Happy Thanksgiving!

I like the holiday. What's not to like about getting together with family and friends and enjoying a good meal.

Mostly though, I like the idea of taking time out of our busy lives to be thankful. We don't pause to count our blessings often enough. People focus on what they lack instead of what they have. As for me, the most important things in my life are not things at all. They are family, friends, relationships, and the love in my life.

The pause for thanks is short lived. Black Friday has encroached right into Thursday. The meal isn't even cleared off the table and people are running out to go shopping. So much for being thankful for what we already have.

The commercial world must be pretty disappointed with the Thanksgiving holiday. We buy a turkey, maybe some yams and a pumpkin pie and that's about it. There's not a lot of room for spending growth.

Christmas, on the other hand, is a different story. There are no spending limits. No wonder every effort is made to extend the shopping season. Retailers wring their hands in despair when the Thanksgiving holiday falls later in the month. Black Friday comes later, potentially reducing peak shopping days. It's no wonder that Christmas shopping ads began to appear right after Halloween.

It probably won't come to anyone's surprise that I won't be doing any Black Friday shopping. In fact, since my lovely wife and I are traveling this year, little shopping will be done at all. Nope, instead of Black Friday shopping, we'll be celebrating national leftover turkey sandwich day. Sure beats the heck out of a crazy day of shopping.

So take a few moments and give thanks. Contemplate how just being alive is a great gift. Everything else is just stuff.

-Sixbears