Post-thanksgiving got me thinking, why only recognize how much you have to be thankful for 1 out of 365 days in the year? At this point in my life, I have truly experienced "a year of realizing things", and one of them has been how thankful I am for my dad, Bruce Ryan.

You may not think you have had much influence on me as I was growing up, Mom always seemed to be the primary parent in my life, and for a while she really was, but now I realize how much you've really done behind the scenes.

We went through rough times when I was younger, some of them I wish I didn't remember as vividly as I do, and sometimes I thought our family would fall apart. I remember thinking about conversations I wanted to have with you when I was older, I remember wanting to make you laugh the way Charles always did, and I wanted to grow up to be your best friend.

Now that were here, I've come to understand you more. In the past, I didn't always understand you and your personality, but our occasional heart-to-hearts over my older years have made me realize how much more I am like you than I thought. The advice that I have gotten from you and simple talks that we've had as I grew up, have comforted me and made up for all those years when not everything in our family was quite right.

You said to me recently that when Charles, Molly and Jane were growing up, you really didn't give a f***. Even when I was born 10 years later, you still didn't care. But when I was out late one night and you sent a text checking in on me, and telling me you loved me at 1 am, I knew you cared. You changed, and you have evolved into a much wiser, stronger man. The will power and faith that you have deep inside you could move mountains. I know those strong-willed and emotional qualities (that you don't always show) that I have, come from you.

I've seen you at your worst, and I've seen you better, and at the point that we are at in life right now, I know you are my best friend, my "number one", and I will always make time and be thankful for my number one.