After surviving the yearly ritual or perils of trick or treating I look forward to the beginning of the real holiday season - Thanksgiving and Christmas. I like Thanksgiving because it’s a time to relax with friends and relatives, reflect on the previous months of the year, and pig out on turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie.

While most people think of this holiday strictly through their stomach, Thanksgiving has a great history associated with it. There are lessons that should be taught to children each year before you sit down and eat. I know several families that have developed their own traditions around this meal. Some dress up in costume and read stories to their kids. One family uses nothing but colonial recipes in their cooking. I use to make home made soap, brew tea from Sweetfern or New Jersey Tea that I gathered in the Fall from the Pine Bush, and made Acorn muffins using an old Iroquois recipe.

If you would like to make this Thanksgiving a bit more interesting and educational,the following Web sites will explain the real meaning and history behind the holiday. It seems holidays have grown into nothing but cash cows for retailers. Thanksgiving has a great story and message about cooperation and kindness, but I also include sites that give great recipes, fun things for the kids to do, and other resources to celebrate this holiday.

This Good Housekeeping site contains dozens of great recipes from Brussels Sprouts with Bacon to Wild Rice Stuffing. Also here is all you need to know about how to cook a good tender Turkey.

This is a great site for kids to learn about the original Thanksgiving in America. Kids can find here:

*The Mayflower Compact of 1620 in original verse and modern (along with the names of the signers)

*The Peace Treaty with Massasoit in 1621 (with an etching of the ceremony), one of the few treaties to ever work. Massasoit, or "yellow feather,2 was a chief of the Wampanoag tribe. The peace treaty which Massasoit and the Pilgrims signed on March 22, 1621 was never broken.

*The First Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1676. On June 20, 1676, the governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts proclaimed June 29 as a day of thanksgiving. While the Pilgrim feast is considered the first, this is the first official governmental proclamation.

*The 1782 Continental Congress Thanksgiving Proclamation (with a photocopy of the original document). It was this proclamation that made the 28th of November the day of thanks.

*George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation. Lost for over 100 years, this is the first presidential proclamation made in the new United States.

*Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation. This proclamation had special meaning since it was being made In the middle of the Civil War.

This web site also has recipes, games, songs, poems, and even coloring pages all related to this holiday.

How much do you know about Thanksgiving. This site has a short seven question quiz that will try your knowledge. It also has the story of Thanksgiving.

Here is a site for the more serious historian interested in the Pilgrims. This site contains the passenger lists with history and genealogy of each passenger of the Mayflower, 1620, Fortune, 1621, and Anne, 1623 (you did know there were three trips right?).

Besides having the history of the Mayflower, there is information about the crew, size of the ship, and info about the trip and inventory onboard. There even is an email directory of Mayflower descendants and information about scholarships for Mayflower descendants.

You can also find all kinds of Mayflower documents, passenger wills, full texts of pilgrim writings, books, letters and journals written by the Pilgrims. You can also find historical information such as how many girls and women were onboard, myths, dealings with the Native Americans, historical info from Plymouth Plantation Museum, various mayflower lists other than passengers, genealogy research links, and other museums relating to the pilgrims, lineage societies, and even commercial products like t-shirts.

This is a pretty complete site if you are looking for any kind of information on the Pilgrims.

Ever wondered what the weather was like for the first Thanksgiving? Well check it out here. If the weather had been better, the first turkey would have been eaten in New York City!

If it wasn’t for the kindness of the Wampanoag Indians, the story of Thanksgiving would be a bit different. It’s their story as well and you can learn all about this tribe here.

This site is for the kids. It has a Thanksgiving puzzle, craft page, and other fun things to do and create.

You can readh don at drittner@aol.com or 251 River St.