Thanksgiving has to be one of my favorite holidays. Thanksgiving brings in what I like to call the "3 F's": Family, Food, and Football. This holiday emphasizes the importance of unconditional love for your family and all the other things you are grateful or thankful for; there's nothing expected from anyone. That's the beauty of the holiday and it really upsets me that every year Black Friday shopping occurs earlier and earlier each year. This year, Macy's will be opening up their doors at 5p.m. THURSDAY night. We have become so caught up in the day after Thanksgiving that we forget the importance of Thanksgiving itself.

So what sale is so important that we have to take away from a traditional American holiday? This has been something that has been celebrated for over hundreds of years. To me, there's nothing that beats spending time with your family, watching the NFL Thanksgiving football game while the turkey is in the oven and the food is almost done.

It absolutely disgusts me that we are more concerned about shopping sales than spending time with family. Black Friday sales should be limited to Black Friday. Since when did it start to overflow into Thursday? This "holiday" that we use to shop and riot over is not as important as Thanksgiving. In recent years, there have been so many people that have been trampled, run over, hospitalized, and some even killed just to get to these so called "hot sales".

So instead of spending time with family, family oriented and operated stores and corporations are promoting shopping for Christmas on Thanksgiving. If you are an annual Black Friday shopper, I urge you to stay home and spend time with family. Your sales will still be there at midnight and 8a.m. the next day. You can even find the sales online all weekend. Don't let Black Friday ruin Thanksgiving.