We are thankful for...

The turkey has been cooked, eaten, and put away for leftovers. Bread was baked, stuffing stuffed, potatoes mashed, squash roasted, onions creamed, pies pecaned and appled and pumpkined. Wine was uncorked, and cider was drunk, and stories were told and laughs were laughed. And then dishes were done, and polished silver was put away for another festive meal, and serving dishes were tucked carefully back into the cabinets until company comes the next time, and linens that so recently were freshly pressed were balled up at the bottom of the stairs, ready to go upstairs to be laundered anew.

We were all thankful for each other, and the meal and the privilege we share to live in a place of abundance, peace and prosperity, a point driven home by events in Darfur, and more recently by events in Mumbai.

We also picked up a stray (one of Tasha's associates at work), which we seem to do with regularity each Thanksgiving, and she fit right in. It made me happy that we could be that kind of family, the one who always has room for one more at the table. It was the way my mother's table was when she was alive, and I think she would have been proud of us today.

I missed her a great deal today. Still, I am thankful for the example that she and my father showed me. It seems to have stood me in good stead all these years later.