"Wonder" never ceases

Happy Thanksgiving, friendly readers. Here's hoping the dry, cold Salt Lake City Thursday does nor portend more of the same or thanks will be in short supply this ski season.

We took a different approach to the holiday today. After helping Princess 'Hat Rack open a present at about 5:45am (eyes closed, fumbling with stupid packaging), today was all about family. She had received the Little People-brand "Noah's Ark" on Wednesday night as a reward for the end of diapers in the 'Hat Rack household (5 1/2 years, 3 kids and an estimated $4,000 later!) - but fell asleep on the way home from the store and slept right through to this morning, when she toddled into our room with the giant box.

With family scattered from Chicago to Washington state to Texas to Arizona, we kept it simple -- all the trimmings (stuffing, salad, cranberries, sweet potatoes, etc.) and barbequed steak -- instead of turkey. We took advantage of the window created by not roasting turkey by taking the little ones to see Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium - a positively delightful and thoroughly recommendable fable about a toy store, its 234-year-old proprietor (Dustin Hoffman), its manager (Natalie Portman) and one nine-year-old who believed in the store. The one review I read glowed that the film succeeded where the majority don't - it created a sense of wonder, in its truest form, in the eyes of children. In a complicated, too-busy-for-our-own-good world, who doesn't need a 90-minute respite to unleash imagination and be in awe of the magical and mystical? Need a fix of fun and dreams? Grab a kid and treat them to this movie. You'll be thankful you did.

What almost brought me to tears though, was a greeting from an RSL fan in the still-darkened theatre as we watched the credits roll (and the introductory and concluding credits are worth the $5.50 in their own right!)... A man named Tyler came up and thanked me for all the work I did on behalf of RSL, ever since the day he met me three years ago at the Clint Mathis introduction phone call. Many people have told me they appreciated all I poured into RSL, but for some reason, this comment on Thanksgiving day - in the same theatre complex where we launched the "Real Week" movie concept - struck a nerve in a warm place. Thank YOU Tyler. I remember a sense of awe and wonder when we introduced THE Clint Mathis in January 2005. Sometimes it feels like that luster is gone, long gone, from RSL, but I think if you allow yourself to believe, the child-like attraction of a sports team to its fans can always still be found. Thanks RSL fans, it was a great ride. I told Tyler I was glad that the job had brought me here - that my family really liked Salt Lake and that now I, "have a job where I get to take people to Mt. Everest."

That's plenty to be thankful for today. Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, Pop, siblings and cousins 'Hat Rack - we are thinking of you today.

Now is it too much to ask for some snow?