Ah Thanksgiving, the oldest American holiday, truly we have much to be thankful for: carbon fiber, aero wheels, ceramic bearings, wool jerseys, integrated shifters...life etc.Sometimes I wonder what the thankful list  of one of the original holiday celebrators would consist of. I guess it was about mid 17th century so life was probably number one on everyone's list, followed closely by some kind of shelter and food. I seem to be accumulating more and more things to add to my list recently. 

My family definitely makes #1, my wife, children, parents and brother and sister, all the love and support I could ever need. Friends, like family but we don't argue as much. Faith, for answering all the questions I could ever have and for reminding me that family really is number one. Seems like anything else is just gravy, or DRY Teflon chain lubricant whichever you prefer but here are a few more anyway: my job and the people I work with for, their support, opportunities and investment, education because the more you know the more you know (is that bathos or hyperbole?) anyway I love to learn and am very thankful for the many opportunities to do so, my health because it is so awesome when I have it and really really miss it when I don't so you know it must be important, my bicycle because it is so awesome when I can ride it and really really miss it when I can't so you know it must be important. I could keep going on about lesser and lesser things but I don't know if anyone is still reading this by now so I won't bother, unless you are Kirsten because you are #1 on my thankful for list. Somehow you fill in all the gaps, make up for all the things I lack and inspire me to be better.

Happy  Thanksgiving - please take the time to tell the people you are thankful for, that you are thankful for them.

I know this is a bit long and there are no pictures but it is worth reading and sharing, the message is just as relevant today as it was in 1863.


The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.


Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln