THAT WAS MY THOUGHT this afternoon as I sat down with my cup of Trader Joe’s Harvest Blend tea, my favorite autumn sip.

Cinnamon!

Yes, I was smelling it again. Oh, thank the olfactory gods. My sniffer was back on the job.

Just wanted to let loyal Reefers know: I will be smelling again for Christmas. (Yeah, yeah, let it go; you know what I mean.)

In the midst of my bout with COVID, I had lost my sense of smell (which accounts for something like 80 percent of your sense of taste). I had read that people who had lost their senses of smell and taste to COVID have regained the senses in a few days, or a few weeks, or a few months — or not at all. I chose not to ponder the latter. A life without the smell of fresh-ground coffee? Rain-washed forest? Roasting chicken? Bleak. For the near time, I was bemoaning the prospect of an aroma-free Yuletide.

My sincere sympathies go out to the multitudes who have suffered longtime disabilities from COVID, not to mention the countless families who have lost loved ones. I don’t make light of the incomprehensible tragedy.

But I do whisper a thank you into the stratosphere. In the coming month, I will count my blessings every time I smell a Christmas cookie pulled fresh from the oven. I am lucky and I know it.

Happy holidays, all. Be careful out there.