Best wishes to my readers for a Happy Thanksgiving. I was blessed to have a relaxing and enjoyable day with my extended family  locally. I have much to be thankful for, and after watching the story of the pilgrims who came on the Mayflower, according to a movie on The History Channel, we have come a long way in this country since their landing here in the year 1620 (though of course the Jamestown settlement in 1607 came first). The hardship the first settlers endured is staggering and especially for the pilgrims, it is amazing that one of the main reasons they endured that hardship was to avoid religious persecution in both England and the Netherlands.