why are we thankful

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. This is a day where everyone celebrates...well, what is it that we celebrate? Why have we been celebrating Thanksgiving since FDR declared it a national holiday in 1941. But what are we, as Americans, thankful for? We are thankful for the families that we celebrate with, the excessive surplus of food that stresses the legs of the table, the heated houses that shield us from the cold late november flurries, the military that is risking their own well being across the world to ensure our well being domestically, the government that as much as we complain about it, serves us well and is unparalleled worldwide, the football game that comes on every year, the win that the Lions got for the first time in 10 years, and the overall happiness that all of these elements combined give to us. We, as Americans, are THE luckiest people on the earth. We enjoy arguably the highest standard of living in the world, yet we take this for granted. We don't always appreciate why he have all of these luxuries that the rest of the world longs for, we just expect it because its all we know. We need to understand that this country started from a couple ships full of colonists who had faith in the New World, and through generations of hard work and self dependence, this great country became what it is today.