Thanksgiving

ah, the quintessential blog post about the most recent holiday event. thanksgiving is a time when families gather, share their gratitude one with another and feast til they're ready to pop. there is also the obligatory "turkey bowl" football game where family and friends (usually the guys whilst the women slave away at home preparing the feast) gather for some good natured competition, "rain or shine, preferably rain" as one person put it. for many, the day after thanksgiving is the most important shopping day of the year. so much so that it is called "black friday".


this thanksgiving, corrina, the kids, and i went down to sacramento to spend thanksgiving with corrina's family. her mom has been staying with us helping out so she also came with us. we were staying at corrina's grandma's house but one caveat was that her uncle was also staying there. this house has 3 bedrooms so corrina's mom and grandma shared a room, corrina's uncle got a room, and the four of us (corrina, jaron, lara, and i) got the third one. now i know how the illegal aliens in my mission that live in a one room shack feel.


on the way to sacramento, we dropped corrina's mom off at grandma's house and spent the afternoon with my bro wes and his family. jaron had a great time playing with his cousins. while there, wes invited me to his ward's turkey bowl the next morning. i was grateful for the invite but doubted i would be able to make it because of kids to watch. the next morning, at about the time it was supposed to start, i was going crazy because grandma's house is definitely NOT toddler proof and i was going crazy constantly telling jaron to stop and don't touch so i decided to take him over to the church so we could both get some outside time so we weren't cooped up in the house. i obviously wasn't planning on playing because of having to watch jaron, but it got us out. corrina asked if i could take lara, also because she needed to lay back down and mom and grandma were too busy preparing the food. boy was i surprised and grateful when i saw stephanie there with her kids, too. she TOLD me to give her the kids and go play, i didn't really have a choice :) wes' daughter was even saving a set of flags for me in case i did show up (at least, i think she was, they were for wes' team) i had a great time, jaron had a great time, and i will be forever grateful to my brother and his wife for making it happen.

thanksgiving dinner was good. the only thing missing was a fruit pie (we had pumpkin and sweet potato pie, and apple crisp, but not apple or cherry pie) there's not much else to say in the way of the food.
the day after thanksgiving, as previously stated, is called black friday because it is the day when many people do their holiday shopping with massive door buster sales, etc. this day is ridiculous. people camp out over night outside of major retail outlets to be the first ones in the stores when the door opens at 4am. these same people look at me funny when i say i go to work at 4 in the morning (go figure). the stores count on this huge crowds in order to get people to buy more than they normally would have. its kind of like the mob mentality, but slightly different. people are more apt to buy something because they think they better get it before someone else does. i thought the holiday season was supposed to be about good cheer and brotherly kindness, generosity and charity. i heard on the radio that a walmart employee in new york got trampled to death when the crowd forced the door open, BEFORE THE SCHEDULED TIME. then, the store tried to close down and tell everybody to leave so they could investigate and take care of it, BUT THE CUSTOMERS REFUSED. they wouldn't leave.i would have called in the swat team with full riot gear and tear gas grenades. that is ridiculous. how selfish were these people. they broke into the store before it opened, killed an employee in the process, and refused to listen to the manager (and maybe police) just to be the first in line to get a good deal on a tv?!
for many years i have said i would never step foot inside a major retail giant on black friday during their "door buster deals". leading up to it, corrina kept telling me about these deals at this store or that store, and my response was that no deal was worth stepping foot into a major store on black friday. corrina finally broke me and convinced me to go to toys r us to look for one single item shortly before the "door buster" time ran out (1pm) so i ventured, and as i figured, it was sold out, so i came home. i didn't fight the crowds, i didn't browse for other deals, i didn't even attempt to fight to find a parking spot. i immediately went to the back of the parking lot where i knew spots would be free. even at noon, the crowds trying for door buster savings was intense. i'm not sure i will ever do that again.