Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

[Guest guest]

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, !!!  We are going to be at Disney

world also this next week and looking forward to it.  We will be going to Magic

Kingdom on Sunday and Epcot on Wednesday.  Any tips for making the best time for

two four year olds with special needs (autism and apraxia)?

 

Thanks, Dana

From: kiddietalk <kiddietalk@...>

Subject: [ ] Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Date: Thursday, November 27, 2008, 7:23 AM

We are off to have a Disney magical Thanksgiving (magic =I don't have

to cook!!) For those of your stressing about the Holidays -just

remember 'this too shall pass' For those of you that are looking

forward to the Holidays -take lots of photos and treasure the time

you get to spend with loved ones and friends -it shall pass and it

does far too quickly. In addition to being thankful for the big

things like the sounds of your child's voice for those of you hearing

it for the first time, be thankful for little things too...the warm

hugs, the delicious smells, having to tell your previous quiet child

to " keep it down " .

Here are two archived messages, both educational in their own right,

one a bit more kid friendly educational, I thought new people would

like to read and share today:

~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of giving thanks, having hope, and belief in the power of

one (parent)... no matter where you live in the world, let the

following story tell all of the above:

She Helped Give Us Thanksgiving

Why do we Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the fourth

Thursday of November? Abraham Lincoln declared it a holiday in his

famous Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863. But who put Lincoln up to

it?

The answer is pha Hale, arguably the most successful

midlife woman in American history.

In addition to moving President Lincoln to action, Hale was

the first to urge equal education for American girls. She was the

first to start day nurseries for working women, the first to suggest

public playgrounds, and the first editor of the first woman's

magazine in America.

Hale authored two dozen books and hundreds of poems, including the

best known nursery rhyme in the English language: " Had a Little

Lamb. "

And perhaps the most remarkable part is, she did it all after she

turned 40.

Widowed and penniless at 34, with five small children to raise, Hale

supported herself with sewing and poetry. Then, at 39, her first

novel, Northwood, was a huge success.

A year later a British publisher asked her to serve as the first

editor of The Ladies Magazine and the rest, as they say, is history.

Nine years later she moved to Godsey's Lady's Book in Philadelphia.

Here her editorial skills helped the publication become the largest

in America with a subscription list of 150,000 by the 1850s.

Hale continued to write and edit until she was 89. She died at

a robust 91.

" The Lady Editor, " as Hale was affectionately called, advocated a

national celebration of Thanksgiving as early as 1827. " We have too

few holidays, " she wrote in Northwood. " Thanksgiving like the Fourth

of July should be considered a national festival and observed by all

our people. "

To Hale Thanksgiving would be a therapeutic holiday. " There is

a deep moral influence in these periodical seasons of rejoicing, in

which whole communities participate. They bring out . . . the best

sympathies in our natures. "

Hale saw this spiritual dimension of Thanksgiving as a means for

preventing the insanity of civil war in America. This is why, as

hostilities heated up between North and South, she bombarded both

national and state officials with requests for the national holiday.

By 1863 when Lincoln issued his now famous Thanksgiving

Proclamation, Hale had penned literally thousands of these

letters in her own hand. " If every state would join in Union

Thanksgiving on the 24th of this month, would it not be a renewed

pledge of love and loyalty to the Constitution of the United

States? " Hale wrote in a 1859 editorial.

Of course, Hale was unable to avert those saddest years of

American history, but in 1863, as civil war ravished the land,

Abraham Lincoln did issue the proclamation Hale had spent nearly 40

years and thousands of letters to procure.

Speaking of America's blessings, even in its darkest hour, Lincoln

wrote, " No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand

worked out these things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most

High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath

nevertheless remembered us in mercy. "

And so Americans celebrate Thanksgiving together on the fourth

Thursday of November each year. And perhaps that celebration has

helped as much as anything to keep us from the insanity of fighting

against ourselves again..

If so, we have Lincoln's Most High God to thank for it, as well as a

spunky midlifer named pha Hale.

http://www.bestyear s.com/sarah_ hale.html

At a time where each year more and more in the US the stores, the

media, and the people have forgotten Hale, and seemed to have

forgotten not just the reason for Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving

itself ...I Hale remember and give thanks to you and all those

like you!

" had a little lamb

Its fleece was white as snow,

And everywhere that went

The lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day,

That was against the rule;

It made the children laugh and play

To see a lamb at school. "

~ pha Hale

And also let's give thanks for Mad Libs: That having fun with your

kids, and laughing hysterically - can also be (ssshhh!) educational!

A Thanksgiving For the Birds from National Geographic (they'll want

to do this again and again)

http://www.national geographic. com/ngkids/ games/wildandwac ky/wildandwacky_

0511/wildandwack y_0511.html

Have fun!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and your families!

=====