On this Thanksgiving Day, we send good wishes to all – and set the record straight!

Every good Floridian, transplanted or not, knows that the first Thanksgiving in America was celebrated in St. Augustine more than half a century before the Pilgrims got together with the Wampanoags in Plymouth, MA, in 1621. The Spanish explorer, Don Pedro Menendez, claimed Florida for his country and his colonists broke bread with the local Timucuas. Father Francisco Lopez offered a Catholic Mass of thanksgiving. The picture above is an old post card that depicts the event.

Of course, it was the Pilgrims who got all the attention and so everybody (except real Floridians) celebrates the holiday with those colonists in mind instead. That mistaken, johnny-come-lately notion was helped along, of course by paintings like the one below by the American artist Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, who is best known for his series of paintings depicting important events in American history, and for being the nephew of the famed Hudson River School artist Thomas Moran.

Despite the popularity of Jean Leon's paintings, historians say he didn't always get his facts straight. In the case of the painting below, called The First Thanksgiving (1915), critics say the Wampanoags wouldn't have been sitting on the ground, nor would they have dressed like western Indians and worn feathered war headdresses. Furthermore, the Pilgrims wouldn't have worn those black outfits.

This time of year often brings a new Hallmark Channel-worthy commercial from Publix. The supermarket chain has one running now that warms the heart as a family prepares Thanksgiving dinner then sits down to enjoy it. At the end, Grandpa clears the table as Grandma reads to her little granddaughter. Awww!

It's sweet but our favorite Publix commercial was one from a few years back. Maybe you remember it. If not, it's below. And, yes, we realize that it stars those cute little Pilgrim salt and pepper shakers everybody used to put out on the table at Thanksgiving. Oh, well. Our Thanksgiving will not be diminished, despite knowing that most of the country has it wrong. No matter how you celebrate it, we hope you have a most wonderful Thanksgiving Day with friends and family.