#81- Before Black Friday

I love this time of year. We go from Halloween and all the trick or treating fun, to Thanksgiving, a day of family and food and fun and simply giving thanks to a wonderful God for all the blessings he showers upon us.  And now thanks to my daughter and my daughter-in-law, I have gotten sucked into Black Friday shopping.  A few years ago the two talked me into going Black Friday shopping at 3:00am.  Now the only thing I knew about Black Friday was from a friend who did it every year, and the one thing she said that made sense to me about the nonsence of getting up 3 hours after all the merriment and stuffing of Thanksgiving was that Black Friday enabled her to really focus on the spiritual part of Advent, as she was not thinking about Christmas gifts and what she still needed to buy. So, at first when the girls proposed that I come with them on Black Friday because it was sooooo much fun, I remembered the Advent spiriuality thing (vaguely, because as I have shared before the memory is not what it used to be), and so, agreed to join them.  And what do you know?!?! I actually did enjoy it.  Were the stores packed with other wacko women (not too many men are actually seen on this day)??? Yes. Is it ridiculous to get up and venture into the land of shopping frenzy on only 3 hours sleep??? Yes again. But there is something about the comradery that begins with Starbucks coffee at 3am and waiting in the cold with hundreds of others for a store to open its doors, that is fun.  Yes, actual fun!  So, my peevishness is not really about Black Friday but about the advertising in the days BEFORE Black Friday.  In the past, you would hear which store was opening its doors at 5am.  That wasn't good enough however, because that soon got bumped to 3am, and then midnight and now this year some stores are opening at 10pm on Thanksgiving night.  I feel badly for the employees who have to work that night! Always looking for more profits, stores have now advertised over the past week that you can find sales as good as Black Friday this weekend and in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, so why wait.  Why wait indeed?  My recommendation is that the stores just have Black Friday sales all year long, and every weekend open their doors at midnight, and consumers can shop 24/7! Pretty soon, sales leading up to Black Friday will begin on the 4th of July with a parade and fireworks display!