By Karen and Erica

We love Thanksgiving gatherings. Like most people, we are excited to see family and friends, including those whom we do not see every day, and we like to invite those who are alone to come party with us. We cook lavishly, we dress up, and we dress our homes up, too. We toast everyone, and our lives, with bubbly.

This year, of course, we are doing all of the above except the gathering part. (Yes, we will Zoom, but that is really not a reasonable substitute.) We will have intimate dinners with immediate family, we will dress as festively as our spirits allow, and we will be grateful for our lives.

And we are profoundly grateful to the millions of people whose brave service this awful year kept us going, and will keep us going for a while to come. Health care workers, especially our friends at Northwell. Frontline workers. Delivery truck drivers. Food industry workers. Food bank volunteers. Building employees. Retail workers. Vaccine creators. Postal workers. Leaders who led. And many more.

Thank you all. Have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Photo courtesy Northwell.