[If you know me, you know this house. 420 Front St. Owego, NY. Photo is mine.]

I can see a better time when all our dreams come true.

~~Fairytale of New York. Shane Patrick Lysaght Macgowan

Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

~~Marcel Proust

The photo above. My childhood home. See the brown painted bay window on the right side of the house? The window beyond was to our dining room. There’s an AC there now. It certainly wasn’t there when I was young.

But, oh, the Thanksgiving dinners that came out of the kitchen (once a large pantry) were legendary. Not in a banquet kind of way. Opulent and loaded with scampi dip? No. Only in the way that four boys and a mother and father would thing were legendary. We would laugh and talk until the windows steamed up. After all, it was always raw and cold outside, back in the day.

So, here I am, preparing for Thanksgiving ’25. We’re in New York City. We will be hosting three friends who would most likely be spending the day alone. It’ll be a tight fit in our apartment. But we’ll make it work, make it happen and we will have fun.

We have moved beyond the traditional myth of the “Indians” bringing food to share with the starving colonists. We don’t know what really happened back then, do we? The one thing we do know is that all myths have a kernel of truth. Something happened. That’s good enough. But I’m confident that the origins didn’t go as it was described in The Little Golden Book of American Holidays.

In the end, it really doesn’t matter. because…

It’s all about family. And the strongest family may not share any DNA with you.

I think about how so many, far far too many people will be spending the day, not with their family, but in darkness and fear.

Like it or not, the holidays are coming. Earlier each year. With the holidays there will be plenty of time to do some serious reflection. New Year’s Eve is when most everyone is confronted with the year in front of us and the year just passed. Regrets and resolutions. It’s not a bad thing. Every song can’t be Jingle Bells. Every film doesn’t have to have the “happily ever after ending.” One can go too far down and toward the shadows, however. Good advice: Don’t put on Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker album.

I warned you.

When the seating plans are being made, leave an extra chair for someone who may need company. Ask someone you don’t like to come to dinner. Give Aunt Belinda an extra splash of Sherry. Let your uncle sleep on the new Barkalounger. Laugh. Cry if necessary.

But keep the TV off.

Tomorrow, several billion souls will be holding hands around a table and giving thanks for what they have. I know I will. I have a family that loves me, friends that look forward to my company, and I am fairly healthy for a man my age.

And I have a thousand years of memories.

Readers, have a peaceful holiday!

[Mariam and I, the sun at our backs, on the deck of a boat taking us back to New York. Last autumn. I am thankful for her, a perfect travel companion, and to Cunard Lines for providing a way to come home without flying. [Photo is mine.]