Besides the cheesy, sour cream, garlic, parmesan potatoes (yes, that is all one dish) for Thanksgiving, there are a few other things I look forward too.

The sounds of cousins playing in the background, the juggling ingredients in the kitchen as my sister-in-law and I pass recipe cards to one another in anticipation for our Thanksgiving feast.

The frantic questions every year, “Did you forget to get the gizzards out of the turkey?”

“Did we turn the turkey the right way this year?” "Did anyone drop the turkey?"

(these have all happened)

I look forward to setting the table just right with cranberries and orange peels placed around the Turkey and just the right amount of stuffing spilling out. Colored napkins and candles lit on the table, and finally calling everyone to the table after we have taken all the appropriate pictures.

But the thing I look forward to the most is 3 little corn kernels.

The three little kernels that bring us laughter and always tears. You see it’s hard to be present during the holidays, we get so busy with the cooking, hosting, making sure the turkey doesn’t explode, or that politics doesn’t start a food fight, that we forget the whole THANKS and GIVING of Thanksgiving day.

So with three little kernels at the end of an exhausting, but so worth it day, when we have had our seconds and third helpings, and we have traded our cute skinny jeans for our favorite sweat pants, we pass the kernels around.

We give three corn kernels to each person. We pass a bowl around and everyone has the opportunity to say three things they are thankful for, dropping their kernels into the bowl and passing to the next person. At the end, usually with tears and laughter, we have a bowl of thankful kernels that help us remember how blessed we are.

Something so simple always brings tears, and thanksgiving, and special moments that we remember long after the leftovers have been eaten. They are words that stay with us the entire year.