Shopping and pie

I didn't go shopping on Black Friday this year. It's the first year I haven't joined the madness since I moved back to the U.S. in 2002. Last year we bought a bunch of movies, some TV trays, a couple mp3 players, and other assorted Christmas gifts. The year before I was standing on the doorstep of GameStop at 6 am in order to get a GameCube package set for $100. This year I took Lindsay to bed with me while Becca got dressed. So while Becca went with her mom to hit the sales, Lindsay and I got some more sleep. There wasn't much that we wanted this year -- at least not that we could afford. The things that we want nowadays are pricey, but they aren't flashy, like a PS3 or a Wii. Instead, we'd like a couch to replace our futon, or a new set of tires on my car. Maybe the tire elves will deliver this Christmas.

The day after Thanksgiving is known by many people as Black Friday, but for me, it is also Pie For Breakfast Day. In fact, I think it's one of the best parts about the days after Thanksgiving. In my family, it was kosher to eat pumpkin pie for breakfast after Thanksgiving, and maybe Christmas too. I usually don't even get a plate and fork for the pie -- I just cut a fat slice and eat it like a piece of pizza. I had two slices of pumpkin pie for breakfast yesterday. And another one for second breakfasts. And another one for elevenses. Mmm, pie.

I love pie. I think I like almost anything between two crusts. I love pumpkin pie, but I also love apple pie and strawberry-rhubarb pie and chocolate pudding pie. And if cheesecake counts, I love that too. I like pies for dinner, like chicken pot pie and quiche. Not sure if quiche counts as a pie either, but I think it's close enough. This year we got a bunch of home-grown pears from Becca's grandfather's farm, so we got ambitious and made a pear-cranberry pie for Thanksgiving. Becca thought the combination sounded good, so we did a Web search to see if anyone had made such a pie before. We found a recipe that sounded easy enough, so we gave it a try. While it wasn't the most popular pie at Thanksgiving, almost everyone tried it and they all agreed that it was pretty good. I liked it because it was different. And it was very festive, with the tartness and nice red color of the cranberries.

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. As I've said before, I think Thanksgiving deserves more appreciation than it gets. But sometimes it's nice to have a low-key holiday. And if Thanksgiving was a bigger production, I'm sure we would all just get even fatter. Especially if we all had pie for breakfast.