Happy Thanksgiving!

The museum will be closed tomorrow so our staff can celebrate Thanksgiving with our family and friends. We will re-open on Friday for our annual Day After Thanksgiving festivities, including Jeff Risher's reptiles, open hearth cooking samples, and more!

It has been a tough year for me, personally, but I actually think it is easier to be thankful for what you have when you've been through something tragic or sad.

Since last year at this time, we have lost both of our beloved kitties, and our dear friend John.

But I still have so much to be thankful for! Here is just a partial list:

1. The joy our new kittens Snickers and KitKat have brought to our lives. They are both unique kitties, but they share the best qualities of the two we lost this year. Since we adopted them on September 11, both have wrapped their tails around our hearts...
2. The museum continues to thrive, in spite of the floundering economy, because of all the great work we're doing. And we're doing it for YOU. So thank you all for continuing to support us. Schools continue to come on field trips, and our admission numbers are holding steady. There are MANY museums in this country that can't say that right now.
3. A year of successful programs, including our Tea with the Curator, Coffee & Crafts, and Soup at Six series; and our list of annual events like McKinley Day, the Bridal Show, the Car Show, Summer Science Splash, the Halloween Party, and our new fall fundraiser.
4. All of the generous donors who have given to our 2010 Capital & Replacement drive -- the staff truly appreciates all the extra goodies we can purchase through that program that just aren't in our budget!
5. The wonderful comments we've received for our Keller Gallery exhibitions this year, including the dollhouse exhibit Life in Miniature, the quilt exhibit A Stitch in Time, and The Victorian Age.
6. The opportunities I've had to serve my community at the state level through the Ohio Historical Society's statewide internship pilot program and the National Digital Newspaper Program in Ohio.
7. Opening a new storage building has been a long-term goal -- and this year it became reality! We are so very thankful to have the space to properly house our collection, and to have some room to grow.
8. The opportunity to teach. I recently found out that my museum studies course is a go at Mt. Union this spring! There is still a chance students might drop it between now and the beginning of the semester, but I am hopeful that we will still have enough to run it when classes start.
9. Gary Brown at the Repository for his continuing support of our programs, events and exhibitions! Let's face it -- we could do the best work possible here, but what difference would it make if people didn't know about it? We're also thankful for all the other newspapers in the region that have started to run stories about us in the past year. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
10. And last, but not least, MY HEALTH! I had one of my salivary glands removed in July and am now free of pain when I eat! Since I love food, being able to eat without stinging pain is a miracle that I am thankful for each and every day. I will never, ever forget what it felt like, and I will always be thankful that the pain is gone.

We hope to see you all sometime during the holiday season. The museum is fully decorated for the holidays, and we have lots of great special events coming up in December!

Happy Thanksgiving!