It is a little sad to think Thanksgiving has almost lost its identity as a holiday. Instead, it has become a virtual launching pad for the Christmas season.

In earlier times Christmas decorations in the stores weren’t even on display until Thanksgiving was over, but Christmas items and decorations have already been in the stores for at least a month, maybe more.

If it keeps backing up, in a few years the red and green Christmas decorations will compete with the red, white and blue colors of July Fourth!

Thanksgiving has become one of the biggest shopping days of the year with all the Black Friday sales beginning on Thanksgiving eve. A few stores have decided to not hold the Black Friday event this year to give their employees the day off to celebrate Thanksgiving.

I wonder how that will work out for their holiday sales.

However, some people are way ahead of this, They have their Christmas shopping done way before Black Friday with presents bought, wrapped and under the Christmas tree….yes, under the tree!

If you will look around you will see Christmas decorations appearing on the fronts of houses and in the yard, reflecting the decorations inside the house, including decorated trees (plural). Some don’t even bother to take down the outdoor decorations during the rest of the year and plug them in for the current year.

They have shoved last year’s decorated tree into the nearest empty closet until it’s time to take it out again!

In my opinion, Thanksgiving is an excellent holiday and should not be pushed aside. With the sometimes apparent greed of the Christmas season looming on the horizon, Thanksgiving becomes even more important. It is a great time to just sit back and count blessings and be truly, truly thankful for many things.

We do have so very much for which to be thankful…and if you can’t think of anything else, be thankful that you are able to go Christmas shopping, physically and financially!

Although we tend to push Thanksgiving into the background as we leap into the Christmas season, it just goes to show that people have “wised up” about their holiday shopping and decorating. Getting it over and done allows them to enjoy the holiday activities and not worry about last-minute shopping.

On Thanksgiving Day, we throw the turkey in the oven, make the dressing and giblet gravy, bake the pumpkin pie, get the vegetables ready and stuff ourselves so we can go back to work on Friday morning, full and tired, complaining because we ate too much. Then we are ready to begin Christmas shopping in earnest — but wait — the stores have been hit on Thanksgiving and most of the things we planned to buy are gone! And they were on sale too!

To each his own! That’s another of our blessings. To be able to do what we want when we want, whether it be shopping early or late, decorating when we please, even leaving our decorations up all year if we please.

For me, this week I will stop each day and think long and hard about my blessings and be thankful. I will be thankful that I am an American and can publicly express my thankfulness. I am thankful that no matter what happens in this messed up world, Almighty God is still in control.

I am thankful that I have a good, loving family. I am thankful for our health and for the opportunities I have to express myself. The list goes on and on.

At our house, Christmas will take its place next month.

This week, we will eat turkey and celebrate Thanksgiving.