I wait all year for the holidays, but it seems like as soon as we get past Halloween, it's a slippery slide straight into Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I forget to do things, like enjoy the holidays during the lame hustle and bustle.

Thanksgiving always seems to get lost in the shuffle. It's like a pit stop before you get nutso and go out Black Friday shopping, with your purse in one hand and a turkey leg in the other. My birthday is on Thanksgiving this year, so of course I want everyone to slow down and celebrate my glorious birth, but every year I feel kinda bad for Thanksgiving. It's like the lame holiday in between two awesome ones.

And the same people that wax poetic on social media for 30 days about all they are thankful for, are the ones throwing down with one another in Toys R Us over the last Monster High doll or the lone tablet that sings that "good morning, red bird" song during commercials on Nickelodeon.

Maybe it's because my Daddy is super sick, maybe it's because my birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year, or maybe I'm mellowing in my old age, but the thought of all that nonsense just annoys me. There's nothing I want, or my kid needs, enough to stand in line for hours or fight some annoyed middle-aged broad over during Black Friday sales.

So I have a suggestion that's far more entertaining than people watching in the cold outside of Best Buy. How about realizing that there is actually, for reals, always something to be thankful for?

I'm thankful for one more year (most likely the last) with my Daddy; for my mother's stuffing and cream chipped beef dip; for friends who buy me hockey tickets for my birthday; for my awesome heated blanket I am snuggling under this cold, cold evening; for a hundred other things that have nothing at all to do with money or toys or even some adorable boots.

And I'm thankful that we have that lull before the storm that is Thanksgiving. You have just a couple of weeks between Halloween and after Thanksgiving to turn into a mad person and scour the mall for things on your various Christmas lists, so why not remember what you're thankful for, and ACT like it.

Putting lists on Facebook is all fine and good, but if I see you fighting over an Elmo doll or some Hulk hands I'll probably whack you with my purse. Practice what your preach on Facebook and stay your butt at home with family and pie. Cause that's so much better than any stupid toy.