Thanksgiving - many, many thanks Dad

It is hard to believe I just experienced my 36th Thanksgiving celebration. It is also now less than a month away from Christmas! This is by far my favorite time of year, but it goes so fast. Every year seems to get busier and the important events can get glossed over if we are not careful.
The last two hunting and holiday seasons have brought with them the usual excitement, anticipation, and fun. However, they have also reminded me of the greatest loss I have expereinced in my life.
I have been blessed with a wonderful family, including my parents and relatives, and my wife and kids. Family has always been very important and the holidays and celebrations over the years have had family at the center. I was introduced to hunting and the outdoors by my dad at a young age, and it usually involved my grandfather and other family members as well. We lost my grandfather when I was in high school and it was very tragic. Although he had been sick and was in his 80's, it still impacted me tremendously. I think seeing how it affected my dad hit me the most. Little did I know how this would come full circle way too soon.
Dad and I continued to experience all the great outdoors Arkansas had to offer for the years after my grandfather passed away. I saw his perspective change from judging the outing by how much game we took, to just getting out and enjoying every experience. It also started to focus on bringing up my son in the great outdoors and enjoying the time with him. I have been fortunate to be a part of some great properties over the years and they all had great fishing, even though they were either duck or deer hunting properties. Even though I am a casual fisherman, Dad's passion changed from hunting to fishing at some point. My son also enjoyed fishing more during those early years. This became especially significant years later.
We were all shocked in early 2006 to learn that Dad had Melanoma, a particularly nasty skin cancer that is hard to treat. We were also deeply troubled that the cancer had spread to most of his body. However, we were optimistic that he could pull out of this. If anyone could kick such a terrible disease and pull out of this seemingly impossible situation, it would be him. And he did start off with a bang! He had a great attitude and was determined to fight it with everything he had. He started chemo and even though he had already lost so much weight, he also turned his focus to nutrition and trying to gain back his weight and strength.
It was also during this time I had joined a new club that had some promising opportunities for fishing. We took the time to explore some of the best looking spots, eventually settling in on one we both thought would be the best. And boy did it! We were able to take several trips to this place and each trip provided a great experience, in both helping take our mind away from reality and a lot of fish.
Unfortunately, as any of you who have ever had an experience with this awful disease, the melanoma would not give up and his condition just worsened. From a diagnosis in February to losing the battle in June, Dad fought a short, but courageous battle.
My hope for you reading this is that you will do two things. 1) Take the time to enjoy whatever it is with those you love. I don't care if it is hunting, fishing, sports, or whatever. Just spend the time together. It also not necessary for it to be lengthy, elaborate trips. Most of my fondest memories with Dad are of our weekend or day trips. 2) Be thankful and give thanks. It is easy for me to focus on Dad not being here and all we are missing out on. However, I MUST be thankful of all that God allowed us to experience and the memories I have. God gave me enough to last the rest of my life!