Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Anniversary!

Thanksgiving, as I've said, is my favorite holiday of the year. Family gathering together, a wonderful turkey feast, an extra day away from work, and a time to remember and reflect on all of our blessings and -- most importantly -- express our thankfulness for those blessings!

I've talked about my thankfulness for Faith, Family, and Freedom. But what I haven't yet mentioned in a very specific fashion is just how very thankful I am for my wonderful wife. And how much sympathy I have for everyone else because I found her before any of you did (just kidding, guys -- I have no sympathy for you -- she's mine, all mine).

While this morning is simply not the traditional Thanksgiving morning -- my wife is off at the YMCA burning off the calories she plans to consume today, I'm sitting at the kitchen table right now while my kids eat their breakfast and watch Mickey Mouse on the Disney channel -- it is still my favorite holiday of the year. Non-traditional because my wife isn't here with us right now. Non-traditional because, in all of the Thanksgiving fuss (even though we go to my wife's parents for dinner, it's still been a fuss), my wife forgot to restock on milk for the kids. So my son ate his cereal dry this morning, and my daughter had to drink apple juice instead of milk.

But I digress.

I am especially thankful for my wonderful wife, and while she is away from the family for a few hours this morning doing something that is very important to her, and I find it very easy to be grumbly about her temporary absence, and the lack of milk, etc., I must force myself to remember all of the times that work has kept me from being with the family when it was important to them. I must remember that the mutually-supportive relationship we have requires this of both of us from time to time. And I must remember how much better she feels when she sees the successful results of exercising and eating right.

And I must remember that tomorrow, the day after Thanksgiving, "Black Friday," as it's called -- the busiest, craziest, longest shopping day of the year and most hectic work day for people like myself who work in Retail Management -- is our five-year wedding anniversary. I must remember that I will be kissing my wife goodbye tomorrow morning as she sleeps at 2:30 in the morning and probably won't see her again until just before she's ready to go back to sleep at night. I must remember that it is absolutely the worst way to have to spend our five year wedding anniversary.

So, though I have already thought a time or two this morning that today has started on a course that could easily lead to the worst Thanksgiving ever (dinner with the in-laws when my mother-in-law has been holding a small grudge against my wife promises to be fun), tomorrow could very easily be the worst anniversary ever for both of us. I will make that up next week by taking my wife to a Christmas concert by her favorite artist with no kids for a couple of days, but that doesn't make tomorrow any better.

So today, on top of all else that I am extremely thankful for, I am immeasurably thankful for the most wonderful wife any man could ever ask for. For all that she does. For all that she is. For all that she helps me to be. Happy Thanksgiving, my love. And Happy Anniversary. And Thank You!

And Happy Thanksgiving, America. Be thankful, today and always.

Joe