Thanksgiving ~ What does it mean to you?

I love Thanksgiving. I love everything about this holiday. There are no gifts to purchase, there is no annoying “Thanksgiving music” to listen to, I get to spend quality time with my family, and I get to watch football and hockey all day while stuffing my face with a steady supply of turkey, dressing, and pumpkin pie. But as time goes on, I find that there is more to Thanksgiving, so very much more.

Like all children, when I was a kid, the idea of truly being thankful for something was an abstract concept. I didn’t have enough life experience to realize how truly fortunate I was to grow up in a suburb of Orange County, nor how hard my parents had worked to provide me with such a wonderful childhood. It seems that I, like many kids, often took for granted the very things that were most deserving of my gratitude.

But now, Thanksgiving is something different. I have more life experience than I care to admit, and I have been fortunate enough to have married into a large, extended family that truly knows how to celebrate this holiday appropriately.

“Two kinds of gratitude: the sudden kind we feel for what we take; and the larger kind we feel for what we give.” ~Edwin Arlington Robinson

Our Thanksgiving celebrations are big. Really big. We never have fewer than 20 people at the house, covering at least three generations. My wife’s uncle is Rev. Donn Moomaw, President Reagan’s former pastor. Along with football and hockey on the big screen, our family tradition involves Donn leading us in a short prayer of thanks, and then, during our Thanksgiving feast, each of us—if we wish—express what it is we are thankful for. Afterwards, we settle in for the time-honored talent show; where the kids play instruments, sing songs, recite poetry, or just tell a few corny jokes.

Our Thanksgiving celebrations have evolved into wonderful, if not exhausting, gatherings of family and friends. However, as I become more “chronologically advanced,” as I read of the losses of our young men and women overseas, as I witness the growth of my children and find myself ever more concerned for their future, Thanksgiving becomes more meaningful for me, a holiday with a palpable effect. I suppose with age and experience, comes a deeper appreciation. An appreciation of all we have, and a recognition that the true purpose of Thanksgiving is something that should be celebrated every day of the year.

So, with all due respect to football, hockey, turkey and pumpkin pie, please allow me to say that I am so very, very thankful:

• For Julie, my wonderful, intelligent, gorgeous angel of a wife.
• For Morgan, my beautiful daughter, college student, and massage therapist to the masses.
• For Christian, my talented son, future Steven Spielberg, and guarantor of my financial future.
• For Brady, my brilliant, guitar strumming, banjo pickin’, saxophone playing son.
• For my wonderful, caring Mom.
• For my brother, and all the associated family clans; the Hunters, the Bjorklunds and the Moomaws.
• For my job, as I am fully aware of how many people unfortunately don’t have one.
• For Trabuco Presbyterian Church.
• For the beautiful view of RSM as I drive over the hill on Alicia Parkway.
• For the Police and emergency personnel who help keep our city among the safest in the country.
• For the countless volunteers who work with our youth in scouting, sports organizations, school plays, band, etc., with no pay, few thanks, and for no other reason than to serve this community.
• For all those kids I coached for all those years. All that time I thought I was teaching them, when all along they were teaching me.
• For the good souls at the Bell Tower Foundation.
• For football. ‘Nuff said.
• For kind, compassionate people.
• For my neighbor’s Beagle, Ginger, who no longer howls as much as she used to.
• For the Angels. Not the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, just the Angels.
• For all the wonderful ZeroTrash volunteers.
• For my sweet, full figured pugs, Bailey and Bella.
• For all the wonderful people who worked so hard for me over the past four months.
• For those brave souls, including some I have coached, who serve and protect our country.
• For all my friends and neighbors, old and new.
• For my fellow members and friends on the Rancho Santa Margarita City Council.
• For our city staff, who don’t get the appreciation and thanks that they so richly deserve.
• For my health, my home and the love of my family.

“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”
~Willie Nelson

So, tell me, please. In these complicated and uncertain times, what are you thankful for?

Mr. McGirr serves as the Mayor Pro Tem for the city of Rancho Santa Margarita. He resides in RSM with his wife, Julie, and their three children.