Thursday, November 28, 2013

What Happened to Thanksgiving?


 A few weeks ago, just after Halloween, I walked into my second home. I was stunned to see it decked out in Christmas decorations weeks before Thanksgiving. Actually I got really upset. Why are we pushing off one of the best American holidays into non-existence? Most importantly, where did my Thanksgiving blend go?
All joking aside, I love Thanksgiving. It’s a great day, full of all the ideas and concepts that I appreciate most about holidays. I like cooking and spending time with my family and being grateful for what I have. It’s something we should do everyday.

 Sadly, this one day is often the only day we get to appreciate these things. As much as I try to be mindful and grateful every day, this one day is, at the very least, the one day when we can share time with those we love and appreciate them. 
Yes, Christmas is also another time to share with your family. However, the over commercialization of Christmas often leads us to lose the true meaning behind the holiday. Here was an example of Christmas and big business doing just that – pushing the holiday meaning out of the holiday. Let’s just forget about Thanksgiving and remember we need to spend money for Christmas.

It’s sad that people who work in retail will have to work Thanksgiving to make room for all the sales of Black Friday. Big stores are opening up on Thanksgiving to give people an extra shopping day. Really?? Isn’t that what Black Friday is for? You shop the day after Thanksgiving. Spend the day with your family and then go out the day after. Let’s keep Thanksgiving sacred, people! Enjoy this one day since everyone keeps trying to take it away.

Friday, November 8, 2013

Navel Gazing

My daughter is very observant. She's always looking around at what is different, new or moving around. She is obsessed with my dogs, which makes complete sense because I am too. However the thing that interests her most lately is her belly button and everyone else's too.

I'm not sure when the fanaticism started but almost every day when I get home from work, she pulls up my shirt to make sure that my belly button is there. She then shows me hers. Whenever she wakes up and after she's had breakfast, she checks to make sure that her belly button hasn't gone away overnight. It's very cute.

Before she goes to bed, and usually while I'm reading her bedtime stories, she decides it's a good time to stick her finger right into my umbilical area. She often compares her tummy to mine and I always tell her "Yours is much cuter!"

A week ago, one of the dogs presented us her tummy. My daughter proceeded to inspect the dogs tummy. She then pulled up her shirt to look at her belly button. She returned her gaze to the puppy's tummy and back again to hers. I realized what was going on and said "Honey, I don't think dogs have belly buttons." I am not entirely sure how I didn't eat my own child but I guess I have a lot of restraint.

She even pursues this tenacity with the rest of the family. I've caught my daughter pulling up my mom's shirt in search of her belly button. Whenever she finds it, she pokes her index finger into my mom's stomach. My mom thinks it's cute but always asks me where she learned this behavior. Not sure I can provide any light there as I am equally mystified by daughter's interest.

She once caught my sister's back slightly exposed and she bent down to search for said tummy trinket. She kept pressing her finger into my sister's back until I realized what she was up to and told her "What your looking for is in the front of your aunt, not in the back." She did stop after I said that. I don't think it's because she understood what I was saying but more because she realized that she was not similar to my sister at that moment.

It's really very cute to watch her in this phase where everything is new and interesting.The only thing I have to remember is to trim her nails because getting poked in the stomach with talons hurts!