This year, so many of us have learned to be thankful for things we hardly noticed a decade ago. From Thanksgiving 2000 to this year a lot has change and I want to say thank you for a lot more.

Health
Without good health life is a struggle sometimes just to live, I am so thankful for our family and team's good health. In January my oldest daughter and I will be cutting our hair off to raise money for awareness about abuse. The hair will be divided into five or six dozen sections and we ask people to make a minimum $20 donation to cut a ponytail off. We will take pictures to post online, donate the money to the Purple Ribbon Council to Cut Out Abuse and then donate the hair to Wigs For Kids. Never thinking there would be hair on my head at my age, it is fun to give it to someone who should have hair at their age.

Family
Thanksgiving 2000 was the last Thanksgiving before my wife and I had a family of our own. I am so thankful for a family that began January 2001 with the birth of Emma. I learned how dear family is and how routine can make family feel normal not the exceptional it can be everyday, when my wife woke me on September 11. Working in New York as the Color Director for Arrojo Cutler, for months after I would stop on my commute in and out of Penn Station looking at pictures of men and women holding children my daughter’s age learning how lucky I am. Then with two wars I have also learned how lucky I am to be able to be with my family while so many friends in our industry and many of our guests/clients have sacrificed family time to serve or country. Thank you.

Employment
For so many of our fellow industry professionals, growing up life was really good, but for the last ten years things have been getting worse and now they are not getting better fast enough. We are so thankful to our guests and so thankful for our team because of all we do together, our studios are able to work hard to contribute to making the economy better and giving people a great experience at work and as a guest.

For awhile, many hoped for us to get back to normal, then we created a new normal, but I think that the future is a new better. As we learn to be thankful for things that were normal 10 years ago, like security, health insurance, a job and a home, I am looking forward to trying to do better and learning to be even more thankful.