What is Cyber Monday?

The term Cyber Monday refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday, which is the day after Thanksgiving and the ceremonial kick-off of the holiday online shopping season. Similar to Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year when retail stores often offer significant discounts, Cyber Monday has in recent years become a busy day for online retailers, and one in which online stores offer similarly low prices and promotions. Source

According to MasterCard, three out of four shoppers plan to shop online. And, people are expected to spend $300 online out of a total holiday spend of $700 each this year.

Even if you don't plan to participate in online shopping the Monday after Thanksgiving, you may want to be prepared for the fact that Internet speed may be significantly lagging on computers all across America, as a result of Cyber Monday.

Our friend, Rhonda, sent along some Thanksgiving greetings via e-mail, and I just had to share.

These are things you can only get away with saying during Thanksgiving time...

For 2007 Black Friday sales, go here.

Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving when retailers often have their biggest sales of the year) is right around the corner.

After the huge success of 2005 Black Friday sales events, it's looking like this year will be no different.

And, the best part? You can find out ahead of time exactly what's going to be on sale at your favorite stores!

Here's how...

We're back in Tennessee now, but we managed to squeeze a lot of activity into a day-and-a-half in Indiana, and a day-and-a-half in Ohio... over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Here's how it went:

Tennessee To Indiana...
11AM on Thanksgiving Day, we hit the road. Destination: Indiana to visit Lynnette's family. Moments before departure, we managed to pack the car within 10 minutes flat -- without an argument -- a Jim & Lynnette first. (For some reason, we usually disagree on the order in which items should be placed into the back of the Jeep prior to every trip.)

First stop: Thanksgiving brunch a la the prepared food aisle from the nearest gas station/convenience store. We dined on some TURKEY jerky (okay, I didn't touch this stuff!), a triangular-cut TURKEY sandwich (Jim chose a PIMENTO CHEESE sandwich instead... yuk), and some Cheetos (the bag is still unopened... don't know why we bought these... we NEVER eat Cheetos!)

Here are some Thanksgiving Day songs and audio clips to make your Turkey Day a fun one!

Listen to Bud Light's Real Men of Genius "Mr. Frozen Turkey Helpline Guy":

First, some interesting "Turkey Facts":

• 45 million Turkeys are eaten each Thanksgiving.
• 22 million Turkeys are eaten each Christmas.
• 19 million Turkeys are eaten each Easter.
• A 16-week-old Turkey is called a "fryer". A 5- to 7-month-old Turkey is called a "young roaster" and a 1-year-old Turkey is a "yearling". Any Turkey 15 months or older is called "mature".
• Turkey breeding has caused Turkeys' breasts to grow so large that the Turkeys fall over.
• A 15lb. Turkey consists of 70% white meat and 30% dark meat.

I'm here to tell ya, you shouldn't feel "bad" for eating out on Thanksgiving Day!

We've done it... several times.

Check out this list of our favorite non-traditional Thanksgiving Day ideas.

For those of us who can barely toast a Pop-Tart, let alone roast a turkey... there are more and more restaurants serving Thanksgiving dinner that you can choose from -- no matter where you live.

Or, if your days are filled with chaotic busyness, kids' schedules, parents' jobs, cooking, cleaning, and chauffeuring... you may look forward to a holiday as "a day of rest" -- a day to break the routine and do something different for a change. Not everyone wants to cook and clean on their day off... even if it IS traditionally expected to be that way.

Research confirms restaurants are part of Thanksgiving tradition for HALF of all Americans. Source

Thanksgiving is upon us.

No... we can't all travel to New York City to enjoy the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (though one day I intend to!), but we CAN all try out some unique Thanksgiving Day traditions this year.

From "Blue Moons" and Spring Training Baseball to Halloween and Christmas...

We have a few unique traditions of our very own.