On Nov. 18 of last year we started an experiment. And it worked.

Rather than politely rejecting letters to the editor that were basically thank you notes, we dedicated Thursday's letters entirely to expressions of gratitude.

Since that day, Thankful Thursday has easily become the most popular feature on this page. We have more comments of positive reaction from this feature, than anything else we have ever done.

We're grateful for that. So for Thanksgiving, we are treating our readers to reprints of some of our favorite Thankful Thursday letters of the past 12 months.