My Guilty Thanksgiving Indulgence

Thanksgiving is pretty simple around my house.  I have a small family, so our Thanksgiving meal is usually pretty quiet and uneventful.  There's not much fuss or muss.   

As hostess, this is a big plus.  One thing I am very thankful for is that my family has managed to make Thanksgiving relatively stress free.  (I say relatively because there is ALWAYS stress...I seem to attract it like a magnet, but that's a whole other story.)  And it gives me time to indulge in a favorite annual pastime...

Thanksgiving morning, I will wake up later than usual; which is not late.  I probably won't be out of bed until 7 (which is SHOCKING for me).  I will grab my wallet and head out to the local convenience store and pick up two newspapers:  one for my dad and one for me.  The cost will be higher than the usual daily paper and the paper will be heavier due to all the ads, which my husband says is ridiculous and he's right.  But I will still buy not just a paper for my dad, but for myself as well.  

Once back home, I will have my coffee and cinnamon rolls. (Although this year I'm throwing pumpkin spice into the mix.  My son is not sure he will like them, so we are having both.  And since Thanksgiving weekend marks the end of the pumpkin spice season they have to be consumed soon!)  Then I will sit down with the paper, Thanksgiving Day parade on in the background and go through the paper.  I will read what interest me and then I will ooh and ahh over the Black Friday ads. I will arrange them in order of stores that don't much interest me much at all to stores that I love.  I will carefully go over each and every one.  I'll have to stop to cook, get dressed in proper Thanksgiving attire, to spend time with family and enjoy a meal.  And once Thanksgiving proper is over, I will go back and peruse the ads once more.

Now two things: 

•  I am NOT doing any holiday shopping on Thanksgiving or Black Friday.  I probably won't even shop on Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday.  My holiday gifting is pretty much already mapped out and if not totally complete, it is at least pretty close to being so.  So I am not drooling over these ads for deals.  I'm reading them for mindless entertainment.

• I KNOW I can find the deals and information on line.  I know that "sneak peeks" of Black Friday specials have been out on the web for weeks, or even longer.  Still I buy a paper.  I pay for a bunch of ads.  Ridiculous I know, but I like to have that Thanksgiving paper.  To physically have it in my hand and to paw over it.  To go back and forth and compare items and prices, even though I am not buying anything.  That's part of what makes it a guilty pleasure.

Thanksgiving for me is the day where I am NOT rushing here or there.  Yes, there is a meal that needs to be cooked and served (and due to my food allergies, it will NOT be a turkey), but it's not really that stressful.  (Especially when accompanied by a glass of cranberry wine.)  It is a slower day.  A day when I have time to indulge in this silly pastime of mine.

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for so many things:  my health, my family, my friends, my job and so forth.  Thanksgiving is a day where I can take a breath and appreciate my blessings.  I can be grateful for the little things; like the time I have to just sit back, sip a cup of coffee (or a glass of wine) and dig into those Black Friday ads.

Happy Thanksgiving all!

(Thanksgiving Day update:  Went to get the papers. My usual haunt was not yet open (although they usually open at 5:30 and it was after 6).  Walked (in the COLD) to another location where I found the paper and inserts in two separate piles.  :(  Cost of paper was over two times what it usually costs on a week day (and even more than the Sunday paper.)  Don't think I got all the inserts and there clearly were a lot of ads either missing or non-existent.  Guess this ends the holiday tradition. :(  (On the other hand, I've installed new software on my Nook so that I can get circulars and flyers on a regular basis.  Not the same as a paper, but much better than looking online from my lap top!)