Pardon me, readers, for bending your eyes for a moment to share a few thoughts on why I feel thankful this year.

First, I am thankful I have a job.

With unemployment passing 10% nationally, that is no mean feat. And to have a job as a journalist in a growing media company is particularly idiosyncratic in these times.

I am thankful not only for the job, but for the fact that it is in Maplewood. Not only do I wake up at work, but I get to cover a town where I feel fortunate to live. It is a town full of intelligent and accomplished people. My neighbors include writers and artists, musicians and math professors, actor and models (actually, I'm not sure I'm thankful about the models . . . . ), psychologists and accountants, physical therapists and architects, postal workers and hairdressers, you name it.

And the former fire chief lives down the block, so I feel extra safe.

Despite our crunchy liberal vibe, we have a good number of outspoken conservatives here in Maplewood who keep the dialogue active and interesting, and keep me from missing my un-PC uncles back in Philadelphia too much. I'm thankful for them, too.

Now, I know we Maplewoodians have been accused of thinking we are the center of the universe--what with all the new media covering us. But I think the town is handling the attention well. My neighbors have not started parading past in hopes of starting their own reality shows, nor are they shrieking and running from me whenever I emerge from the house in running shoes with camera at the ready.

So, I am thankful for the generous response I have received in this new job from friends and neighbors, business owners, elected officials, police and fire personnel, nonprofit administrators, school children and the occasional labrador retriever (camera hogs! or should I say, 'camera dogs'?).

And before I get all blubbery (I have had a glass or two of wine with my turkey), let me thank the Maplewood residents and friends who contribute to this site with their words, photos and videos. These are the people who make this patch truly a part of Maplewood. Thanks go out to: Judie Hurtado, Brooke Lefferts, Lois Cantwell, Judith Lindbergh, Stuart Lutz, Jennifer Hardwick, Suzanne Hassler, Ben Salmon, Susie Adamson, Marilyn Lehren, Jolie Solomon, Barry Kaufman, Nilsa de la Cruz, Marcia Worth, Jose Ortiz, Doug Zacker, Jim Hague, Neema Roshania, Drew Dix and--coming soon--Ellen Seidman, Joy Yagid, Sonya Kimble-Ellis and Claire Sinclair. 

Thanks to Adam Bulger for building this Patch and handing it off to me in such beautiful condition. Thank you extra much to the elegant and erudite Steve Johnson, NJ regional editor.

And there's a whole mess of people back at the Patch office in New York who keep all these pistons firing, but I'm saving them for my New Year's Eve message. . . . or my Academy Award acceptance speech, whichever comes first.

Happy Thanksgiving, Maplewood. And, remember, shop local tomorrow!