Happy Thanksgiving. We can count our blessing rather than recount our sorrows and regrets of 2020. And look forward with hope!

Happy Thanksgiving, a commemoration of the gratitude and mutual respect between our Pilgrim forefathers and the Wampanoag natives of Plymouth, Cape Cod. I am so grateful to be descended from many of these first Americans. Enjoy this and other short videos:

https://youtu.be/rvI0nnsH3sQ

Please watch a short video of Hope and Healing from the beloved and energetic Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlcILxGmVrI

Thank You to All of Our Veterans! Last year was the 100th anniversary.   Wednesday is Veterans Day, a time when we recognize and give our thanks to all of the men and women who have served in our armed forces.   It began in 1919 as Armistice Day, on the first anniversary of the end of World War I. The holiday was renamed Veterans Day in 1954 and has evolved into a time to honor all those who have served the U.S. in military conflicts.

Our beautiful US Capitol building. Democrats and Republicans vie for bare majorities in Congress... We hope they can talk peaceably across the aisle and compromise for the good of our country.

Children in Indonesia stand in line to receive measles vaccinations. 

Measles is even more contagious than the corona virus. Measles deaths worldwide swelled to their highest level in 23 years last year, a stunning rise for a vaccine-preventable disease and one that public health experts fear could grow as the corona virus pandemic continues to disrupt immunization and detection efforts.

The global death tally for 2019 — 207,500 — was 50 percent higher than just three years earlier, according to the analysis, released jointly by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Stay healthy and safe by gathering in only small groups. (we took off masks only to eat outside).

Our California governor, Gavin Newsom, getting a Corona virus test

Fall is my favorite season. I'm grateful for the glorious colors around my neighborhood!

Down my street looking from my house. Beautiful yellow ginkgo (a very old species with fossils dating back 270 million years!)

Red grape and maple

ChiChinese pistache, member of the cashew family

And I'm grateful for my neighbors and their friendliness...

and for the Bay, the birds, the fresh air, the peace I feel as I walk...

I'm grateful for my family...a short visit with my sister Elaine, staying near Santa Cruz... and for the technology that lets me talk to them every week....far away but close to my heart.

...and for the adults, youth, and children playing in the park, especially when I can no longer hear their happy squeals from the neighborhood school playground during the pandemic