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Show !fnI by Tcrl Gomes Holiday is a golden moment with Big Bird and friends By the time this column finds its way into print and onto on-to the newsstand, Big Bird, as he is affectionately known in our house, will be in the oven and readying himself for the late-afternoon Thanksgiving meal. While some folks fight over the white meat, my friend Gary (I-avoid-fried-foods) Cole and I will again fight over the crispy golden skin. I anticipate that by the time most folks have flipped through the paper, I will be in the warmth of my kitchen with good friends and my family enjoying another holiday in Park City. Thanksgiving is a holiday I take seriously. First of all, I'm very thankful I'm not the turkey. I am thankful and so are my guests that I will once again not be making dessert. Lenore will take on that task. And I am extremely thankful for the rule in our house that the cook doesn't have to do the dishes. And just when I start to get nostalgic about not having those great centerpieces my children used to bring home the turkeys made by tracing your fingers and the like I realize those children have grown into young adults who check the biscuits in the oven to make certain they won't again become hockey pucks and who shovel the walkway for our guests. Each age has its own joys, it'strue. I am thankful this year, as I again hear of more couples going their separate ways, that for another year my husband and I have managed to work out our differences dif-ferences in a reconcilable way. He tolerates my crazy schedule and frequent energy level drops and I tolerate his television sports and inability to anticipate my every mood. I am thankful for friends who listen when I moan about the aforementioned children and husband on days when I would like to run away from home or, at least, from all of them : lunches with Deborah, coffee with Judy (tea for me, of course), giggles with Joanie, serious conversation conver-sation with Arlene; drinks with Davids one and two; and long frequent talks on the phone with Lenore. They are friends who provide the warmth as winter's chill begins to set in. I am thankful for my career, which ensures that ab solutely no two weeks of my life will be the same and very rarely will be boring. As a writer and photographer, I have been able to see things and meet people and learn of things I never would have thought possible a very few years ago. I love the challenge of finding find-ing out both sides of a story and trying to piece together what is really happening, like a good detective novel. Good or bad, Park City does provide a writer with a great deal of material. ' , I am thankful for the community that finds a need and fills it. Our application to the All-America Cities award contains just a sample of the issues and needs Parkites have witnessed and found solutions to in the recent past. Because of creative city leaders and dedicated community com-munity members, projects ranging from the Miners Hospital Library to new high school band uniforms are visible evidence of a town that cares. I am thankful to have a house full of friends this Thanksgiving. When I moved to town nearly seven years ago, I knew only one person and not very well, at that. I had no job, no friends, certainly, and two small children questioning their new environment. Like many other folks who live here without benefit of family, we are all the richer for the extended family members whose lives we share. Unlike traditional households in which you go over the river and through the woods tr. Grandma's house for dinner, my children and, I'm sine, many of yours, ask, "Who will be coming this year for Thanksgiving dinner?" Here, it is not a holiday holi-day that promotes great groans of, "Oh, no! Not Aunt Tilda again! " Rather, there is anticipated joy of sharing with friends old and new and of laughter always plenty oflaughter. And it strikes a vein with me, I spend far too much time worrying what things will be like tomorrow or next month or next year. They will be whatever they are meant to be. For now, just right now, I am thankful that this today and holiday are filled with reasons to take stock and give thanks, sincere thanks. . I hope your holiday finds you with good friends and . good reasons to celebrate. |