That’s right … the same gang you had at your Thanksgiving Day dinner table yesterday, were standing at the crack of dawn, noses pressed against the store windows, and umbrellas aloft to keep them dry, while waiting for the stores to open.  Some shoppers have camped outside Best Buy since Tuesday morning to take advantage of some of the hot deals on electronics they were offering today.  Their families brought tables and turkey dinners so they did not miss out on the festivities.  I do hope everyone tucked a turkey-and-stuffing sandwich into their purses or pockets to fuel them through this shop-til-you-drop day.

I’ve written in this blog before about my adventures going shopping on Black Friday … that was back when the stores were closed on Turkey Day to permit their employees to enjoy Thanksgiving with their families; then it was a big deal for Radio Shack or the toy stores to open at 7:00 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving – in fact, it probably wasn’t even called Black Friday then.  I went to Fairlane Mall where the throng of customers were over-eager and rude and I had enough after less than an hour and left for home.

For me, today I am content to enjoy my Thanksgiving leftovers, wrap my hands around a cup of aromatic cappuccino and to begin writing out my Christmas cards and letters, the latter are for my late mom’s friends who have yet to climb aboard the social media train and enter cyberspace.

Also eliminated from my holiday tasks is the time spent decorating for one full day on the day after Thanksgiving and then taking the decorations down in an all-day event on New Year’s Day.  Though the house is small, it required tucking away the everyday knickknacks, then remembering where everything was hidden some five weeks later.  Months later, my mom or I would open a bureau drawer and find a little hand-carved duck tucked under a sweater that we forgot to put back out on the shelf and never missed.  The wreath is on the door and Marcella, the brown fuzzy reindeer with the Scotch-plaid antlers is sitting on the corner cabinet – call me Scrooge, but these days I keep it simple.

This dreary and drizzly day put a kibosh on walking unfortunately, but did permit some extra and welcome Zzzzzs, but I hope to be up and at it once again tomorrow.