🦃 Thankful – The Gratitude Attitude
Thursday, November 27, 2025
This year’s Thanksgiving Thursday will be a departure from years past.
For several years now, I’ve celebrated Thanksgiving with the Wilde clan — a tradition built around laughter, great food, and that beautiful brand of holiday chaos only friends-turned-family can create.
Some years I’d contribute my company’s gratitude gift, a frozen Butterball turkey courtesy of Costco. Other years, not so much. The cast was usually the same: Matthew, sometimes Noah, Rachel (and whatever boyfriend held the seasonal title), and of course the hostess with the mostest, Audrey — dear friend and the matchmaker who introduced Jen and me — alongside her husband, Ron.
We’d play board games after dinner to “make room” for dessert, as if that somehow balanced out the indulgence. It was a ritual of togetherness — predictable, comfortable, and always full of stories.
But this year feels different. Whether Jen and I host or travel to family, the vibe is shifting, and that’s okay. Change is part of gratitude too.
❤️ Thank You, 300
This Thanksgiving also marks a milestone — my 300th blog post on CarlosBayne.com!
Can you believe it? I’ve kept the words coming (sometimes steadily, sometimes sporadically) by following what I call my Three Tenets of Writing:
1️⃣ Title Is Vital
2️⃣ Write What You Know
3️⃣ Keep The Pen Moving
Writing has never been about perfection. It’s about motion — the quiet discipline of showing up on the page even when inspiration is late, life is loud, or confidence is low. And somewhere in between all that motion, 300 stories found their way out into the world.
Now, I’m not fancy enough to spring for WordPress’s premium analytics, but even the free stats tell a story worth celebrating.
So before the turkey cools and the pumpkin pie disappears, let’s carve into the numbers that made this 300-post journey one worth being thankful for.
🌎 Top Countries by View Count
The beauty of writing online is that words travel — even when you never planned for them to. Somehow, my thoughts on love, travel, life, and gravy found their way around the globe.
1️⃣ 🇺🇸 United States — 7,340 views
2️⃣ 🇨🇳 China — 239
3️⃣ 🇮🇪 Ireland — 168
4️⃣ 🇦🇺 Australia — 95
5️⃣ 🇨🇦 Canada — 90
6️⃣ 🇬🇧 United Kingdom — 82
7️⃣ 🇩🇪 Germany — 75
8️⃣ 🇸🇪 Sweden — 69
9️⃣ 🇫🇮 Finland — 41
🔟 🇫🇷 France — 33
Not bad company for a Pacific Northwest storyteller with a keyboard and a cup of coffee.
🗂️ Post Categories
If the Top Countries show where the words traveled, then the Post Categories tell what I’ve been serving — the Thanksgiving spread of my creative table.
🥇 Life — 155 posts
Because when in doubt, I write about it. Big life, small life, weird life — it’s all fair game.
🥈 Holiday — 47 posts
From Valentine’s Day to Veterans Day and every turkey, tree, and trick-or-treat in between.
🥉 Travel — 45 posts
Planes, trains, and a thousand caches — every trip teaches, every detour writes its own punchline.
🏅 Dating — 38 posts
Before Jen, during Jen, after finding Jen — the arc practically wrote itself.
🎓 Work — 30 posts
Because when you spend your days around forklifts, coworkers, and Costco chaos, there’s always a story waiting on the pallet.
💌 Subscribers
Now, this next group deserves their own standing ovation. These are the readers who’ve kept the lights on and the comment section alive — my audience, my encouragers, my digital dinner guests.
Writing without them would be like performing to an empty room. Once or twice? Character-building. Every night? Brutal.
Here’s to the loyal ten — the long-timers, the first-timers, and the “I stumbled here by accident but stayed for the gravy” crowd:
1️⃣ JadeKing – The Lifestyle of a Warrior – 831 days
2️⃣ mindupgrade – 818 days
3️⃣ Eugenio – 607 days
4️⃣ Passive Income – 601 days
5️⃣ Freddy – 359 days
6️⃣ itsmegodhere – 282 days
7️⃣ SlimScienceTV – 239 days
8️⃣ ambitious7f31d70424 – 144 days
9️⃣ malcolmmcneff – 142 days
🔟 Orsola Cloward – 142 days
Each one has read, liked, or shared enough to remind me that writing isn’t just self-expression — it’s connection.
🏆 The Posts With the Most
Cue the drumroll, fade in the spotlight, and release the confetti cannons — it’s time for the Top 3 Most-Read Posts in this 300-entry journey.
🥉 Second Runner-Up — A Broken Promise For Good Reason – 63 views
A story of following through by not following through — proof that sometimes breaking a promise keeps your integrity intact.
🥈 Runner-Up — Welcome to Washington … Sorta – 66 views
My Pacific Northwest debut — part relocation diary, part culture shock, all coffee-fueled chaos.
🥇 And Now, the Crown Goes To … Snakes, Sacs, and Wax – 92 views
The wildest title I’ve ever written, and apparently, that gamble paid off. Proof that curiosity clicks. My first ever Brozilian, think Brazilian wax for men only. And yes, shaft, sac and crack!
Every stat tells a story, and every reader turns that story into something worth continuing.
To everyone who’s read, shared, or encouraged me along the way — Thank you, 300.
🕯️ Closing Thoughts
Thanksgiving has a funny way of slowing time just enough to make you notice what really matters — the people, the small traditions, the conversations that linger longer than the leftovers.
This year feels quieter. Different, yes, but also deeper. Jen and I are writing a new chapter together, and while the setting may change — Arizona replaced by Washington, big gatherings swapped for cozy twosomes — the feeling remains the same: gratitude, pure and simple.
Three hundred posts later, I’ve realized the real magic isn’t in the numbers or the analytics. It’s in the rhythm of sitting down, collecting a memory, shaping a sentence, and sending it out into the world — never knowing who it’ll reach or how it might resonate. It’s in the comments that turn into conversations. It’s in the silent nods of readers who see a bit of themselves in my words.
So here’s to gratitude — for family near and far, for readers who return, and for the privilege of still having something to say.
As I close the book on post number 300, I’m thankful for the journey that brought me here and for the one that’s waiting just beyond the next blank page. It’s the gratitude attitude that I’ve always been vibin’ on.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
los, Fil-Am Renaissance Man 