We stayed home this year and cooked a feast with some local friends. It was bountiful, warm, and delicious. It was, in its own little way, life-affirming — even the semi-stressful bits, the hiccups, and the puddles of spilled gravy, water, and wine.
One the many things I am thankful for, specifically that day and especially this year — it has been a long road and I am not nearly at the end of it — is the ability to find and then swallow in great gulps and with much gusto the joy that occasionally trickles my way.