Thanksgiving Aftermath

Thanksgiving; the most wonderful time of the year. Sit back and feast on a meal God has provided, contemplating all that you are thankful for and everybody around you. This year proved just that. Its amazing how much we take for granted and how little we really need. Not that I'm on the top of the food-chain in the way of money and belongings, but I am spoiled to have what I have.
Anyway, after preparing food for two days, I had a wonderful quiet little dinner with the most important people in my life, which is a blessing in itself. Myself, my 5 siblings, my mother, and my best friend Ashley all crammed around our crummy little table (which, Lord God, I'm also very thankful for) on our chairs, piano benches, and food grade plastic buckets. We cooked a turkey, made some pies, a bean salad, green beans, mash potatoes, and gravy, all accompanied by cranberry sauce, fruit, and sparkling cider. Before the end of the night, I said goodbye to my fit and fine "sexy" summer days and said hello to my slightly-porkly cuddle-bug winter days. (Not a "bad thing," being I'm "more cuddly" this way, or so says Ashley. Ha.)
But after I ate and the dishes were in the dishwasher, I sat down and remembered that the following morning is widely known as the biggest shopping day in America.
Dear God, cover my eyes, because just around the corner of this Thanksgiving night was the dreaded and weary Black Friday.
I have never shopped on Black Friday, being there really isn't anywhere to shop here in Wallowa. I could have gotten up extra early and drove to LaGrande, or even Lewiston, and shopped until I dropped, but I didn't. I could have gone and gotten a shopping high on all the best deals, scavenging for sales, drooling over the finest cheap electronics, trying on all the latest fashions and accessories, and filling my cart with the prizes and jewels of the winter market in the year 2010, but I didn't.
I went to bed and slept in until about 10:00.
In the morning, I check my Facebook and read a compilation of 'I'm thankful for...' and 'Today I got a deal on...' status updates. News links about the Wal-Mart employee who was trampled to death by deal-thursty shoppers in the wee hours of the morning were circulating.



Oh, the irony, the sheer irony that our God Blessed country's biggest shopping spree of the year is the day immediately our one special Thanksgiving - a day set aside to being thankful for all the we have.
more. More. More! MORE!...get your Christmas shopping out of the way while also satisfying your own wants, needs and desires! (Will somebody gag me with the mashed potato spoon, please?)
We complain and moan about the "true meaning of Christmas" being twisted and manipulated, becoming winter's huge ethical battle. However, we overlook the fact that this needs to start by tending to out need to revise our "thanks giving" and truly make our minds and hearts become thankful. Pigging out, immediately followed by indulging in the shopping deals of the following Friday's dawn, never was meant to be the 'true meaning' of Thanksgiving.
So, close your eyes, fellow Americans, and truly settle on what are you thankful for - that you already have in possession now. Need you obtain anything else so immediately, that you follow up your Thanksgiving evening with a dawn-breaking morning of cart-loading shopping?

I'll close my little rant of a note now, as I need to shower and be somewhat productive today. Also, the roof is leaking on this borrowed laptop and I have some Church history literature to get under my belt today. But I'll close saying this: I am thankful.
What are you?


1 Cor. 10:30 "If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? "