The Day after Thanksgiving

I don't like the term "Black Friday" because of the commercial and negative connotations, although I still use it sometimes. But I do really like the day after Thanksgiving.

2011. I went to work, very early in the morning, wearing a Christmassy Peanuts shirt. I remember stuffing envelopes with my middle-aged coworker Arlene; she was saying that they didn't usually have to work on the day after Thanksgiving, but I pointed out that the year before we had to. Someone had turned on a Christmas radio station, and my coworker Kayleigh said, annoyed, "Why are we listening to this?" But I remember at another point she said she couldn't be depressed because of my shirt. In the afternoon, I asked if they needed me. They said I could go home, but I could stay if I wanted. I went home to go to the temple with my parents. It seems like my dad had talk radio on in the car we drove to the temple, and then my parents changed it to FM 100. I think I started talking about how the people who decided it's a good idea to play "Christmas Canon" should be slowly tortured. My mom told me it wasn't good to be talking about torturing people on the way to the temple, but I said it wasn't good to be listening to songs about hippopotamuses for Christmas on the way to the temple. After the temple, we went to a boutique by Kmart (we couldn't justify going to Arctic Circle since we had gone the day before Thanksgiving). While we were driving there, the radio played Cherie Call's version of  "The First Noel," and I was annoyed that of all the songs she has on her Christmas album, they chose one of the few songs that wasn't an original song, especially since Cherie Call's not as good when she sings songs that aren't her own. I remember them playing "Christmas Canon" when we went inside, and I was annoyed. We found a Ty beanie baby walrus, which was the only thing we ended up buying. Then we went home and I think my mom made the fall-shaped noodles we had bought the previous Saturday and we had spaghetti with vegetarian "meat"balls. I put my Christmas music in my playlist, downloaded some Spanish Christmas songs from LDS.org, and ripped the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer soundtrack to my computer. Then I went downstairs to work on my talk for Sunday.

2010. In the morning I drove to Winegar's grocery store to buy something for the barbecue at work. I bought a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. I also bought some Christmas Tic-Tacs. I took my chips to my locker at work, but when it was time for our barbecue, I didn't feel like walking all the way to my locker, especially since there were already the same kind of Doritos on the table. I remember my lead Skyler saying he wanted us to be done early because he wanted to buy a Christmas tree with his wife. We finished pretty early. I stopped in the Distribution store and bought some things, such as a New Testament manual for my mom and some MoTab CDs (The Wonder of Christmas and Spirit of America, one for Christmas and one for the Fourth of July). I took my Doritos home.

2009. The other Lewiston elders picked us up in the morning. Elder Robinson gave me a jar of ashes that said "Elder Melville's Mission"; he also had one for our zone leader, Elder Hansen, who had come out with me. We took a bunch of pictures after district meeting. I was wearing a tie I had traded from Elder Masten because of its Christmas colors, and he commented on it.

Then we went to Jeffrey's for lunch, and then Elder Critchfield wanted me to watch Labor of Love, but the stake center didn't have it, so we went to our building. Elder Masten and Elder Tamblyn didn't want to come inside, so they waited in the car and listened to Christmas music while Elder Critchfield and I watched Labor of Love in the library. I told him that I didn't see the thumbs up everyone talked about, but he said it was in there. Elder Tamblyn would later tell me that he didn't realize we were watching the video there; he thought we were just checking it out and would watch it at the stake center. I think we gave Elder Masten back his bike. We listened to the Ring Christmas Bells MoTab album as we drove out to Lapwai for my last time (after having a lesson with Shaun). It seems like we might have seen the LaMere family in Lapwai and they had a Christmas tree up. Eventually we met George Sabin to head out to the Sanfords' for dinner. Word had already gotten to them that I was going home in a few days. They were reheating Thanksgiving leftovers on their special stove that didn't get hot; it only heated the pans (and then the pans would make the stove hot).

2008.  After our alarm went off, Elder Love started humming "Jingle Bells" because I had been so insistent that Christmas didn't start until after Thanksgiving, and he was excited for it. For personal study, I erased my Thanksgiving scripture from the whiteboard and wrote this instead:

It took the full hour of personal study, which probably wasn't a good use of my time. That morning we went and visited Lucrecia, who was watching her grandson Edward. We were shocked at how much calmer Edward was than when he was with his mom. We went and saw our investigator Amber, who lived on Broadway Ave. When we were walking from her house, we heard some cats fighting. We looked up and saw two cats on a roof. One cat approached the other, and the other backed up, backing right off the edge of the roof! Most houses on the street only had one story, but that one had two. Elder Love and I started laughing, shocked, but we were concerned about the welfare of that cat. The people who lived in that house were Jewish and were good friends of Amber's. Elder Love had met them before, so we knocked on the door and told the lady what had happened and asked if we could look in her side yard. There was no sign of the cat, so we assumed (and hoped) that the cat was unharmed. It was a hilarious experience. Then we went home for lunch. During lunch break I took down the orange lights and put up Christmas lights that we had in the closet. I plugged in one set and noticed the lights flickering. I found the problematic bulb and saw that it had had some electric failure and got so hot that it melted the plastic. I was glad I had noticed the problem before it caught on fire. After that we went to Lind; I think we listened to Christmas CDs, trying to get in the spirit. We visited the less-active member who was married to a member of the former RLDS Church. It was rainy, which wasn't the best way to make it feel Christmassy. When we were driving back to Ritzville, Elder Hansen called us and told us to park the car. I told him we couldn't, because we were driving back to Ritzville and we were on the freeway. He was mostly kidding; he was just passing on word from the mission president that we should be careful about driving in snow. I asked him if it was snowing in Cheney; he said it was (it was only raining where we were). We went home and then decided to walk to Zip's for dinner. It was my year mark, so I wanted to celebrate, but I also wanted to get an eggnog shake, since I had seen that the Zip's in Cheney was advertising eggnog shakes. But Ritzville didn't have any, so I couldn't get one. We ate there and were, as usual, disappointed with the quality of the food. We walked home, talking about how we didn't understand how Zip's stayed in business. That night I wanted to talk to Elder Hansen when we made our nightly call. I told him that I had met him exactly one year before, and he said, "It was love at first sight."

2007. I remember hobbling around on my sprained ankle, putting up Christmas window clings. This might have been the time I put up the downstairs Christmas tree while watching Christmas episodes of The Flying Nun and The Andy Griffith Show, but that might have been Saturday.

2006. We were in Fillmore and my niece Allie and my cousin Alex were watching stuff on the portable DVD player; I was a little sad I hadn't brought any Christmas DVDs to get in the spirit. Then we drove home. I think we turned on a Christmas radio station when we could. When we finally arrived home, it was dusk, and my inflatable turkey was on and up. I remember thinking that it was great that usually Christmas intrudes on Thanksgiving's territory, but with the turkey being up, it was Thanksgiving intruding on Christmas's territory for a change. I put a Christmas tree nightlight in the bathroom and took a bath (instead of a shower) with nothing but the nightlight on.

2005. I can remember some things, but I think they happened on the Saturday, not the Friday, after Thanksgiving. If it was the Friday, we went to Target and I bought a dollar DVD of The Beverly Hillbillies because it had a Thanksgiving episode ("Elly's First Date").

2004. For my designated naptime that day, I decided to watch I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown, since I had only watched it once. My family had done Black Friday shopping and I think my mom bought Clay Aiken's new Christmas album. Later that day we went to Target. I got a t-shirt that had Snoopy dressed as Santa with a comic strip behind it, and I think I also bought some Snoopy Christmas pajamas. We also bought Christmas mint Skittles. That night we went to the theater by Shopko to see The Incredibles; I didn't like the language in it so I started calling it The Incredibly Evils. My brother David looked at my new shirt and he said he initially thought the comic strip was dollar bills. 

2003. This might have been the day my dad and brother went to the store in the evening and bought some eggnog. It had a picture of a cow in a Santa hat, but I looked at it wrong and thought the cow's nostrils were eyes, and I thought it was some weird Nightmare Before Christmas-esque creature.

2002. There's something I can remember, but it might embarrass some people, so I don't think I should share it. This might have been the time my mom and sister had to stop at Inkley's, but I waited in the car, looking at my Charlie Brown Christmas CD, but maybe that was 2003. I watched a woman at a stoplight or a bus stop or something pull a new Santa hat out of a bag and put it on. This also might have been the time my parents and I went test driving SUVs. We drove to our house and talked to David but he didn't want to come with us; my mom told the dealer employee that he had just come home from a mission, and we learned that the employee had also served in Taiwan before missionary work took off.

2001. I remember driving home from Fillmore in our white Subaru, munching on the little Thanksgiving candies I had made two days before. My mom found a tape that had lots of old Christmas music on it, like "There's No Place like Home for the Holidays" and Julie Andrews singing "I Saw Three Ships." I think that later that day we went to Cancun Cafe with my cousin April and her boyfriend. They usually had peppermints, but this time they had candy canes, which I thought was fitting.

2000. I remember some tiny snowflakes falling as I was outside changing our porch lights to red and green. I remember putting out our wooden carolers and Mary and Joseph while whistling the theme song to The Brady Bunch. Later my aunt and cousins came; Chancey seemed very concerned about the small patches of ice on our driveway, since he had had surgery a few weeks earlier. We went to Shopko and I think we bought candy canes. I remember sitting outside Chuck-A-Rama for some reason. They had paintings on the windows about "Happy Thanksgiving" and Joey was saying they shouldn't have them because Thanksgiving was over. I pointed out that Thanksgiving was only the day before, but he didn't seem to think that was a valid reason. Then we went home and I turned on the TV in the kitchen to watch Bewitched; it was the episode when Sarena brings Tabatha's toys to life.

1999. I remember getting up and taking down Thanksgiving decorations; I put the gourds outside. That morning we went to the theater by Shopko to see Toy Story 2. The employees were wearing Santa hats. There was one kid who was very animated when he watched the movie; he kept gasping and yelling and cheering. There was a gawky girl with glasses who was staring at him. After that we went to Winegar's; on our way there, I remember seeing the inhabitant of an apartment putting white Christmas window clings in her window. I wanted to get mint M&Ms, and when David was putting them from the cart to the checkout, he held them by the corner like it was something nasty, I think to make a point.Then I remember David and my dad pulling up our Christmas tree.

1998. I had had a sleepover with my cousin Jesse. He got up and ate breakfast while I slept in. Our moms went to RC Willey, where they were giving out free nutcrackers. They gave one to each of us. The rest of the Thompsons came that day and I was putting up a Christmas garland on our stairs, and Quin saw it and said excitedly, "They have Christmas stuff!" My mom told me that night that when my cousins went home, they pulled out their Christmas stuff.

1997. I remember getting up in the morning and seeing that my parents had left a note for me on the hallway mirror. The mirror had a "Turn off the violence" window cling, which is what they used to secure the note to the mirror. I went to the living room and turned on the Carpenters Christmas CD while taking down Thanksgiving stuff. I think this was also the day that I was walking up to the Gublers' with my mom because they had asked me to feed their cats. We saw my sister's friend Shan putting up Christmas window clings in her window. I asked my mom what déjà vu meant.Then I made a little rhyme, "Déjà vu, I love you." I laughed because I thought I was funny, but I really wasn't. I think I wanted to play with my friend David Christensen.

1996. This year I also turned on the Carpenters' Christmas Portrait album to undecorate.

1994. I remember my aunt and cousins coming over. My aunt asked why we had Halloween stuff up. I just hadn't realized that we had left one decoration (one of those ghosts that goes "Ooooo") in the window and forgot about it because it was behind the blinds. I think we had three holidays up--that forgotten Halloween decoration, Thanksgiving decorations, and the Christmas decorations I had started putting up the night before. I remember putting up a little wooden tree our neighbors had used to give us cookies the year before, and I think I put a Santa hat on it.

1993. It's very possible this wasn't the day after Thanksgiving, but I remember playing with the next door neighbor Taryn Pay, and then we came to my house, where we were decorating for Christmas. Taryn found some wreaths and suggested we put them around our faces. I resented the fact that she took the soft cloth one and I had to use the poky wicker one.

Related posts: 
Remember Every Detail, Volume Three: Thanksgiving
A Year of Holiday Memories