Happy Thanksgiving For Some

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone

Especially to all the consumers out there, waiting in line, on this day to purchase the latest deals on sale today. Items that are destined to be discontinued months from now as newer tech items go on sale by spring time.

Thank you for showing the retail stores that you are willing to sacrifice your paid day off during this holiday time that is meant to celebrate family togetherness with family and friends to go shopping. On this day, department stores are now opened as are grocery stores and fast food places.

Today I wish to thank you for turning Thanksgiving into another work day for me and many other people who use to have this day off, just the way you did for Easter. May you have mercy for December 25^th as it is now the last holiday where many of us can still call it a non-working holiday. 

Happy Thanksgiving

I have to work this Thanksgiving so I want to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope your family gatherings are more enjoyable than the turkeys.

The Death of Thanksgiving

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I enjoy Thanksgiving. It is a time to remember those who came to this continent and survived their first winter. Over the years that event has evolved to morning parades followed by football games while fighting over the last bread roll with relatives you see once a year. The joy of getting paid not to work. But all that has now changed. And the culprit’s responsible for this are everywhere.

Being in my mid 40’s I have seen a great deal of lifestyle changes over the years. The one that went to a quick death was having Sunday off. It used to be that grocery store and other types of businesses were closed on Sunday. That changed as a few grocery stores started opening up after Sunday service. It didn’t take long for other stores to join in to eventually every form of business turned Sunday into another work day. The culprits responsible for this enjoyed it with glee.

Soon other holidays began to change as well because of these people. Easter was the last holiday where all stores were closed. People went to church, had cook outs and spent time with their family. Now it’s just another work day. There used to be other holidays that kids had a day off from school and paid holidays for the working people. But all that changed. Holidays merged together. Labor Day is now a regular work day as others were downgraded in importance to a simple memo on a calendar.

Now with Christmas being the last major holiday where individuals and families are truly home together to celebrate this day as Thanksgiving has fallen into the category of just another work day. Grocery stores are opened to nearly 6 PM. Even some department stores are doing the same thing. And if grocery stores and department stores are opened means that vendors have to work to service those stores.

And on this 2012 Thanksgiving many of those department stores like Target and Wal-Mart are ether staying open all day or opening up at 6 PM Thanksgiving Evening. Many grumblings have gone out with threats of a strike from Wal-Mart employees as Target employees are not that far behind. Employees basically have an early Thanksgiving dinner with their families, if possible, then try to get some sleep as they will be required to work all through the night and into the next day.

It should be noted that several years ago a grocery store chain called Winn-Dixie had the idea of staying open on Christmas day. They did very little to no business that day as that publicity stunt cost the company plenty. Public reaction was swift and by the following year the grocery store company closed down all their stores with the exception of a few in Florida.  

The ones responsible for grocery and department stores staying open this Thanksgiving Day, for turning Easter and Labor Day into another work day, the ones who convinced store owners to open up business on Sunday are the same people who stand in front of stores complaining about having to wait to get in. The customers.

These people want everything at their disposal. They were given stores and restaurants that stay open 24 hours. They turned Easter into a day of special shopping deals as kids dye eggs and eat chocolate rabbits. Christians can be found walking the malls and department stores as this holiday gets watered down more and more each year.

Grocery and department stores have bent over backwards for these people. And now as another holiday is going down in flames these stores continue in giving what the customers want. These same customers, who some of them are vendors; now have to adjust to working on another holiday, as others people are finding out that their place of employment is staying open for the holiday.

So as grocery stores are closing up Thanksgiving evening, look at the people inside the stores or banging on the doors to get in five minutes after the store closes. These are the ones who are making everybody else go to work. Their wanting has been given to them at the cost of our holiday.

Vacation (with kids)

One of the great joys parents have while on vacation is the long trips, whether it’s by plane or car, they share with their children. Especially with the constant updates on the arrival and departure times; “Are we there yet?” or “Can we go home now?” But recently during the family vacation I did not have the luxury of these “helpful” updates from my two boys. Mainly due to a recent invention that keeps them as quiet as a mouse, the Nintendo DS system. Once I purchased this item for them, they stop being so helpful in making sure the next vacation never happens again.

Each with their Nintendo DS as both are constantly plugged into the cigarette lighter so they stay fully charged, they stayed glued to those little screen games during the long hours of car travel time. It is so quiet now that my wife and I can actually have a conversation about what we want to talk about. Not that I don’t care about Sponge Bob.

As the vacation was coming to an end, we got a hotel for the final night so we could be well refreshed and home by the afternoon the next day. But which hotel to choose from out of the many that was all planted together along the road. They all looked like a puppy at the pet store; “Pick me” “No pick me”. I chose one based on the rumblings of my stomach and parked the car at the hotel next door to a Wendy’s, which also happened to be the only fast food place anywhere nearby.

It is the Marriott Residence Inn that made my kids and wife wished we took our vacation there instead. We got the two bedroom with kitchenette suite. Each bedroom had its own bathroom and TV set. As soon as we got settled in, the boys automatically picked out the room they wanted and crashed on the bed with the TV set on Cartoon Network and their heads buried into their Nintendo DS’s. Not a peep out of them for hours.

It was heaven. My wife disappeared into our own bathroom for a nice long soak in the tub, boys in their room playing games and I’m in the living room watching TV while stretched out on the couch. Dinner time we simply walked over to Wendy’s, had a great dinner. Picked up some grocery items the hotel sells in the lobby and back in our hotel room a short time later. The next day as we were packing up and leaving, both boys and my wife want to come back to this place for our next vacation, which we most defiantly will.

This vacation cost a pretty penny but finding such a wonderful place to where we can still be in a hotel room and still keep some sort of privacy was a blessing. Also the Nintendo’s did help out greatly. If only the hotel which gave us free internet access didn’t keep cutting off on us all the time.

National Parents Day

The Background

Many Americans are unaware that our nation has a new day of commemoration called Parents' Day. This is good news for America's parents and families.

In 1994 President Bill Clinton signed into law the resolution unanimously adopted by the U. S. Congress establishing the fourth Sunday of every July as Parents' Day, a perennial day of commemoration similar to Mother's Day and Father's Day. According to the Congressional Resolution, Parents’ Day is established for "recognizing, uplifting, and supporting the role of parents in the rearing of children."

The establishment of Parents’ Day was the result of a bipartisan, multiracial and interfaith coalition of religious, civic and elected leaders who recognized the need to promote responsible parenting in our society and to uplift ideal parental role models, especially for our nation's children.

Since the creation of this annual day of commemoration, local faith communities, elected officials and activists throughout the nation have creatively launched many activities around the theme of Parents' Day designed tocelebrate and strengthen the traditional, two-parent family.

The National Parents' Day Council does not envision Parents' Day to be yet "another" day to honor parents, but rather a day when parents honor their children and the God-centered family ideal by rededicating themselves to manifest the highest standard of unconditional true love.

The Opportunity

The establishment of Parents’ Day affords a wonderful opportunity for communities, organizations, churches, mosques, synagogues and temples to honor exemplary parents and to encourage families everywhere to invest in our most precious resource – our children.  Among the most popular of these activities has been the recognition of outstanding couples as parental role models who have been honored as "Parents of the Year"at the national, state, local and faith community level.

We encourage you to get involved in helping us recognize outstanding parents worthy of this recognition by establishing a Parents' Day Selection Committee in your faith community or local area.  Please also recommend such parents to your state's National Parents' Day Council affiliate or our national office for consideration to be selected "Parents of the Year" at the state or national level.

WHY PARENTS' DAY?

In every culture and time period, the family has stood as the most fundamental human institution. Family is the starting point of life, the sustainer of well-being, and the school of love. A family begins with the joining together of man and woman, husband and wife, becoming father and mother – and parents. The most powerful of human bonds is the parent-child relationship.

Commitment to family has always been a core value. Tragically, however, what was often held as a common value, recognized as common sense, even understood as self-evident in the past, is sometimes not so today.

As our nation struggles with effects of family breakdown, youth violence and a host of other critical problems, more and more voices are calling for a re-examination of our priorities and fundamental values. Too often we have let other concerns take precedence over our responsibilities as parents. Yet is there any more important calling than that of nurturing and raising a child?

Unfortunately, our popular culture over the past several decades has emphasized self-fulfillment and self-gratification. Such focus on the self runs counter to the essence of parenthood, which fundamentally involves unconditional true love.

Parents' Day provides an opportunity to recognize and promote parenting as a central vocation for our families and communities. More than just a time to celebrate, it is an occasion to make a statement about what is important in our society. It is a chance to create a positive tradition based on a core axiom – that the role of parents is crucial in the nurturing and development of children, and thus requires investment, focus, and commitment.

It's Christmas time

Zebulon, North Carolina, a small town a few miles (kilometers) from our home, has begun to put up Christmas decorations around the entire city. Even the local buisness have Christmas tree's and lights all around their shops as well.