At Thanksgiving 2025.

Have a very good Thanksgiving. We’ll spend Thanksgiving with family in town; and Christmas, still unplanned.  “Over the river and through the woods” will, for us, be about three miles, and no snow, likely chilly.  All very best wishes.

POSTNOTE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2025 10;10 PM.  I watched the entire 12 hours of Ken Burns American Revolution on PBS.  This consisted of six 2-hour programs,  If you missed this program, or any part, here are details from PBS and/or check with your local public broadcasting outlet for other arrangements for future viewing.  Every American should take the time to view, discuss, and reflect on the meaning of this extraordinary program on the creation story of the United States of America.

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I’ve summarized here my impressions after a week of watching Ken Burns American Revolution.  What follows below, unchanged, is my Nov 14 post.  I invite you to visit the post for Nov. 19 “The Epstein Affair“; and Nov.  21 “Drones“.  At the end of the Drones post is an important update on the situation re Ukraine/Russia/U.S.

This is not a usual, normal holiday season.  My personal reflection will be on the many positive aspects of the year near passed, while acknowledging that this has not in any way been a normal year.  There is a great deal of work we all need to do, daily, to save the essence of our country, and the future of democracy in the world we all live in.  I’ll continue to pay attention and write as things come to mind.

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For more than 15 years in the 1980s and 1990s, a hobby of mine was doing a small “kitchen table” newsletter for fellow French-Canadians mostly in the Twin Cities.  For some reason a particular issue came to mind for this year, and you can read the first three pages here: Thanksgiving and Christmas Chez Nous 1993.  A photo from the Minneapolis Star Tribune Oct 19,1993, below, was one of the three pages, and is what my minds-eye saw when I got this idea for this commentary:  (For anyone interested, all of the 1000 or so pages of Chez Nous are indexed and accessible on line here , click tab Library then click Chez Nous.)

from Minneapolis Star Tribune Oct 19, 1993 accompanying article by Jim Northrup: “Parching wild rice in a container set near a fire: Just call it a lot of hard work.”

Thanksgiving is still almost two weeks out, and Christmas about a month after Thanksgiving, but this will not be a usual annual holiday season, hard as folks might try, in my opinion.

We’re in very dangerous times in this country of ours, and we can’t afford to look away and pretend all is okay.  But this moment seems a good time to focus a bit on an aspect of our past as we prepare for our 250th.

As days go on between now and the New Year, I will likely continue to write, so just check back once in awhile if interested.  All best wishes.