As we prepare our homes for family and friends this Thanksgiving Holiday, I’d like to take this moment to recall the things and people in my life for which I am grateful.

I am thankful for a busy year! Planning events for family, classmates and Rotary have been an exercise in staying calm and organized – that alone is an accomplishment in my corner!

I am thankful for new experiences! This year, 2017 I started a blog, finished the first draft of a manuscript, bought a DSLR camera and took a few classes, and traveled with friends and family to see New England and Canada’s fall colors. That was the excuse for buying the camera, you see.

This past spring, I corralled a few classmates into becoming members of The Nitty Gritty Committee for our 40^th class reunion. I had known just a couple of them, and the experience of working with all of them was awesome. It was a let down in not seeing each other every two weeks or having those evenings set aside for planning the August event that lasted an entire weekend. It was an EPIC time (a not so private joke) which brought so many of us together between two high schools. The years and technology complicated matters, but we were able to have 125 people (about 90 classmates) for the Friday event and 107 for Saturday (about 75 classmates, many of them different from Friday’s event). The greatest compliment was that many didn’t want to wait until our 50^th, and are clamoring for a 45^th reunion. Don’t worry, Class of ’77, we are already thinking of things to do!

I am so thankful for the family we have near and far – the farthest is our family still in Germany and a brother serving in Afghanistan. They are never far from my mind as some of them are aging. Next is family in places like California, Denver, Detroit, Baltimore, Wisconsin and south in San Antonio. We travelled with some, and reveled with others.

I am thankful for the followers of my blog – I am touched you think enough of my posts to read them. My two writers groups are special to me as well. They stretch and challenge me at every meeting and when I sit down to write or edit.

May you find many reasons to be thankful this Holiday, and relish the people who have gathered together this week.

-mb