Time With Family

Every year, the week of Thanksgiving becomes pandemonium in the United States.  Mostly a U.S. tradition (shared also by Canada), Thanksgiving was originally celebrated to give thanks for the first harvest by the pilgrims in 1621.  It was, and still is, a time for families to gather together and give thanks for not only the harvest, but for each other, and anything good that has happened in their lives.  Yet, there is a darker side to Thanksgiving that often times casts a long, dark, shadow over the events of one day.  With families gathering together, stress runs high while trying to prepare all the food, travelling to visit families becomes a chore, and for many, their thoughts pass right by Thanksgiving to Black Friday and the money they can save while shopping for Christmas.  Don't get me wrong, the essence of Thanksgiving is still largely present, families everywhere gather with each other to share food and give thanks for one another, yet the actual time spent with families seems to be diminishing.  The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is lauded as the busiest travel day of the year.  Thousands upon thousands of people pack into their cars, storm the airports, and largely freak out in their attempt to see their families.  As a result of this, I personally never travel far for work on that day as getting home could take hours if I traveled far.  One has to think, is all the stress of traveling on that one day worth it to see family?  If it is that worth it to see family, why not take the whole week off, make it easier, and start the travels the weekend before Thanksgiving?  I know, its the loss of work for a few days and the fact that most people don't want to spend an entire week with their family.  Luckily for me, we never travel out of state for Thanksgiving and as such, are able to reduce our stress somewhat.  Once we get past the travel, we can actually settle down on Thanksgiving and celebrate with family.  Of course, that is unless that family is hell bent on attending a foot ball game in the morning followed by an afternoon of football watching on the good old boob tube. 

I witness it every year at Thanksgiving, however, I for one never take part in the football aspect of Thanksgiving.  I personally think that it takes something away from the actual Thanksgiving day in that it distracts families from spending quality time with each other.  After the Thanksgiving meal, it is usually the men who retreat to the couches, sofas, and lounge chairs to let the food settle, their eyes close halfway, and watch the game unfold.  I can't help but think how hard it must be for those who play football to leave their families or not even celebrate Thanksgiving because they have to play a game on that day.  Wouldn't it be easier, especially for the players, to move those games to Friday?  Just a thought that I know will never happen, but it would be nice if those players got to spend a little more time with their families instead of suiting up to play a game.  But I am biased as I never really cared for football.  It almost seems as if the actual day of Thanksgiving has been whittled down to just a meal.  Both before and afterwards, families get involved in other activities whether it be football, running 5K's, or something else that detracts from the time spent with family.  It seems a large complaint of people is that they don't get to spend enough time with their families.  Yet, when you have a whole day to do just that, people get pulled away and end up spending only a few hours with their families.  I guess what I am saying is that if you are going to spend a day that is meant to be spent with your family involved in other activities, then don't complain about not spending enough time with your family.  And that leads me to perhaps the most detracting element of Thanksgiving, can you guess it, yup, its Black Friday, the dreaded day where stores are mobbed, fights over items commence, and people turn into wild animals. 

The unfortunate part is, people start planning for Black Friday on Thanksgiving, flipping through flyers, finding the best deals in town, and plotting their route from store to store to store.  Black Friday, to me, brings out the worst in a lot of people and just goes to show how crazy people can be when it comes to buying stuff.  That is exactly what people buy, stuff.  A lot of it is presents for Christmas, but many also simply head to the stores to fill up their houses with stuff they think they need but really don't.  With so much on people's minds, how can they honestly take time to enjoy their family and get to know them a little better.  Maybe this year we can all spend a little more time with family instead of getting distracted by everything else going on in our lives.  On Thanksgiving, lets all hit the pause button on the rest of our lives and focus our energy on listening to and being with our families.  There is nothing more important than family.  When all our friends, customers, clients, acquaintances, and others are gone, our family will most likely still be there for us.  Is it always easy to deal with our families?  No, but the more we spend time with them, the more we understand them, and the closer we get to them.  Lets all take a step back and really consider what is important to us, give thanks for that, and relax on the day of Thanksgiving.