Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you enjoy the only holiday centered entirely on gluttony. Halloween might be close, but you have the whole costume thing, and then Halloween isn’t followed up by Black Friday (which could probably make a case for being more a more gluttonous holiday than Thanksgiving).

This year, I’m thankful for the following things:

1. My job. It’s not that I’m in danger of losing my job or anything, but the many examples right now of how hard the economy is serve as a contrast between being able to go to Paris with my family. Even simple things, like buying organic, would be difficult with a lesser paying job, to say nothing of no job whatsoever. So I am thankful that Sara and I can provide, and provide well, for our family.
2. My wife. Parenting is as difficult of a job as I can ever imagine. It’s one I wouldn’t want to tackle without a partner. Sara continues to challenge me (and certainly there are times I find her challenging, har har) to be a better, healthier, more complete person. Whether it is eating more naturally, consuming less sodium, getting more exercise, flossing my teeth, or impacting the environment less, she keeps my natural laziness and apathy from preventing me from being a good person.
3. My happiness. Even though parenting two children can be quite un-happy at times (especially at about 4:30 a.m. and again at about 6:30 a.m., plus any time of the day that Evie chooses to make difficult), it has a way of evening things out. All of the rough parts can be wiped out pretty quick by getting a phone call from Evie or a big smile or a laugh from Oliver. Nobody can welcome you home like your kids, and nothing beats opening the door to “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy’s home!” being screamed as loud as possible. Add in too many hobbies to keep track of (micro-managing my blog, playing guitar, fantasy football, my stack of magazines I can’t keep up with, etc.) and I really don’t have enough time in the day for all the good things.
4. My country. This one is a little ironic, because most of the time recently I’ve been hating my country. But then I realized that was politicians I hated, and politics in general. The things I’m thankful for include the freedom to do what I want and the highest standard of living money can buy. Everything I like in the world is underpinned by having opportunities made possible by living in this country. Freedom, access to technology, knowing my kids are going to be (more or less) alright. There are a lot of things I don’t have to worry about, like war or famine, and that opens up time for me to do other things. Like watch football. The fact that we can even debate things like healthcare are a pretty good sign that our lives are going alright. We probably take this for granted too often.
5. My safety. Another year with no zombie apocalypse folks. That’s one more year to prepare for the inevitable onslaught…