T.H.A.N.K.S.

Well, well, well.....

Did anyone notice that Thanksgiving is right around the corner?

Are y'all prepared?

Where's the turkey? Who's making the potatoes?

Did someone already drink the wine?

Is someone picking Grandma up?

I'll tell you one thing: I could not be more excited to put on my sweatpants, crack open a box of wine (yes, I said box...), and settle into amazing laughs and the faint sound of Thanksgiving Day Football games.

The thought of how warm it feels to be surrounded by people you don't mind (and some that you love) is what the holidays are all about.

Whether you're eating a turkey, a Celebration Loaf, or Chinese food for Thanksgiving, we all have our own traditions and favorite things about this splendid American holiday.

There are many things you might not know about Thanksgiving.

Like, for instance, did you know that the first original Thanksgiving Day holiday was supposed to be a fast and not a feast? That is until the Wampanoag Indians joined them and turned the fast into a three day feast. Thank goodness for those guys, otherwise nobody would like Thanksgiving. Ha!

While we all might be used to the traditions that we practice every year, they definitely didn't all happen at once.

Preparing and eating turkey didn't even happen during the first celebration. (WHAT?!) Instead: venison, goose, duck, lobster, and other miscellaneous things were enjoyed alongside whole cranberries and whole pumpkins. Pumpkin pie didn't even come into the picture until as early as 1675 (54 years after the first Thanksgiving holiday).

A lot of things we value come straight from one of the most American holidays out there. TV Dinners were invented by Swanson after having 260 tons of leftover turkey after the holiday.

Can you believe that it wasn't even deemed a true national holiday until 200 years after the historic feast between Pilgrim's and Wampanoag Indians? All because the writer of the well-known jam "Mary Had a Little Lamb" wrote letters campaigning the holiday to President Lincoln for seventeen years. Now that's dedication.

In fact.... that's almost as much dedication as us candy maker's have, preparing for every single holiday, like 9 months in advance. At this point, we're so far into 2019 I have to stop myself from telling folks "Happy Easter!" on the regular. While y'all might be most excited to catch up with distant family members, here at the Candy Basket we cannot wait to have a day off!!

Yes, we love what we do. Yes, we love our customers. Yes, we enjoy the holidays. Have we been looking at chocolate turkeys since March? Yes. Have we been printing labels with orange and brown leaves on them since April? Yes. Have I thought about running away into the mountains and living with that fuzzy green guy everyone keeps talking about? Perhaps. Alas, that doesn't stop us from running around all year long and making it our family's priority to share the things that makes life pleasurable with you.

At the end of the day, the holiday's are what you make them. Follow old traditions, create new ones. Spend them alone or with loved ones. Eat turkey, eat a sandwich, eat a piece of pie, or five. The beauty of what we do is sharing what we like and taking a moment to reflect on the year past and what is to come.

Life is too dang short to not enjoy yourself. So make like a turkey and gobble your way to what you need. We'll be right there with ya, probably eating candy. ;)