Memoir Monday - Week 10

Welcome to Memoir Mondays!

What a great looong weekend we had! Since we homeschool, we opted to take the week of Thanksgiving off. It was a much needed respite. In fact, it’s hard to think about spending the next three weeks back hitting the books. We’ll get back in the routine, though. We’ll take another two weeks at Christmas – can’t wait!


How was your holiday? Great, I hope. Grab these questions, write up a post, then come on back and link up so we can learn more about your traditions and life “Back in the day…”

1. Did your family participate in Black Friday? Was it something you looked forward too? If they didn’t, what was the tradition for the Friday after Thanksgiving?

2. Did you wish you had more brothers or sisters? Why?



1. Did your family participate in Black Friday? Was it something you looked forward too? If they didn’t, what was the tradition for the Friday after Thanksgiving?

This is a funny question because I’m not quite sure where the Black Friday phenomena came from. I understand the meaning behind it – retailers getting into the black over the holidays, but I’m not sure if Black Friday existed when I was a kid.

That being said – obviously, my parents didn’t participate if it was in existence. What I do remember about shopping is funny, though. My mother used to take us over to the mall in the evenings. She’d take us into Sears and let us play video games at the display while she shopped the mall. I’m don’t know if she left Sears or not. We loved the video game time and really looked forward to it. Back in the day (geesh, I’m old), parents didn’t have to have their eyes on their kids every second for fear of them getting gone.

The other memory I have is of my father – he always shopped the day before Christmas. Well, day or two before Christmas. I loved going out with him for his shopping. In our family, mom shopped for most everyone and he shopped for her. It was a fun time to spend with dad.

As for after Thanksgiving traditions, if I remember correctly, we always put up decorations the Friday (or weekend) after Thanksgiving, much like my family does today. Decorating played a big role in welcoming in the Christmas season.

2. Did you wish you had more brothers or sisters? Why?

Hmmmm… My sister and I did not get along. There are a lot of reasons for this that had nothing to do with she and I. Now that we are adults, we get along great. I’d do just about anything for her. So, I guess, I didn’t want more siblings. I can’t recall it ever really crossing my mind as a child. It's funny because we each have four children of our own.  Quite a different dynamic from what we grew up with.  It might have been fun to have more of us running around.  :-)

My father remarried when I was eighteen. His wife had two small children ages 3 & 5. We didn’t get to grow up together, so, even though I have two step siblings, we haven’t had the chance to really get to know each other. Kinda sad as they are in the twenties now.