Black Friday

One of my favorite things about the Thanksgiving weekend is Black Friday. Don't get me wrong - I love Thanksgiving; in fact I'm a purist, meaning that I think the entire day needs to be spent as a holiday. Sure, we watch football but we're at home not in a line somewhere waiting to buy stuff. We may not spend the day remembering how the Indians saved the Pilgrims from starvation, but if we thought about why we even celebrate Thanksgiving...I'm sure we'd be grateful.

My second favorite thing about the Thanksgiving weekend is going to Ihop (the international house of pancakes) on Friday morning for breakfast. I always get the Breakfast Sampler with plain American pancakes, and I eat my pancakes with boysenberry syrup. (I love their pancakes!)

Ihop used to be my third favorite thing and shopping early on Black Friday my second favorite thing, but I no longer go shopping on Black Friday since retailers got greedy and ruined the fun. I used to look forward to viewing the Ads the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (to see where I'd go on Friday,) but I don't even buy a newspaper since most sales for Black Friday begin before Black Friday! (On Thursday, I don't want to be shopping in some store or waiting in some line to get a deal - I want to be at home with my family eating turkey and watching football!)

Now that sales for Black Friday begin before Friday, the people who benefit are the one's who don't care about Thanksgiving. I care about the holiday, therefore, I get to miss out on waiting in the crowd for the store to open it's doors. And, because I don't shop on the holiday, I also get to miss out on the deals.

Our waiter at Ihop said they were really busy last night from 11:30pm to 4:00am. That means people shopped on Thanksgiving then went to Ihop to get food. I'm not gonna shop in the middle of the night - I'm gonna sleep! While I'm sleeping, people are buying things.

I feel sad to know I won't shop on Black Friday anymore, and that retailers ruined something fun because of their greed. But, I feel happy to know that I get to have pancakes on the Friday morning after Thanksgiving. Mmmm, pancakes!