This week of Thanksgiving memories for 2016,    I read it is a “short work week ending in lots of food and shopping and doesn’t get any better than this!” Many look forward to this time of year, all year long.  They’ve stuffed themselves with roast turkey, buttered rolls, pecan pie,  loosened the buckle on their belt  and plan to  gather  in groups to “shop till they drop” for some all out greatly discounted buys. And some super good ones too. 

But then there are others, perhaps this is you like me, who prefer not to be out amongst the traffic and the crowds and do a good bit of your shopping online. Perhaps you shop online ordering through Amazon (my favorite)  similar to how we used to do catalog shopping. Do you remember?  It was bought over the phone or by mail and delivered to a catalog store in the area, like JC Penney and Sears once was in Georgetown, also Sears Catalog store  was in Hillsboro once when I was a child.   Or, if that was too far away to pick up your order, you paid the shipping fees and had it shipped directly to your house. I love to get a package on my doorstep. Even if I am the one to order it and know exactly what is in it, it makes me giddy.  

 This is the way I most prefer shopping.  Ordering in my pajamas, coffee on the table next to me while Christmas music plays through my laptop.  I prefer this to the stories I’ve read of shopping day gone bad. Like this story I read once of a gal that got punched in the face over an electronic. Yep, that’s right. The fight broke out over who was going to get the last one. She jerked on the box declaring, “I had that first!” And then out of nowhere BAM she got slugged in the face.   In the end, she lost the fight and the deal. Angrily storming out of the store, cursing all the way, she got to her car   in such a rage that she backed out of her parking space hitting the car waiting patiently for her spot.  She pounded the steering wheel with her hands. “Great! (it was a different word but I couldn’t write it here)  Just my luck.”  

 Her luck gets worse when the cop arrives and while writing her citation, notes that she is driving with an expired drivers license—two years past expiration. “Oh my God!” she cries out, “Are you kidding me?” In which the cop replied, “No Ma’am. I don’t kid about stuff like this.” In tears, she reaches for her phone usually in her back pocket so someone could drive her home when she realizes she must have lost her phone in the scuffle, not a cheap one at that, an IPhone six. Now she was forced to go back inside to hunt it in hopes she didn’t see her opponent again.  

Shortly after I write this on Tuesday, I’ll be heading out to buy my Butterball turkey.  (or eating the leftovers, depending on when your Pressis delivered.)  I’m hoping there won’t be any fighting at the grocery store. I think that may have happened a time or two over spectacular deals on Butterballs too.   On this one, I’ll have to take my chances and shop.  Only in the movie the Christmas Carol does one have a turkey delivered right to their doorstep that must be plucked and gutted.  But with a thankful heart, Bob Cratchit did so and Tiny Tim was ever so thankful to enjoy a meal with his family in spite of his illness. There is much we can learn from that movie.   A heart transformed and a truly thankful family in spite of life’s calamities. Hope your Thanksgiving is/or was truly enjoyed with a thankful spirit setting you in motion for a season of giving.