeleteCindy, that pictures is beautiful. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I won't even think about Christmas until after next weekend.
ReplyDeleteI did check it out. It is quite beautiful! I am not talented with Photoshop myself. When I was 17 I had my first child, a daughter, on Thanksgiving Day. I had a C-section, so always said I was the turkey that got carved that year!
ReplyDeleteBrenda
LOL @ Brenda!
ReplyDeleteLOL! Oh that's too funny, Brenda! I can relate with holiday connected surgeries... I had what I affectionately call a "Halloween Hysterectomy". When I came out of surgery Hubby saw me and said I was really pale. I said back, "Well, I decided to dress up as a ghost for Halloween."
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! Here in the UK we have Bonfire Night on the 5th of November to celebrate the foiled plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament. In this part of England the older ladies spoke of Mischief Night on the 30th October but these days most children just go Trick or Treating American style on the 31st.
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