I’ve never really understood the concept of “Black Friday”. It seemed like a waste. We follow a day dedicated to being thankful—heavy emphasis on the “ful” from the crazy amount of mashed potatoes we just consumed—with a day of buying everything we want not 24 hours later.

That said, I went Black Friday shopping for the first time this year, and I couldn’t have been more excited. The prospect of finding sales at Target and Michael’s had me anxious to get through Thanksgiving dinner. However, despite my own enthusiasm for a good sale, I still find the notion of Black Friday a bit cray-cray.

This year, Americans didn’t wait even a day for that sweet deal on a flat-screen-TV-and-microwave combo. Stores moved their Black Friday sales forward a day, and appropriately deemed the occasion, Gray Thursday. People went nuts.

Families rescheduled their traditional family dinners so that they could get in the front of the line at Best Buy. Some skipped the Thanksgiving festivities altogether!

Having seen the craziness of Gray Thursday, I’ve determined that American consumerism is at an all-time high, and economic desperation has finally stooped to a new low. This has been coming for a while. We should have noticed the signs. I mean, we already have a Cyber Monday… we may as well make it a long-weekend sale, right?

How did I spend “Gray Thursday”? I got up early, helped to prepare a massive dinner, and proudly ate that massive dinner with my equally massive family. We played games, shared photos, and even complained about how full we all were—just as my family has done every Thanksgiving Thursday for the last few decades.

What we didn’t do was pile into the minivans and drive to Best Buy—because we understand that Thursday is for being thankful for great family and great food… not for getting the best deal.

We reserve that for Black Friday.