It is now "The Holiday Season" with Thanksgiving coming on the 28th. The word Thanksgiving is self-defining "giving thanks" but thanks for what and to who? The first "official " Thanksgiving is dated 1621 about a year after the Mayflower Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts. This Thanksgiving lasted about 3 days celebrating their first harvest and survival. However, there were many similar celebrations in the late 1500s and earlier 1600s up and down the east coast for basically the same reasons of landing safely from a long voyage and surviving the harsh environment.

Since most of the early immigrants came here for some form of religious freedom they already had strong beliefs in "The Almighty God". As such their Thanksgiving was giving thanks to God for "all they had". These celebrations lasted on and off through the years and during the Revolutionary War Congress (who believed in God) appointed one or more Thanksgiving Days a year. The Continental-Confederation Congress, the legislative body that governed the United States from 1774 to 1789, issued several "national days of prayer, humiliation, and thanksgiving", a practice that was continued by presidents Washington and Adams under the Constitution. Yes God was that important to them. During president Jefferson's days Thanksgiving kind of fell off a bit with no official Thanksgiving Proclamations until president James Madison after the War of 1812. Then Abraham Lincoln declared a national Thanksgiving Day as the last Thursday in November of 1863. In the middle of the Civil War the Secretary of State William H Seaward wrote a document concerning giving thanks to God that I would strongly suggest reading. The following is quoted from the first line, "The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God." (Wikipedia, Thanksgiving [United States])

We had another great experience at the Trainfest Show in Milwaukee, WI. There are train shows all over the country and many different sizes, styles, formats, and every level of model railroading imaginable. There are shows that are orientated mostly toward kids and getting kids involved with model railroading. Trainfest, has special programs just for kids and families. Even families that are not into model railroading come to the larger shows just for the entertainment and the kids love it. We really like this show for many reasons. We hope to see you at one of our shows we attend, so you can have your questions answered in person and get to know our products better.