It's the perfect day to say thanks to all of you who have read this silliness over the last several months as well as those who are with us for FirstNews in the early morning. When Maria Antonia and I started doing the morning news almost 20 years ago, sometimes we wondered if anyone was even out there! And, that's when the show went on at 6:30 a.m. Well, as it turns out, even at 5:00 a.m. lots of you are sharing part of your busy morning with us and we sure do appreciate it!

It was only after I was doing weather on TV that I started to hear how busy the day before Thanksgiving is for travel. When I was growing up, most folks stayed home or headed down the road a few miles to see the grandparents. We were in the second group. We would go to church then pile into the car and go about eight miles to my grandma's apartment. As I have mentioned before, both of my grandmas lived at a retirement village called Bluffview Courts. One was a tad taller than the other, so, in my youthful wisdom I called my mom's mom Big Grandma and my dad's mom Little Grandma. (Even at that early age, I was master of the obvious.) Anyway, it was Little Grandma's apartment that we would descend upon around 11:00 on Thanksgiving morning. The greeting as we came through the door was not "Happy Thanksgiving!" or even "Hi, Grandma!" It was "Is it time to eat, yet?" Now, we all knew it would be several hours before the food was ready, but we liked seeing Little Grandma get a irritated by the time she heard that question the fifth or sixth time.

Of course, like most folks, Thanksgiving for us included lots of good food, lots of good football and lots of good naps. As for the culinary choices, everyone seemed to have their favorite stuff. Some waited for the pumpkin pie. I liked the mashed potatoes. My oldest brother loved the baked beans. We tended to avoid him for much of the rest of the day...or month. But, for me, it also meant a chance to drive. Having three big brothers, I could usually convince one of them to stay off the couch or floor long enough to let me sit in his lap and steer the '63 Corvair around the barely-paved streets of Bluffview Courts. Take that, Ralph Nader!

Memories like those are among the many things I have to be thankful for everyday and it has been fun to share them with you, on-line. Hope you have a day filled with great moments that become wonderful memories, too. Happy Thanksgiving!