Tight credit, job losses, home foreclosures, subprime loans and predictions that much of 2009 likely will bring more of the same doesn’t, for some, give Thanksgiving the warm and fuzzy feeling  many Americans have come to expect.

That said, however, the nation has elected its first black president, and many people are still employed, healthy and enjoy the love and support of family and friends.

“In this year of extraordinary loss – with millions of people losing their homes, their jobs, their life savings and more – I’m  so very thankful for the basic things I once took for granted, like having a roof over my head or the ability to put food on the table,” said money coach and author Lynnette Khalfani.

“In fact, I'm enormously thankful that I've finally reached a point in my life where I can honestly say I'm completely happy and not lacking for anything,” Khalfani told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “I'm fortunate to be in a wonderful marriage with a loving husband. But I've experienced the pain of having a previous marriage that didn't work out.”

The election of Barack Obama to the presidency, however, was cited most often by those asked what they will be giving thanks for on Thursday.

"Beyond the usual thankfulness for family, friends and health, I'm thankful to and for America. No one thought we would ever see what happened on Nov.  4 in our lifetimes, but America is greater than we think and better than we've been,” said Peter C. Groff, president of the Colorado State senate, publisher of Blackpolicy.org and executive director of the Center for African-American Policy at the University of Denver.

That sentiment was echoed by Keith D. Wright, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc.

“I am thankful my grandchildren will witness what my great-grandparents never thought about, what my grandparents only dreamed about, what my parents were told could happen some distant day: The election of an African-American president 145 years after emancipation. I am thankful,” he said.

“In addition to God's grace, my beautiful wife, Sophia, and lovely daughter, Hannah Grace, our parents and friends, I am thankful that America had hope and with that hope felt comfortable (enough) to believe in what they had no understanding of – realizing that the time has come for us to grow and to begin to change the way we have done business in the past,” said Democratic strategist Craig Kirby.

Media personality and life coach Blanche Williams, who has overcome a rash of challenges in the past several years to become a celebrated motivational speaker, said Obama’s victory was important not just to her, but to future generations.

“In 2008, I'm grateful to be the mother of a nine-year-old boy who has found a role model he can believe in while living in a time where Americans have elected a president for the change we deserve! Our nation has finally matured into its greatness!” Williams told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Khalfani also said she was grateful to have three healthy children ages 11, eight and three, “each of whom has boundless energy and a zest for life. Yet almost every week, I see or hear about kids who are sick, disabled or beaten down by their circumstances.”

And, she said, she was moved by Obama’s election because when she tells her children, “‘You can be anything you want to be, even the president of the United States,’ I can truly mean it, and they can truly believe it.”

She added that she also was thankful that hard times have taught her what may be the most valuable lesson of all: “Namely that you don't need to stuff your life with ‘things’ in order to gain a (false) sense of contentment – not during the holiday season, or any other time of year.”

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