Thanks for the Giving

The calendar has once again rolled around to Thanksgiving, and I'm at Kristi's parents' house enjoying a good meal and good company with family. One of my favorite thing about Thanksgiving is the ride -- over the river and through the woods, as it were (Did you know? That song was written about a Boston suburb in the 1880's, when snow was common in that area at the end of the Little Ice Age.

(Speaking of Ice Age, it's the coldest Thanksgiving since I've been blogging (2005), if not the coldest day in 20-30 years, here in Central PA. Above are videos I took on the drive down.)

If you make that trip on Thanksgiving Day, as I typically have, there's a lack of traffic and a peacefulness to the drive that transcends a rushed vacation or a weekly drive. To think about all those families, each at work on their own Thanksgiving Dinner or preparing to drive to theirs -- this, to me, is the real peace that represents the day and it just gives me a warm feeling inside.

After dinner, I like to sit down and do some reading -- something that I rarely have time to do in my work-a-day life. I used to read Wired Magazine on paper during the Holidays -- now I read it electronically on my Kindle. WeatherWise magazine is still on paper, and of course I'll look through the newspaper's Black Friday ads, even though I probably won't go out to get anything. It's all just part of the tradition. But first, there's FOOD (not as much as last year, due to Jesse 39.9) to be had.