I have to admit, I was a little bit disappointed when our Faribault County Register reporter, Fiona, didn’t ask me what I was thankful about, when she spent some of this last week going around town asking folks what they were thankful for.

And then I thought, what the heck? I have this whole space I have to fill in the Register each week, called From the Editor’s Notebook. I will just write my own response for what am I thankful for.

I’ll start with the fact that I am thankful I have been able to do something I love – write stories about people and things – as my job for the last 50 years. You are pretty blessed if you can spend all your time at work doing something you love to do.

And, I am thankful that for the past 15 years I have been able to do that work I love, being an editor, here in Blue Earth and Faribault County.

I am definitely pretty thankful for the staff we have had here at the Register over these 15 years, especially those we have right now. While some folks give me a little praise once in a while for the paper, it is a whole team who makes this newspaper what it is. They are terrific and really do an awesome job, every week.

I am thankful I have a great boss, Lori Nauman, who is more of a team leader than a boss. And who is willing to put up with me being a little snarky from time to time.

It is fun to come to work each day, and I am thankful for that. I sincerely hope everyone is able to be thankful for that.

I am also very thankful for computers and digital photography. Both have made our work in the newspaper field not just faster and easier, but allowed us to be way more creative in the work that we do to produce a great-looking newspaper. And, trust me, I spent way too many hours in a darkroom in those early years of my career.

I am really thankful for all the people I have met over the years – and trust me again, that is a lot of people. They have taught me a lot, and many people have entrusted me with their stories, and I have always tried to do those stories justice by writing about them as best as I could.

Then there is you, and all the other newspaper readers out there. I am definitely thankful for you.

Of course, I also have to thank people who guided me along this path. There was Mr. Lamb, my third, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade teacher. Yeah, he was my teacher in all of those grades. Luckily, he was a really great teacher and encouraged creative writing.

I thank my parents, of course, who taught me a lot. And while my mother probably wanted me to be a pastor or a teacher, she was fine with me going into journalism as she was an avid newspaper reader and newshound.

I am thankful for a couple of journalism/mass communication professors at Mankato State University who turned me on to newspapers, and Allan Wilcox, a publisher at Waterville, who introduced me to small town weekly newspapers.

I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that I am writing this entire column and have not even mentioned my wife and family.

I know, I could have started with that, but I will end with it.

I am thankful that on a fateful day in June of 1971 I met this wonderful person named Pam. And I am even more thankful that she has put up with me for 50 years.

And yes, of course I am very thankful that we have three pretty great kids, who have grown up and become amazing adults and thankful they all married wonderful people. And I am especially thankful they gave us nine great grandkids.

Yes, there are the other usual things to be thankful for. We have a nice home that keeps us warm in the winter, great food to eat, and all that other stuff. You know, there are so many things we all need to be thankful for.

But one more thing I have to mention.

I am really, really thankful that those Minnesota Vikings actually played hard and defeated the New England Patriots on Thanksgiving Day. After stinking up the stadium with a horrible game just five days earlier against the Dallas Cowboys, they redeemed themselves ­- on national television, no less.

It was just one more thing to be thankful about on the day we think about all the things we are thankful for.

I sure hope you all have had a whole lot of things to be thankful for, on Turkey Day and every day.

Thanks for reading us each week.