Holidays

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving (at least those of you in America to whom that tradition actually means something – to the rest of you, I hope your Thursday was nice) and that none of you got trampled to death in Wal-Mart, and not only because that’s a crappy place to die, but because I don’t think I’m ready for my readership audience to extend into Heaven (or Hell – you know who you are).

Mine was a bit non-traditional for me: first, we had “dinner” at noon – and since I slept a little late, it ended up being the first meal of my day. I don’t know about the rest of you, but Kellogg’s Pops is generally good enough of a breakfast for me – I don’t need ham, turkey, macaroni and potato salad, Pillsbury Grands and Crescents, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes with beef and chicken gravies, deviled eggs, beet-juiced eggs, home-made stuffing, pumpkin pie, and cranberry sauce. What am I, King of England here?

Secondly it was non-traditional because it soon turned into more of a “Dishes Day” than “Thanksgiving Day.” Granted, I did nothing to help prepare the meal, so it was only right that I do the clean-up afterward. But coming back to the apartment and proceeding to do general accumulated dishes there? I guess I can be thankful that I just twist a knob and get potable water at high pressure, and for the folks who invented Dawn dish liquid (and I am thankful, especially for the first part).

And now it’s Black Friday – though I see some stores just couldn’t wait. Is there any greater evidence of consumerism, commercialism, and instant gratification in our culture than Black Friday being pushed into Thanksgiving? It’s bad enough we try to cram thankfulness into only one out of 365 days (though it brings joy to my heart to see all the folks doing “30 days of thankfulness” for all of November); but now we don’t even want to take the entire day. Hurry up and stuff yourselves and get out there and shop! What is this, a struggling country? Did you plant, cultivate, and harvest what was on your table? Did you do anything more than drive a few miles to the grocery store, curse the lines, cook everything in a controlled (or not so controlled) frenzy, curse at the number of dishes and the contrary relatives, curse at the Detroit Lions, and finally fall asleep? Of course not! You have no excuse to be thankful; so go buy more stuff.

For me, and as much as it drives my fiancée nuts, I will not celebrate Consumermas until December 1^st, thank you very much. That part of the holiday should be thankful I give it the time of day, much less a month of my life. If you want to spend the month thankful for the birth of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we can talk.

But just so you know, money is kind of tight for me this month, so I probably won’t be able to get you any presents. But that’s okay, because that’s not what Christmas is about – right?

See you Monday.