This has been a long, trying year for investors.

A few lowlights:

*Crypto got blown up at the hands of nefarious actors such as FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried.

*Meta’s stock has crashed, and the once untouchable tech company canned 11,000 employees.

*Billionaire Elon Musk owns Twitter, and Tesla stock is in free-fall as a result.

*The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq Composite, and S&P 500 are struggling in 2022 (recent risk-on rallies notwithstanding).

Nevertheless, there are in fact a few reasons for investors to be thankful this holiday season. Here are three things that stand out to us:

One: What recession?

It seems like economists have been calling for a recession all year.

But a technical recession hasn’t happened. On the contrary, according to the Atlanta Federal Reserve GDP, the economy is slated to grow a robust 4.3% in the fourth quarter.

Nobody wants recessions! So be thankful we aren’t in one.

Two: The tech rout, which is actually a good thing

This may seem counterintuitive, but be thankful that the FAANG [Facebook/Meta, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google] complex has lost billions of dollars in market value this year as the Federal Reserve has moved to hike interest rates.

Why? Two reasons.

First, it taught investors a valuable lesson: Even mighty tech companies don’t have stock prices that go up in a straight line forever.

Second, the ground is arguably set for big rallies in these stocks over the next decade now that valuations have been flushed and cost structures reset.

Three: Cheaper stuff is on the horizon

Be thankful that inflation has started to roll over.

The latest CPI Index showed that inflation grew 7.7% over the past twelve months, the smallest 12-month increase since the period ending Jan. 2022.

The CPI Index is expected to slow further in 2023, according to economist estimates.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.