Two days till Thanksgiving.  I don't have lots of memories of childhood holidays; my parents didn't make a big to-do over them.  I'm not sure why.  We didn't have a lot of money, but I think it was probably more temperamental.  I remember that most Easter mornings, I went with Kathy Johnson, my best friend, to a sunrise service at one of the local Lutheran churches.  Afterwards, there was a breakfast.  I think it used to be one of the two semi-annual lutefisk and lefse meals (lutefisk is truly one of the most disgusting and stinky culinary inventions ever), but my memory may be faulty about that.  A couple of years I remember dyeing Easter eggs, and two or three times we bought small, dyed chicks with the predictable disastrous results.  But usually I'd come home from the Lutheran service, and my mother would have hidden candy on the window sills behind the curtains.  Since the chocolate eggs were always in the same place, the "Easter egg hunt" wasn't time consuming.  And then the Sunday went on as other days. 

Christmas was a little more festive.  The tree went up a week before Christmas and came down a few days afterwards.  My mother was always convinced that it would catch fire from the lights, so two weeks was an absolute maximum.  It was always a small tree that we set on a table.  On Christmas eve, I got to choose the meal; it was always sloppy Joes, which we called "made-rites."  I remember waiting eagerly for my dad to get home from work, so we could rush through the meal, and I could open my presents.  On Christmas morning, Santa would have delivered some small additional gifts, but the best ones came the night before.  I'm sure we must have gone to church either in the evening or on Christmas day, but I don't really have any memories of it.

Nor do I really remember many Thanksgiving dinners.  I think we usually went to Aunt Olive (my mother's sister) and Uncle Glenn's.  They also lived in Story City, a couple of blocks away.  There wasn't much class difference in a town of 1500 people, but Olive and Glenn had more money and a bigger house than my parents.  They had lived in a small house while Uncle Glenn built their bigger one, in front of which he placed a sign reading "Coffman Manor," much to the disdain of my parents.  They had a huge rec room in the basement with all sorts of games and a bar.  I loved it there.  My parents thought the addition of the bar confirmed their suspicions about Uncle Glenn, who walked around every day carrying a glass bottle of Coca-Cola, which my parents were sure was laced with bourbon.  I think we spent some Thanksgivings in Des Moines with Aunt Lucille (my father's sister) and Uncle Les.  Aunt Lucille worked at a large, local department store and seemed to me the height of sophistication.  Uncle Les was a traveling salesman, who, it later turned out, had enjoyed the privileges of his itinerant lifestyle.  I remember many happy times with Olive, Glenn, Lucille, and Les, but I don't have any specific memories of Thanksgiving dinners. 

One tradition that we definitely didn't have was going around the table saying what we were thankful for.  I can't even imagine anyone suggesting doing so or feeling anything but embarrassment if they'd been called upon.  But now, fifty or sixty years later, maybe I'll start the tradition.  I'm thankful this Thanksgiving that
     I'm still alive (and kicking, though not so well with my right leg)
     I am sharing my life with Mohamed
     Without biological family, I'm surrounded by friends--old and new, distant and near--who give me limitless support and lively conversation and good food and love
     Someone invented Votrient (and Imodium)
     The doctors and nurses at KU Med inspire confidence and are always compassionate and give personalized care
      No one has ever treated Mohamed as anything other than my spouse
      Despite the first six entries' being about health, my "diminished" life is rich in so many other ways
      Mitt spent his weekend seeing a "Twilight" movie rather than planning his move into the White House
     Obamacare won't be dismantled and others will have access to insurance like mine that will keep them out of bankruptcy
     Newt and Reince and other appropriately named Republicans won't go away and will continue to be sources of outrage and comedy
     Calista's hair remains invulnerable
     Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will keep me amused and informed
     There is an unending supply of wonderful books--familiar and new--to keep my mind active
     My Kindle will deliver them to this impatient reader within sixty seconds
     Kimber, our German shepherd, has decided that her new orthopedic bed is comfortable after all
     Like last year, we'll spend Thanksgiving with Laura and François and their two sons, and there will be good food, good conversation, and good laughs.

I'm also thankful for Frosted Mini-Wheats, sushi, Susan Flannery, Chris Hayes and Melissa Harris-Perry, "Frasier" re-runs, and TextTwist.

Now that I've started the tradition, I promise that next year, the list will be even longer.