Perhaps one of my biggest pet peeves is when November 1 rolls around and people put away their Halloween decorations in exchange for Christmas ones. They're missing something important here: Thanksgiving. The month of November isn't meant to serve as an awkward limbo while people wait to celebrate Christmas. There's a whole other holiday between then for Pete's sake, and it's time we celebrate that holiday the same way we celebrate Halloween and Christmas.

Now, I understand the excitement about Christmas. I mean, who doesn't love decorating the house and tree, hoping for snow, and nights by the fireplace? The thing is, that all comes in good time. If you skip over Thanksgiving, consider all you're missing out on. First of all, there's the food, and boy is there a lot of it. Then you've got the leaves changing colors and falling to the ground. All of the beautiful things are happening around us during this time, so why are so many people in a hurry to skip through it? Consider also the reason we celebrate Thanksgiving in the first place. Sure, maybe it isn't the most glamorous holiday and you don't get any presents or candy out of it, but there is a genuine reason why we as a nation observe this day.

So turn off the Christmas music, put the tree away, and enjoy the time we're given, because when it really comes down to it, this is all about time. When we're in such a hurry to get from Halloween to Christmas we're losing valuable time. We can't get that time back, so we need to enjoy that which we're given. We need to be thankful. After all, isn't that what Thanksgiving is about?