Yes, we love our families. Yes, lots of us have to give ourselves a pep talk before we enter the room for that Thanksgiving dinner, smiling. Families know how to push our buttons. Families have issues. If you haven’t seen the new George Clooney movie, be prepared. It’s not a feel-good. It’s a reality check. Speaking of reality checks, families are also good for that, too. They keep us grounded. Praise the Lord. Pass the gravy....

We use stories as pegs in the slippery slope of time. New peg for us: The Vampire Thanksgiving. Found ourselves sharing a table, at a local restaurant with a friend of a friend who happens to write books about vampires. She talked nonstop. Not nonsense! She really knew the literary history of vampires and was both interesting and informative on a subject my husband never knew he had any use for. “Dad discussed vampires over his...