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Things Constable family (with 3 teen boys!) are grateful for

Not all home for Thanksgiving, but thanks arrive on time

On Thanksgiving afternoon in 1995, my wife changed the holiday forever for us by giving birth to our twin sons, Ross and Ben. That launched us on this remarkable and awesome journey called parenthood, and multiplied the number of things for which we give thanks. Will was born in 1999, and once again added to our list of thanks. While my family's gratefulness for life with three teenage boys never takes a holiday, I have made it a tradition to detail some of our thanks in an annual Thanksgiving column. I thank you for your indulgence, and note that we are thankful for:

• the time-machine trip we get whenever we get Will's cellphone voice mail and hear that sweet kid voice he recorded in 7th grade.

• the way Ross and Ben ordered a couple of old Lego sets online and assembled them as a team on their last night together before heading off to separate colleges.

• taking Grandma Jean to see Ben during parents weekend at Lawrence University.

• the maturity with which Ross explained that his CalArts dorm's swimming pool (yes, swimming pool) is clothing optional (yes, clothing optional).

• the elaborate wooden box and picture frame gifts that Will made in wood shop for Mother's Day and Father's Day, which join Grandpa Willy's coat trees as homemade keepsakes.

• the text messages and phone calls to and from Ben and Ross that marked their first birthdays spent apart from family in their 19 years.

• the soccer education I get watching Will play with his high school team, and from those nights he destroys me playing the FIFA video game.

• Grandpa Paul's appreciation after the boys finally made time to attend the steam machinery show he loves.

• the way all the boys enjoy respites at the farm with Grandma Lois, and all she does for us.

• the way my beautiful wife Cheryl was so right about the value of taking a big family vacation to Costa Rica while we all still have the same spring break.

• the way that was the best family vacation ever, with memories of rain forests, howler monkeys, surf lessons, poison frogs and snakes, rare birds and the tarantula wasp that inspired the alien in “Alien” outweighing the fact that we all got a little sick, Cheryl got bit by a dog and an army of millions of ants forced the boys from their cabin and landed them on couches for one night.

• Will's first concert with a buddy at the The Riviera to see Childish Gambino.

• the night we went to Second City as a family and discovered that we can all laugh at the same things, even when it's embarrassing to discover that your kids/parents understand a sex joke.

• Will's saxophone efforts that saw him make the better band and qualify for the music group's trip to Italy.

• Ross' passion about film and Ben's passion about science and music.

• the way neighbors Joanne and Cheri and their California family take in Ross today for Thanksgiving.

• the way Cheryl and I can get comfy on our couch in the living room and watch Ben play oboe during the online broadcasts of his concerts from Lawrence University.

• the grit and desire Will showed in recuperating from a lingering soccer injury.

• the moxie Ross shows in building a life 2,000 miles from home at the California Institute of the Arts.

• the way Ben talks about everything during a three-and-a-half-hour, late-night car trip home from college for Thanksgiving.

• cousins, aunts and uncles, roommates, old friends and new friends.

• the way I'm out of space and have plenty of leftover thanks.

On this Thanksgiving, my family hopes you and your loved ones can compose a similar cornucopia of thanks.

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