As Thanksgiving arrives tomorrow, it’s safe to say most of us won’t exactly be just kicking back and relaxing for the holiday. I know most of us either have family visiting or will be on the road ourselves to get together with loved ones. And that’s great, but it can make for a stressful few days.

But, amid the cooking, cleaning, traveling, last-minute shopping and – for the brave among us – Black Friday shopping, I hope we all take a moment to stop and be truly thankful for the chaos. 

If the last few years have taught me anything, it’s that life’s only constant is change. It wasn’t that long ago that none of us could get together at all because of the COVID pandemic. Thankfully, that is, for the most part, in the past. But, as the years pass, children grow, family members pass away, dynamics shift and, for many of us, we can look up and realize nothing is as it once was. But, that’s okay.

This year, for the first time in a long time, my kids and I are staying put for the major holidays and grandparents are coming to visit us. And while I have to say I’m thankful for not having to make a 10-hour round-trip drive to south Alabama twice in as many months, there are definitely some traditions my kids are used to that only take place at GiGi and Daddy Demp’s houses. Things have changed. But, that’s okay.

In December of last year, the aforementioned GiGi – my mother – suffered a small heart attack, if any heart attack can be described as small. Thankfully (there’s that word again), the doctors say there was no major damage and life has mostly returned to normal for her. That’s obviously fantastic news, but I can’t help but think about how different things would be if the news hadn’t been as good. 

This year is also the kids’ first Thanksgiving, and first full Christmas season, since I joined The Post in mid-December last year. I think my son still forgets dad is helping put out three papers a week instead of one. But, my daughter is old enough to remember when It felt like I was just that guy who slept at the house while I was editor of daily paper in south Alabama. So, she does a good job helping keep her brother occupied until the latest edition has gone to press. 

And speaking of the girl-child, this will be the last holiday season she won’t be able to drive, so I am keenly aware things will be much different this time next year. Get ready for plenty of columns about how I’m coping with my little girl’s new-found freedom. Spoiler alert: the answer might be, not very well. 

But, that’s life, right? With each passing year things change or morph into new versions of themselves, or into something completely different. And, again, that’s okay.  I’m learning to roll with the punches. And I hope we all do that. It’s really easy to get nostalgic about “the good old days” and forget that, years from now, we’ll likely think the same thing about these moments in 2024. 

So, I hope we all embrace the chaos this year. It’s part of it. And I promise I will try, if you all will, to stop a few times in the middle of the Thanksgiving madness to look around and smile.

We have so much to be thankful for.

Blake Bell is the general manager and executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at blake.bell@vicksburgpost.com.