Thanksgiving Toast/Grace

Anyone else in charge of saying a toast/grace on Thanksgiving? I am atheist but come from a very Catholic family, so I want to say a nice grace but do not want to make it religious...Any ideas?

and yes i have considered bart simpson's grace "rubba dub dub, thanks for the grub", but i want to make it a little more meaningful. 

Original Post by alb2642:

Anyone else in charge of saying a toast/grace on Thanksgiving? I am atheist but come from a very Catholic family, so I want to say a nice grace but do not want to make it religious...Any ideas?

and yes i have considered bart simpson's grace "rubba dub dub, thanks for the grub", but i want to make it a little more meaningful. 

make it more a speech...of being thankful

"I would like to take this time to give thanks for the blessings in my life...during times in unrest like we are in today in America having a family to love and be with really does become more important... more lasting...

you get the point...

This has good ideas - I particularly like:

Let us enjoy good food and good drink,
And let us thank all whose efforts have set them before us;
Let us enjoy good companionship,
And let us each one be good company to the others;
Let us enjoy ourselves, without guilt,
But let us not forget that many are less fortunate.

"Here's to the heat. Not the heat that burns down shacks and shantys, but to the heat that brings down pants and panties!"

Although your family might not appreciate that one either....im no help :)

I'd say, "The measure of a man/woman is by the company he/she keeps. Well, I feel very rich and fulfilled because all of you are here with me. Thank you for being apart of my life and of this wonderful gathering today! Lets remember those who cannot be here today, and include them in our merryment! LET EAT!!!"

or something along those lines.

Isn't Thanksgiving just what it says... a time to be thankful about what we have?  Even if you aren't religous, I am sure you are thankful for the things and people you have in your life.  I think that type of "grace" at the table is so much more meaningful, because it comes from your heart.  Just make your toast/grace about the things that mean something to you.  You will be more than fine.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Try reading this poem by Billy Collins.

It's titled "As if to demonstrate an eclipse"

I usually say just the kind of grace you are looking for.  Hope this helps.  By the way, I just found out "grace" is from the same root as "gracias."  I guess I knew that but didn't really put it together.

I pick an orange from a wicker basket
and place it on the table
to represent the sun.
Then down at the other end
a blue and white marble
becomes the earth
and nearby I lay the little moon of an aspirin. I get a glass from a cabinet,
open a bottle of wine,
then I sit in a ladder-back chair,
a benevolent god presiding
over a miniature creation myth, and I begin to sing
a homemade canticle of thanks
for this perfect little arrangement,
for not making the earth too hot or cold
not making it spin too fast or slow so that the grove of orange trees
and the owl become possible,
not to mention the rolling wave,
the play of clouds, geese in flight,
and the Z of lightning on a dark lake. Then I fill my glass again
and give thanks for the trout,
the oak, and the yellow feather, singing the room full of shadows,
as sun and earth and moon
circle one another in their impeccable orbits
and I get more and more cockeyed with gratitude.

~ Billy Collins ~

I think that you've gotten several good suggestions.

Since your family is Catholic, you may want to start by saying, "Let's bow our heads ....."

Then say whatever you want to say about being thankful.

Then end with "Amen" (which will let THEM say Amen, and they will know you are finished.... and it gives them the chance to say that they agree with your sentiments.)

Just a suggestion, of course.....