I’ve got family visiting, and am making my traditional stuffing with cornbread, turkey sausage (I used to be able to get cranberry sausage in California, but there are no Bristol Farms here), wild rice, pine nuts, wild mushrooms, and the secret ingredient, pomegranate. My niece helped me dissect it for the berries. Her mother is from Iraq, so she knows her pomegranates.

We’ll be busy the rest of the day cooking, taking kids to the beach, watching football, ingesting fermented malt beverages, etc.

I’m thankful that we have pomegranates. And turkeys. I’m thankful that at my age, I’ve still got enough teeth to enjoy them (I recall my grandfather having to cut off his corn with a knife to eat it, when he wasn’t a lot older than me). I’m thankful for medical technology in general, which seems to be continuing to get better, and giving me hope that I’ll live to see escape velocity.

I’m thankful for family and loved ones, and the ability to share my thanks with them in good health on this day.

I’m thankful for the technology that allows me to express my thankfulness to those people who read this little web site, and I’m thankful for the readers who unaccountably and seemingly masochistically keep coming back to read it.

I’m very thankful that we’ll have elections again in two years. And that’s not a partisan comment (particularly since I’m not a member of any political party)–it would be true regardless of the results three weeks ago. Having a sister-in-law who is from Baghdad can make you appreciate small things like that.