When David Katzberg lost his job at a local Lexus dealership, he never thought he would be unemployed for so long. Employers liked his sales resume during interviews, but then the economy tanked. For almost two years, the 56-year-old from Miami's Fontainebleau Park has lived off once-considerable savings.

''I earned a good income and am a very conservative spender,'' he says. ``But lately you can say I've been on a very strict diet.''

As Thanksgiving approaches, conventional wisdom may say there's not much to be thankful for: unemployment, foreclosures and an uncertainty that has enveloped people's everyday lives.

Yet hard times have a silver lining. Free time from a job loss may mean more time with family. Instead of lamenting what they don't have, people may come to cherish what they do have. Doesn't good news tend to follow bad news?

Katzberg watched his two-bedroom condo's value plummet and his 401(k) shrink by tens of thousands of dollars. At one point, he had $18 cash to his name. ''I've been depressed,'' he says, but rescue came unexpectedly: the last few weeks, he has worked as a consultant for a property management company.

On Thanksgiving, to be spent with friends in Aventura, he'll be thankful for an income, even if it's not what he earned selling cars. And, while unemployment almost drove his bank account negative, it also brought him closer to friends. A yoga aficionado, he spent time teaching pals meditation, something he rarely did before.

Ann Abraham, who lives in Margate, will also cherish a Thanksgiving with family and friends, though for different reasons. Abraham, 59, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma -- bone marrow cancer -- in March. Until recently, she went through chemotherapy weekly. In September, stem cells were removed from her bone marrow, she was given eight hours of chemotherapy and the cells were later reimplanted, leaving her immune system fragile. While recovering, Abraham spent 46 days with little company in an apartment behind the Cancer Institute at Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines. Now, she's finally back home.

''I'm happy to be alive. I can see my grandchildren. I have my whole life ahead of me again,'' she says. That includes cooking turkey for the extended family on Thanksgiving. ``We have so much to be thankful for.''

Like Abraham, Doris Alvarez has also been making many hospital trips. In mid-October, she gave birth to twins boys -- Jorge and Luis -- 28 weeks into pregnancy. The boys will be kept at Memorial Hospital Miramar until shortly after Thanksgiving and while the anticipation is building to bring them home, so is the reality of caring for twins -- especially with two young girls already at home.

''I'm a little scared, the way everything is going now with the economy,'' says Alvarez, 28, of Pembroke Pines. ``But I have faith. We have family trying to help us here and there. I'm just happy to have my boys the way they are.''

For Carmen Duran, it's not her own kids, but three great-grandchildren she's worried about. Duran, 74, lived for a long time with her daughter, son-in-law, two grandchildren and their three kids -- the ones she takes care of now. Yet, four years ago, Duran's daughter died of a aneurysm, and Duran later moved out after a series of complications with the rest of the family, with whom she later severed ties. Duran takes care of the children -- ages 10, 12 and 15 -- through child support, food stamps and Social Security payments in the Southwest Miami-Dade home she bought in 2006.

Her biggest worry is how to pay $3,500 in property taxes. Duran says she's grateful to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Miami, whose volunteers mentor the children. On Thanksgiving, the group is donating a turkey meal to the family.

''When my daughter was alive, we always did it big. It was the family all together,'' she says with tears. Yet, she's thankful for what she has. ``They're wonderful kids and we're together. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't care what would happen.''

On the surface, this Thanksgiving won't be too different from the rest for 16-year-old Ashley Florestal -- she'll still spend it with her mother eating turkey with mashed potatoes and hollering at the TV as the Arizona Cardinals are pitted against the Philadelphia Eagles, but the meaning of the day's rituals have changed.

''I'm realizing I have a pretty good life compared to other people. I have a good family, good friends, good house. Both my parents have jobs,'' says Ashley, who lives in Wilton Manors and goes to Pompano Beach High School. ``I don't have to worry about how I'm going to get medicine because I don't have health care or if I'm going to have electricity tomorrow.''

On Veteran's Day, Ashley took part in a ceremony to honor military members killed in the wars on terrorism. Ashley has friends who graduated this year and are in military training, awaiting deployment.

'Normally, it's just, `Yeah, I'm thankful for family,' '' Ashley says. This year, ``I'm realizing what those words really mean.''

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