Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday for family and friends to come together, spend precious time away from the doldrums of life and work – to give thanks for what we have and be optimistic for the future. We at The Somerville News have our own personal thanks this season, and of course we have some public thanks to share with the readers of our tome.

We are thankful for the opportunity to run our businesses and reside in this very special city, which enjoys a wonderful combination of the trappings of urban life and the closeness of a tight-knit community where people know their neighbors next door as well as across the city.

We are thankful for a Mayor and a Board of Aldermen who, for the most part, have a common, solid vision of where we should be today as a city and what we need to do to remain viable for many years to come.

We are thankful for the ability of people to “see the forest for the trees” and come together to rebuild broken bridges, mend fences and give others a second chance in business, political and personal arenas.

We are thankful for the people who read our newspaper both in print and online, as well as the people who contribute to its content – we have worked very hard to grow this newspaper and clearly define the differences between news reporting and commentary.

It would be silly to look back, give thanks for things and not take a minute to look ahead and wish for continued success – so here are some items we look forward to this coming year and/or hope will be addressed in some measure:

We hope that this city will keep evolving in positive and efficient manner under this administration, working with all of the elected officials city and district wide.

We hope that the online readers of our paper will enjoy the coming changes for our current website and that we will be successful in our next venture in the first part of the year over in Cambridge.

Most of all – we hope that everyone has a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving.