Happy Thanksgiving! And a happy Hanukkah to our Jewish readers. Hanukkah and Thanksgiving won’t overlap again until 2070.
Create a free Thanksgiving video ecard at Storybots.com. Storybots was created by the folks at JibJab, and if you’ve read my blog at all during the holidays you know that I’ve used their videos a lot. They’re fun, funny and themed — just what I need for holiday posts.
Watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on live TV (free of course). The parade airs on NBC, check your local listings.
More free videos: Watch 8 episodes of Martha Stewart’s Thanksgiving Celebrations for free on Hulu.com.
Being thankful doesn’t cost anything. If you really want to get into the spirit of Thanksgiving, take the challenge of writing down 100 things that you’re grateful for. Here’s some items to get you started (these are some of what I’m thankful for): God, family, the necessities of life, modern technology, modern medicine (it was essential to the fact that I still have my wife and children), simple-every-day things like blankets and silverware, and this great country with religious freedoms and other freedoms. My son and I watched the Charlie Brown Mayflower show on Netflix this week. Of course, it was just a kid show, but it helped me think about the sacrifices that were made to colonize and establish this country. I’m grateful for those who have come before us.
I’m also thankful for the all the freebies that are available during the holidays, and it’s not just because I like freebies. It’s because they enable me to provide a more exciting Christmas for my kids. I don’t particularly like that stores are opening even earlier this year, with some of the best deals taking people away from their families on Thanksgiving; and there is something to be said about bringing the focus of the holidays away from commercialism and back to the events for which they were created to commemorate. Yet, if someone has the desire or even the need to be frugal, they’ve probably started their online shopping already, and they’ll be out for “Gray Thursday” deals this evening, followed by many of the “Black Friday” deals tomorrow. Here’s to wishing you the best balance between the shopping and the real purpose of the holidays.
Anyone who is following this blog may have noticed that the Black Friday Freebies 2013 post continues to get updated as freebies are found. It may even be updated tomorrow after many of the deals are expired. This is because the post itself can act as a good reference for next year. Referring to it may also be useful when my “Free Christmas Gifts” post is put up in December.
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