Have You Ever Canceled Thanksgiving Dinner to Shop?

I sat my three girls on the couch on Sunday and had them point to things they wanted in a Christmas catalog, and they found something they were dying to have on every single page.  Not my brightest parenting move!  Now I have a list of 40 things on their wish list and still no clear idea of what to get.

I'll pick up a few things here and there ahead of Thanksgiving, but I'm planning to keep Thanksgiving Day all about food and family.  No shopping.  Anyone with me?  I heard people talking yesterday about one family that's not having Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday the 27th so they can hit sales at the stores instead.  OMG.

Maybe shop then eat, then shop then eat?

Radio Shack is opening its doors at 8am Thanksgiving Day.  They'll be open all day in case you need a new HDMI cable to fully enjoy all the football on TV.  Sears, Kohl's, Macy's, Belk and Staples will open across the country at 6 p.m. that night.  Toys R Us and J.C. Penney open at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving.  I'll be full of turkey and probably on my second glass of wine by that point, and even though I've sworn off of shopping that day, the wine may reduce my defenses enough that I'll end up on the laptop.  Dang it.

The biggest online shopping day of the year isn't Cyber Monday anymore.  The Monday after Thanksgiving is a big dollar day for online retailers, but the biggest online shopping day of the year is actually Thanksgiving Day itself.  It's just because we have a day off, right?  Nothing better to than eat ourselves silly and buy stuff?

I know the urge to take advantage of sales and coupons is huge.  I get it.  But I'm distracted enough by things on a daily basis that I want to take time on Thanksgiving to really focus on family.

Even if that costs me fifty or a hundred bucks in lost discounts.