Why Sheila is grateful

Colin is with us for a couple of days, which means yesterday was the first Thanksgiving all four of us had celebrated together since 2003. During the meal, my wife inaugurated what might prove to be a nice, if long overdue, family tradition; she suggested that we go around the table and that each of us express what we were thankful for this year. All of us mentioned family and friends at the head of the list, and with the exception of Colin, we all expressed gratitude as well for the gospel and our membership in the Church. But Sheila's remarks included an interesting and unexpected little twist. She said she was thankful for a husband who loved to dance, and for the "crazy dance instructor" who had given her this much-appreciated gift. She likes to tell people that she always figured she would end up with a husband who loved dancing, and that this did indeed prove to be the case, although she didn't know it until she had already been married to him for 20 years.

We then talked about Angie for a few minutes. Colin has never met her, but will soon, and to the rest of us she is like part of the family. I remarked that Angie is not nearly as gifted as a standup comic as she is as a dance instructor, and I repeated a couple of her unbelievably stale jokes, which are nevertheless oddly endearing simply because she is the one telling them. But of course, they elicted only groans when I repeated them at the dinner table. When Angie is not dancing, I think she must spend her free time exploring websites such as, say, www.wretchedjokes.com.