This economy has done strange things to me and my family. We have learned the value of simplicity. I sit in our living room, a comfortable space, an elegant Christmas tree lighting the room, a fire burning in the hearth and I consider this year. We have learned to live modestly again, as a commitment to an early stage business changed our economics dramatically and the broader economy pushing a sense of frugality on virtually everyone that we know.

The most obvious change has been a centricity around our dining room table. We don't go out much, we eat in. Meals have become a luxury, a way of passing hours in preparation and sharing. Invariably accompanied by bottles of wine, some brilliant, others a kissing cousin away from the Gallo by the jug ilk. Brunches are stately, others are Waffle House good. But common to all of them is a sharing that wasn't always an ingredient before - there is always someone at our table other than our nuclear family. And this is wonderful.

Christine, our close family friend who came for a visit and was quickly recruited into the working ranks of my company and as a housemate, will share a few meals a week - the girls love her like a sister and scream when she comes through the front door. Trude and Tale stayed with us for four weeks this summer and everyone pitched in on meals, both buying and preparing. My Mom was here for a week, my brother and his wife for a day, cousin Arron and my Aunt for a night, we went back and forth with our neighbors all through the summer, the Denisons and my Aunt and Uncle were here for a day or two. When the Epsteins are avaiable, they stop in; we see the Hochs as often as we can; Traci, Billy, Lily, Kristen & Mark, Cara and TS, Shana & Duncan, Mrs. Hartman, Sylvana, Anima, the Miller Family, the Warners, Wyatt and Celsea, Jerry, Alejandro, Bianca + Ronny, the summercamp that was the visit from the Samuels, The Stacks and their lovely girls who chase around the house with Sasha and Isabella as if they were two sets of twins, and even the Frankums, when Bianca doesn't scare off their three boys who think her an alien. We have shared some remarkable spreads this year.

So I am thankful. For this economy that has sobered up our view of expense and brought my family and our friends closer to us. For our home and its centerpiece, the family table, where we can sit and talk for hours about life, argue politics on occasion, review the comings and goings of a school day or life. We have found angles on religion, we have fallen in love, we have been happy.

A wonderful year indeed.