A Thanksgiving Rooted in Gratitude, Truth & Community

Thanksgiving always carries a certain warmth, the smell of stuffing in the oven, kids’ laughter echoing through the house, the comforting ritual of gathering around the table. But this year, I’m feeling called to reimagine what giving thanks really means.

This Thanksgiving 2025, I want to celebrate differently with more honesty, more connection, and more awareness of the land and community that hold us. I’m inviting you to join me in seeing this season through a lens of truthful gratitude— one that honours not only our blessings, but also the deeper stories that make this land home.

Here in Albion and Maple Ridge, we gather on the unceded ancestral lands of the Katzie First Nation (q̓ic̓əy̓). And for my readers in Vancouver, we live and work on the lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

Wherever we are, from downtown Vancouver to the Ridge Meadows community, we share a responsibility to give thanks with both open hearts and open eyes.

🌾 Gratitude Beyond the Surface

As moms, we say “thank you” a hundred times a day for help with the dishes, for a hug from our little ones, for a rare quiet moment to sip coffee. But what if this Thanksgiving, we practiced gratitude not just as words, but as awareness?

True gratitude isn’t a checklist. It’s a way of seeing. It asks:

“How can I honour what I’ve been given, not just in words, but in how I live?”

That might mean giving back, buying local, supporting Indigenous artisans, spending time outdoors with our kids, or simply slowing down to notice the small miracles that fill our days. Gratitude, at its best, becomes an action — a rhythm we live by.

🪶 Honouring the Katzie, Musqueam, Squamish & Tsleil-Waututh First Nations

The Katzie people have lived and cared for this land for thousands of years. Their traditional territory spans Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, and parts of the Fraser River, where they’ve maintained a deep relationship with the rivers, forests, and salmon that sustain life here.

In Vancouver, the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations hold similar teachings — to live with reciprocity, to walk gently on the land, and to protect the water and sky for generations to come.

These lessons offer such powerful guidance for how we live today as parents, neighbours, and stewards of the future.

You can see Indigenous presence and creativity all around us, from the Albion Lookout public art piece by Katzie artist Rain Pierre at the Albion Community Centre, to stunning carvings, murals, and cultural events across Vancouver that remind us this land is very much alive with story and spirit.

So this Thanksgiving, let’s give thanks and respect; learning, listening, and supporting Indigenous voices and initiatives in our communities.

💛 What I’m Grateful For This Year

When I think about what fills my heart this season, it’s not things; it’s people, purpose and presence.

✨ My boys — Pierce, Bence, and Wilce  for showing me daily what it means to be kind, sensitive and strong. They are my greatest teachers.
✨ My family and friends, who remind me that love is the real currency of life.
✨ My work and this community, and you — for reading, sharing, and growing with me.
✨ My home in Canada, where I get to raise my boys surrounded by beauty, freedom, and possibility.
✨ My body, for its strength, resilience and the miracle of carrying and caring for three little souls.
✨ This season, which invites reflection, connection and togetherness.

Each of these blessings feels richer when I remember to slow down and truly see them. 

🍂 Ways to Celebrate Thanksgiving with Heart

Here are a few small, meaningful ways you can bring deeper gratitude and mindfulness into your Thanksgiving traditions wherever you are, from Vancouver to Maple Ridge:

1. Begin with a Land Acknowledgement

Start your gathering by recognizing the land you live on, whether it’s the Katzie First Nation in Maple Ridge or the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations in Vancouver. A simple statement shared around the table teaches our children that gratitude begins with awareness.

2. Share a Gratitude Round

Have everyone share one thing they’re thankful for and one small way they want to give back this year, whether to a person, community or the environment.

3. Cook with Local or Indigenous-Inspired Ingredients

Incorporate seasonal, local foods like root vegetables, cranberries, wild salmon (when responsibly sourced), or native berries. It’s a beautiful way to connect your meal to the land around you.

4. Support Indigenous and Local Makers

Shop intentionally this holiday season. Support Katzie-led projects, Indigenous-owned businesses, and local Vancouver makers who give back to community and the environment.

🌿 Gratitude in Everyday Moments

As moms, life rarely slows down. Between school drop-offs, work, meals and bedtime stories, it can feel like gratitude is one more thing to check off. But maybe this Thanksgiving we remind ourselves that gratitude doesn’t need to be grand it just needs to be noticed.

Gratitude is the quiet inhale before the chaos.
The moment your child slips their hand into yours.
The body that shows up for you every single day.

Living gratefully doesn’t mean everything is perfect, it means we’re present enough to notice the beauty woven through the imperfection.

✨ From Thanksgiving to Thanks-Living

This year, as you gather around your table, may your gratitude stretch beyond the walls of your home; out into your neighbourhood, into the forests and rivers, and toward the people whose stories came before ours.

May your Thanksgiving be a day of reflection, of giving thanks and giving back.

And may you, as a mom, a woman, and a human being, feel proud of the life you’re creating; one that’s grounded, beautiful, and full of heart.

With love and gratitude,

 

 

 

 

 

Photography by Kindred Photography