This Thursday, for the first Thanksgiving in decades, I won’t be watching football, drinking beer, and stuffing myself into oblivion. Instead, I’ll be serving the homeless, giving clothes, and making myself useful.

Thanksgiving is always a time to give thanks—I mean, it’s right there in the holiday’s name. This year, however, for those of us in northern California, the act of being grateful has taken on previously unimaginable dimensions.

For those of you who don’t know, Quality Digest’s studio and office are in the city of Chico, about 75 miles north of Sacramento. More pertinently, we’re fewer than 10 miles from Paradise, which, as of Nov. 8, 2018, was home to 27,000 residents, including three members of the QD team—editorial director Taran March, account manager Christopher Martin, and our close partner Chris Smith, owner of Rocketspots.tv and producer of our video content. A fourth, editor Laurel Thoennes, lived in one of the canyons just off the ridge on which Paradise sat.

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