Happy Thanksgiving

    Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for several reasons.

I've always enjoyed the holiday as it's a secular holiday and anyone can find a reason to give thanks in their life.

Add in turkey ( a personal favorite), football (although the NFL games seem to be selected each year for me not to be interested), and the classic Peanuts cartoon dating back to the 70s and it's tough to beat Thanksgiving.

Still, it's tough to offer too many thanks for 2020 in a year that arguably can stake a claim to the worst year in the history of our country.

We have (had) a divisive President and the canyon between his fans and the people that dislike him so, the country is in a position of uproar that I've never seen and perhaps only compares to a few times in the nation's history, a pandemic that is as divisive as it is deadly, people that want to see each other often cannot, the destruction of several traditions in sports, and finally for me personally, this is the first Thanksgiving without my mom.

Mom passed away a week before Christmas last year and even though it was still raw in everyone's mind, Christmas was still without her.

That means this is the final milestone that is "the first" without her and that means we have reached the point that after this, we've been here before.

I'll be honest, I've never spent a lot of holidays with my parents.

They asked, but like my father, I prefer to stay at home and I work most holidays and that's before you add outside influences on the situation.

Still, I did usually visit over the holiday season (including Christmas as a separate visit) and I was around enough to feel part of the family.

2020 has been an awful year, but I'm hopeful for improvement in 2021 and perhaps as Warren G.Harding once said "a return to normalcy" for 2022.

Enjoy the holiday!