Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving Day?
We can trace this historic American Christian tradition to the year 1623. After the harvest crops were gathered in November 1623, Governor William Bradford of the 1620 Pilgrim Colony, "Plymouth Plantation" in Plymouth, Massachusetts proclaimed.This is the origin of our annual Thanksgiving Day celebration.

Congress of the United States has proclaimed National Days of Thanksgiving to Almighty God many times throughout the following years. On November 1, 1777, by order of Congress, the first National Thanksgiving Proclamation was proclaimed, and signed by Henry Laurens, President of Continental Congress. The third Thursday of December, 1777 was thus officially set aside.

Then again, on January 1, 1795, our first United States President, George Washington, wrote his famed National Thanksgiving Proclamation, in which he said, Thursday, the 19th day of February, 1795 was thus set aside by George Washington as a National Day of Thanksgiving.

Many years later, on October 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, by Act of Congress, an annual National Day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

In this Thanksgiving proclamation, our 16th President announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, by the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. So it is that on Thanksgiving Day each year, Americans give thanks to Almighty God for all His blessings and mercies toward us throughout the year.

I am thankful that God watched over me in all my years of life and kept me safe on the battlefields of war. If the Lord is willing, I will celebrate Thursday, November 25, with a Thanksgiving dinner that will be a Butterball Turkey with cornbread and sausage stuffing. This is the recipe that I will use.

Cornbread Stuffing With Sausage
Ingredients
1 pound ground sausage
2 cups chopped celery
2 large onions, chopped
5 cups crumbled cornbread
5 cups seasoned bread crumbs
2 3/4 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon sage

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Place sausage, celery and onions in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside.

In a large bowl combine sausage mixture with cornbread, bread crumbs, chicken broth, poultry seasoning and sage. Mix well and transfer to a 9x12 inch baking dish.

Bake, covered, for 45 minutes or until well set and cooked through. Yield 12 servings.

Tennessee Cornbread
1-1/2 cups white self-rising cornmeal
1/2 cup self-rising flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons melted shortening or bacon fat
3/4 cup buttermilk
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Grease an 8-inch iron skillet. Mix well all the ingredients together. Pour into the skillet. Bake for about 20 minutes or until brown on top.