Thanksgiving is around the corner, which means that so is post-Thanksgiving, when it is time to give thanks for the things besides being with family and the blessings of the season. Come Nov. 27 and beyond:

1. Be thankful you were not crushed while attempting to buy a smart TV on Black Friday. (If you WERE crushed, please skip to item 15. And ... sorry.)

2. Be thankful you presumably understand how to USE your smart TV. That's not a minor achievement, if you have more than three remotes. So celebrate your know-how, and double it if you understand how to bypass Roku — or perhaps sign on to Roku — to find HBO Max, except if you canceled it or meant to cancel it but didn't. Oh, wait — you can't get HBO Max on Roku anymore. (Of course!) You have to use what my husband calls "their own thing." So specific. It's an app. Or an appetizer. Look, I'm not sure. You have to stream it through Chromecast, which is a type of fishing pole. But first you have to download it to your ... *checks notes* ... toaster. Or browser? Or Bowser? Anyway ...

3. Be thankful you did not gain 10 pounds from just one single meal. (Unless somehow you did. Did you not realize that candied yams are actually the equivalent of orange-colored fudge? You really had no idea that the REASON they taste so good is not the beta carotene and fiber but the fact that ALL sweet potato casserole recipes call for a stick of butter gently sauteed in another stick of butter? Well, now you do. Start jogging.)

4. Be thankful that we live in a free country ... that, OK, happens to listen in on your phone calls. And read your emails. And intercept your texts. And track your car by photographing your license plate. And allow sheriffs to view said photos so they can see if their ex-girlfriends have new boyfriends. So basically every piece of tech knows exactly what you are doing, with whom and where, at all times. But hey, so does Santa, and everyone's thankful for HIM.

5. Be thankful that, despite the traffic and weather (which constituted 86% of the conversation), you eventually got where you were going.

6. Be thankful you're not still there.

7. Appreciate the fact that on Monday, it's just back to work, because that means you HAVE work.

8. Don't forget to be grateful for December. Not only is it stuffed with holiday cheer, but the day-after-Xmas sales make Black Friday look like Prices-at-the-Airport-Gift-Shop Day.

9. Appreciate the fact that you don't have to eat another cranberry for 360 or so days, unless you really LIKE eating side orders of jelly and calling it "relish."

10. Be glad that you can take the Indian corn off your door. It was pretty, but sometimes it's depressing to think of how boring and standardized our perfect yellow sweet corn — a metaphor for modern, atomized society — has become. Maroon, white and black kernels just rub it in. Not to mention what happened to the Native Americans.

11. Rejoice that it's almost that time of year when, for a week or two, no one does anything at the office except show up and browse Etsy.

12. Be glad that, with guests gone, now you can fit comfortably around the table again. (Unless ... well, see item 3.)

13. Be grateful for your local newspapers! This is not just a craven plea from someone who works for them. It's a DESPERATE plea. Newspapers are like your teeth: Ignore them and they'll go away.

15. Be grateful you can count this high. Not everyone can.

Lenore Skenazy is president of Let Grow, a contributing writer at Reason.com, and author of "Has the World Gone Skenazy?" To learn more about Lenore Skenazy (Lskenazy@yahoo.com) and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Megan Watson at Unsplash