Thanksgiving was exactly one week ago today. Like many of you our family celebrated with traditional activities. The Macy’s parade, football, and overeating remain customary markers of the holiday.

We sat down to a traditional meal and offered a rather perfunctory grace before gorging ourselves on turkey and all the trimmings. When the meal was finished, the kitchen cleaned, and the dishes washed the holiday was pretty much over and shoppers turned their attention to Black Friday bargains.

On Saturday afternoon our daughter and son-in-law needed to run an errand and left Grandma and Papa to watch the granddaughters. There are worse jobs in the world than spending a couple of hours laughing and playing with grandchildren.

The girls wanted to use Jenga blocks as dominoes and we spent two delightful hours building towers and walls and then knocking them down. I know it sounds silly, but the laughter was beautiful.

My reflection of this Thanksgiving is the sound of little girls’ laughter. Adults often laugh with the inhibition of age and “what will people think?” Little girls laugh with the pure joy and abandon of youth.

This serves as a reminder of what we know, but often forget. Thankfulness is not found in a parade or a football game, or even a delightful meal. Thankfulness is an attitude of the heart.