A Time Again to Give Thanks in 2025! I Share a Strata-gee Holiday Mystery

Once again, the calendar year of 2025 is rapidly slipping away. This week, most Americans will pause, gather with friends and family, participate in a joyous and delicious feast, and contemplate all they have to be thankful for.

And, this year, I’ll share with you a bit of holiday mystery at Strata-gee…

See my Thanksgiving message and learn about a Mystery…

You know, it’s an interesting thing about the holiday season…it comes at a really inconvenient time. At this time of year, most of us are heavily involved with wrapping up and closing out our year’s business – only about 5 weeks left! We are also deep into, if not completing, our 2026 planning.

Time to Relax?

There can be a lot of ancillary tasks surrounding the above, special meetings with customers, vendors, employees, advisors, etc. Maybe, as part of that effort, some exceptional travel related to this planning. It can be a lot! All-in-all, at such a busy time, it’s hard to think about relaxing and having fun.

There are also many other pressures, a slowing economy, rising inflation, company layoffs, toxic political divisiveness, and more. It’s hard not to get embroiled in all of this via traditional media, and more and more, through social media.

As Stress Levels Rise, The Holiday Spirit Can Be Elusive

Add on top of that, family holiday event planning, shopping, and gift buying…whew! And I don’t know where you are, but here in the NY Metro area, holiday traffic is really heavy over the last couple of months of the year and it adds a lot of time and inefficiency to the process. Stress levels rise…and it can be really hard to get into the holiday spirit.

But get into the holiday spirit, we must! For all of us have much to be thankful for.

A Strata-gee Mystery

So here is my mystery! As long-time readers of Strata-gee know, I am the chief content creator at Strata-gee. I’ve written literally thousands of stories over the years, on a site receiving multiple millions of views, from millions of site visitors. As part of this collective body of work, I regularly write a short holiday-themed message every year, such as the one you are reading now.

However, over the last few years, I’ve noticed something a little puzzling. As I review my stats, one message has been read more than all of the other holiday messages. It is one that I’ve written that stands out as though it had a spotlight on it. It is…in fact…the top post of this very month!

A Holiday Message from the Past is Most Popular

Surprisingly, it is a holiday message. Even more surprising, it is a Thanksgiving holiday message. It is the holiday message I wrote for the 2020 Thanksgiving holiday break. Although I’ve written a message with a thought about Thanksgiving every year, this is the one – Happy Thanksgiving? Yes, Let’s All Happily Give THANKS – that more people go to every year than any other.

If you go to my Search box at the top of the sidebar on the right-hand side of the home page, type in “Happy Thanksgiving,” you will get a list of every Thanksgiving message I’ve written in reverse chronological order. So if that is how folks are finding it, they quite literally have to scroll past the 2024, the 2023, the 2022, and the 2021 messages to get to it.

I Have a Theory

So why is that particular message so popular? Well, I can’t say for sure. But I have a theory… As I’m sure you recall, 2020 was the year of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a very stressful time with huge numbers of Americans getting infected and many dying from the infection. Governments essentially shut down the country and had everyone shelter-in-place in their homes. Life as we knew it literally changed that year – with work-from-home and learn-from-home completely changing the way we lived our lives.

So perhaps many wished to see what I could extract out of that mess to be thankful for. Perhaps that reader was you. If that was you and you have an idea why that story is so popular, let me know in the comments below.

For 2025, I Have Much to Be Grateful For

For me personally, 2025 was a particularly challenging year. It was a year when unforseen and uncontrollable circumstances took hold of my life, inflicted some pain, and continued to impact my life for some months after. I refer of course to my accident in May. This incident took me away from my work and home…and negatively impacted my productivity for months.

But you know what, there is nothing like a life-changing experience to refocus you what is truly important. And there truly were a few blessings to emerge from that incident. Blessings that infused me with greater sense of gratitude than I think I’ve ever before felt.

Strata-gee’s Amazing Sponsors and Readers

First, a big THANK YOU to the amazing sponsors of this website, who all stood by Strata-gee during and after this difficult time. But for the generousity of our sponsors, this site would not exist. I still can’t find the right words to fully express the gratitude I feel for their continued support.

Also, I bear an equal amount of gratitude for Strata-gee readers. I received a veritable tsunami of outpouring when I reported the news of the incident that resulted in my hospitalization. Everything from phone messages, text messages, emails, comments on the website, and copious outreach on various social media platforms poured in. This expression of your concerns, thoughts, and best wishes helped to sustain me during my recovery. I can’t thank you all enough.

And finally, to my family, who always has my back. They rose above and beyond the call and their support contributed mightily to my recovery and sustains me every day. My biggest regret is the scare I gave them.

There’s A Reason Every Season to be Thankful

There’s a reason every season to be thankful. Please let everyone in your orbit know how much they mean to you!!

HAVE A JOYFUL AND PLENTIFUL THANKSGIVING GATHERING!!

Ted