Thumbs up to the spirit of Thanksgiving.

New Year’s Eve is about booze and celebration. The Fourth of July is about fireworks and outdoors fun. Halloween is candy and parties. Christmas, intended as a major Christian event, is often seen as a time for spending large sums of money and stressing about the cost and hassle.

Thanksgiving remains a time for family and friends, a chance to gather over a feast and enjoy time free from work and worry. While an increasing number of Americans work on Thanksgiving — which is a sad development, in our view — for most of us, it is a time of rest and relaxation.

The 15th annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner is a shining example of how to observe this holiday. Like so many other family- and community-oriented events, Powell knows how to do this right.

So enjoy the Thanksgiving weekend. It’s also an opportunity to give thanks for the many good things in our lives. We certainly intend to do so.

Thumbs down to the wild charges and foolish claims made during a meeting at Powell City Hall on Nov. 21.

Staffers representing Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso and Rep. Cynthia Lummis heard bizarre, unfounded statements from eight people during the one-hour meeting. The staffers did their jobs, writing down what was said and sending them on to their bosses’ offices.

But the claims were incredible and a clear sign that you can fool some of the people all of the time: President Obama is aiding Muslim terrorists. Obama is an undercover agent using false ID and working to harm the country. The United Nations controls Yellowstone National Park.

The repeated use of a racist and offensive term referring to Hispanics only added to the sad situation. Frankly, it is disappointing that none of the congressional staffers told the man who spewed that terrible word time and time again to stop saying it.

We wish people would spend their time discussing the very real problems we face and not waste their time speculating on such absurd things.

Thumbs up to the generosity of people in the local community for supporting Theresa Pike, who is recovering from a brain hemorrhage suffered at just about the worst possible time.

Pike was in Cancun, Mexico, on Nov. 14, ready to celebrate the wedding of her son Dustin to his fiancée Heather Bogus. But Pike fell in a hotel lobby and struck her head. What should have been a day of joy turned into a time of fear.

Thankfully, Pike has responded to treatment and is now in a Houston hospital. But the Mexican hospital was unbelievably cruel to the family, repeatedly demanding cash payments to keep Pike alive. She was finally flown to Houston, where Medicare will cover much of the costs.

Still, the family faces a mountain of bills. However, her friends and neighbors in the area are showing amazing support, raising more than $30,000 within a few days as word spread.

More assistance is needed. If you can help, go to www.gofundme.com/hmvmpk.

Thumbs down to the company that signed a three-year contract to audit Park County’s books and is now demanding a raise one year into the deal.

CliftonLarsonAllen submitted the low bid and was awarded the contract for $35,000 for 2013, $36,060 for 2014 and $37,132 for 2015. It is now asking for an additional $7,500 this year, saying the job is more daunting than it realized.

When the bid was submitted, the Park County commissioners had warned the company in advance about the need to prepare the financial schedules. They gave that warning specifically because the previous auditor walked away after one year after being surprised by that work The county’s books are compiled on a cash basis, forcing the auditor to convert financial statements on an accrual basis. That means they will end up with the time-consuming task of essentially auditing their own work.

But that was the deal they struck.

However, the commission voted to approve the extra payment, if CliftonLarsonAllen has to do more work than originally planned. The county is making an effort to do the work itself.

Perhaps there needs to be an employee with financial expertise in either the clerk’s or treasurer’s office that can prepare the schedules. Colleen Renner, who takes office as the new county clerk in January, would be wise to hire someone with such skills for her staff.

But in the future, the county should get firm figures from prospective auditing firms — not estimates, as happened in this case — and make sure the company knows exactly what it is getting into for the money it will be paid.

Thumbs up to the Northwest College volleyball team, which finished fourth in the nation during the NJCAA Division I National Volleyball Championships in Casper last weekend.

This team delighted its followers all season but never more so than during the national tourney, as it knocked off the top-ranked team in the country in a thrilling match that didn’t end until almost midnight Nov. 20.

While this late-season run was enjoyable, another thing worth celebrating is the exposure the Lady Trappers received. Coach Shaun Pohlman has taken NWC to the national tournament two years in a row and is building a powerful program.

That will serve Northwest College well in the future. Nice work, team.