A long time ago, in a land far away(North Carolina), a little girl named Katie heard her Dad complaining about people who put up Christmas lights and decorations before Thanksgiving. The wise dad said that we shouldn't forget Thanksgiving in our rush to get to Christmas. Katie listened, took heart and forever after was properly irate at every instance of early decorating or carol playing. Now fast forward a few years to a long car trip with Katie complaining on and on about all the Christmas lights. Dan finally just said "Yep, no one respects the bird anymore." A little Emma voice piped up from the back saying, "Yeah... they eat it!" HA HA "Respect the bird" has since become a favorite family phrase. Two years ago I surprised Dan with a sign to go with his big turkey. One of our elderly neighbors asked my good neighbor friend, ""Is that a religious thing?" We laughed and laughed. When I see the retail stores rushing towards Christmas, the big turkey in my yard reminds me to stop and be grateful. I love the holiday which only purpose is to eat lots of food, hang out with family and friends, watch football, ooh and ahh over the Macy's balloons and most of all to give thanks for our blessings. I, for one, have too many to count, including you all! It's only 3 more days, hold out, Respect the Bird!
9 comments:
I LOVE this story Crystal! Thanks for sharing. And just for the record, I'm respecting the bird.
I respect the bird into the middle of December to make up for the rest of the world. If I thought I could get away with it, I would do it until the 24th.
GO BIRD
We love the Bird. We also really love the day after the bird when the big sales happen. So for us it's eat the bird then look at the paper for the deals then up early the day after to shop.
No better way to respect the bird than to celebrate black friday and save $. If I can walk after turkey day football that is.
It is a good thing that Charlie is respecting the bird because Emma is in fact a green belt in Tae Kwon Do.
A green belt? WOW! That's better than a brown belt right?
After being in retail for so many years, I refuse to shop on holidays, ESPECIALLY black Friday. I swear if they opened the gates of every insane asylum on black Friday the crazies would fit right in with the rest of the shoppers. To me no amount of savings is worth shopping on that day.
Luckily my holiday gift shopping was done over a month ago... and I don't decorate until well after thanksgiving; staring at Grandma Margie's (the last week in November and my house the week after.
I used to love Christmas, now I don't really enjoy it until the 24th-26th. I think working retail really destroys having any true Christmas spirit because those shoppers out there sure don't have any!!!
You guys just need to move to the Friendly South. I used to avoid going out on that Friday but some friends talked me into it and we had a fabulous time! All the shoppers were laughing, having fun and as long as I steer clear of Wal-Mart the customer service is awesome. We also started a tradition of breakfast at Chick-fil-a and you can't beat a chicken biscuit on Black Friday! HMMMM hmmmm good!
Don't forget to take your mp3 player! I have found that shopping is much more pleasant since I started wearing headphones. Music cures all sorts of aggravation.
I'm doing my part (though like Uncle Mike it might be because I just don't get around to Christmas until later) .... I've always loved Thanksgiving - oh what good memories I have of the Larsen family thanksgivings - big enough to fill the church and fixins galore. those were good times!
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