My family adopted this tradition a number of years ago, mostly because we just don't have many family traditions.
Living in the pacific northwest means we're all first, second or third generation immigrants here (unless you happen to be 100% native American), and most of us are lucky if we know where our ancestors originated, much less know what their traditions might have been.
Our family, at the Thanksgiving table, does a round-robin, and each of us tells what we are thankful for.
I think that it's about time now for us here at the Kos to look back on the past year and remember the things that we are thankful for. So, we lost the White House, but what we did we gain, and what do we each have to be thankful for?
I have a number of things for which I am grateful.
As a lifelong voter, this past year was the first time I volunteered my time, my money and my hopes to a presidential candidate. I will be forever grateful to Howard Dean for bringing me back to political life.
I am grateful for all of the people that working in the Dean campaign brought into my life. For Chris B., who was the linchpin of our local efforts, and who is now our County Democratic Party vice-Chair; for John H., who we worked together to send to Boston as a national delegate for Dean; for the dozen or so others whom I look forward to meeting each month at our transfigured MeetUp - Democracy for Vancouver.
On a personal note, I am grateful that I have returned to full-time work (at a living wage, can ya believe it?) after more than 14 months on unemployment.
I am grateful for my two healthy daughters, and my new granddaughter (Adela Roseanne, born October 20th at 5:02 pm PST).
I am grateful that my mother will be in Colorado over Thanksgiving, so that my sisters and I can enjoy a holiday meal free from craziness and bitterness (Hey - don't hit that troll rating! - I love my mother, but she and one of my sisters have a hate/hate thing for the past twenty years, it makes it tough on everybody else.)
I am also grateful that my mother is still in relatively good health, especially after having a triple-bypass operation in 1996.
Lastly, I am grateful for the Kos community.
We're all we have folks, so let's hang together and start working early this coming spring for those 2006 mid-term elections.
Happy Thanksgiving from my family to all of yours,
Angie in WA State