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Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Really. I love the food, the meaning of it, and being with family. It's the one holiday I think everything should be shut, no one should be working, and everyone should be reflecting about how lucky they are to be alive.
Of course Thanksgiving is overshadowed by Christmas. Each year Christmas starts earlier and earlier. Stores bombard us with decor and music before Halloween even hits. Actually long before in some cases. Buy a fake tree, buy your decorations, but most importantly, buy your gifts! It's as if the store walls are screaming at us to buy gifts.
I can't really say much about this because I love Christmas as much as the rest. You could hear me singing jingle bells to Lyla in September and my iPod has been full of Christmas music all year long. But the fact is, to me Christmas is not about gifts (don't sigh or roll your eyes, I am not a perfect saint, although some like to think it and I don't correct them...). Christmas is about family and being thankful. Just like every other holiday. And to many people, it's about faith and celebrating their faith and the love they have for God. That is why we call it Christmas after all. We are celebrating the day Christ was born; whether you believe in it or not.
So just in case you skipped my last paragraph because there were words like saint, God, and Christ, let me recap. Christmas is not a day to give presents, it's a day to celebrate your faith and to be with family.
Every year I think about this and every year, I still go overboard with gifts. But not this year. I have already received the best gift I'll ever get; she has blue eyes and smiles whenever she sees me. So I have no need for anything more. Our whole family will be together on Christmas, and that is our gift to them; being together. Of course I'll get a couple small things for our parents and my siblings, but that's it. I don't want to raise Lyla thinking that Christmas = presents. We already have enough kids out there like that.
Now this whole issue "gets my back up" (to quote my husband's favorite phrase). Especially when we discuss the topic of so-called Black Friday. Can I just say before I continue that the moron who created this phrase is severely demented. Think about it, people. Black anything means not good. I think immediately of the "black plague". Is black Friday something I want to be involved with when I think of the plague? Not really... So stores harass you with stupid flyers, crazy commercials, and supposedly ridiculous sales; not to mention the fact they open at midnight on Thanksgiving night or something crazy like that.
So not only are you forgetting about Thanksgiving in August because of the early Christmas stuff in stores, but you're also not even really celebrating it as you start planning your Black Friday shopping agenda which starts before your turkey is even digested. All I have to say is we need to give Thanksgiving some more love and no matter the state of the economy, Black Friday really is dumb.
All you whackados who show up to stores at God awful hours of the night and morning to secure the hard to get toy, get that silly sale price, and compete with everyone else and their mother to get that lat stupid thing, shame on you! Enjoy Thanksgiving people, realize that Christmas is not about gifts, and teach the stupid stores a lesson by not shopping on Black Friday.
Now, I must close this argument with an anecdote. We are BJs wholesale club members. We got the stupid Black Friday flyer and Jared pointed something out. I have been wanting to buy a treadmill for ages but refuse to pay thousands for one and refuse to buy one used that is crap. So in other words I'll never find one... But anyways in the BJs flyer they have a really nice treadmill on sale for half price; and you have to get up at 2:30am and buy it online. Here is where I'm going to call myself a big fat hypocrite as I will be setting my alarm for 2:26am on Thursday night so I can finally get the treadmill I've always wanted. Just remember people, it is not a Christmas gift though!
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