When I was a kid, the one thing I hated about the Thanksgiving holiday was that I knew somebody somewhere was going to ask me for a list of things Dawn is grateful for.

The question always reared its ugly head to spoil an otherwise wonderful holiday, where family would gather together for old stories and gossip and a lot of really good food.

When you’re ten years old, you can endure quite a lot when faced with the prospect of a lot of really good food.

But I digress.

The problem was not that I had trouble answering the question. It’s just that every kid seemed to answer it in the same suck-up fashion — or so it seemed to me.

When everybody else was saying they were thankful for the food they ate or for their wonderful families or for their good health, I was longing to say something flippant.

“I am thankful for the mole under my right eyebrow. I think it makes me look interesting.”

(Yes, even at the tender age of ten I was already full of incipient snark.)

I find myself in much the same position right now.

This is supposed to be the obligatory Thanksgiving column, in which I talk about the things that microbusinesses have to be thankful for in 2009.

Only this hasn’t been such a bountiful year, has it?

If I’m honest, I’ll confess that I think microbusiness owners should be most grateful for the fact that 2009 is almost over. It seems unlikely that 2010 could possibly be any worse.

But I have something less doleful on my mind, too.

I am thankful for Web 2.0 and for all the technologies that let me talk to you and that let you talk back to me. I’m glad for the opportunity to get to know you. I’m grateful for the chance to let you get to know me.

I’m glad for the sense that I am not all alone on this microbusiness adventure.

Neither are you.

I hope that you and yours have had a warm and bountiful Thanksgiving Day.