Hello everyone and happy Monday! Ok ok we all know that today is much more of a slow and plodding Monday following an extended weekend but alas we’re all here so let’s make the most of it and get into some updates for the day.

Thanksgiving:  I really hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  My family and I went down to the Milleridge Inn in long island, New York.  The Milleridge Inn is always a great time as there’s something about taking the classic photos outside of the inn and checking out the stores that remind me so much of Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season.  I also went down to the Macy’s Day Parade for the first time ever on Thanksgiving.  The folks down at the parade were more than accommodating in letting us know the best areas to view the parade and tips for getting up close to get the best content possible. I’m working on a video and piece about the parade that should be up tomorrow.

Black Friday: I used to be the guy that used to gather up a group of family and friends and really get into Black Friday.  If doors opened at 4 am, my friends and I would meet up and head straight to Best Buy and wait on line to get in there and would often continue shopping until 12 noon or so where we would make our way to the food court at Roosevelt Field Mall, have lunch and then head back home for some much needed shuteye.  Black Friday 2009 is probably one of my fondest memories because it was my reintroduction to coffee.  My original introduction to coffee occured back in 2004 when I was dating a girl who would drink cups and cups of coffee a day and it was strong Serbian coffee, no milk and no sugar.  Well from that moment on I convinced myself that I hated coffee and so I drank tons of mountain dew every day in order to get that jolt of energy.  It was completely ridiculous and very unhealthy.  Well that night in 2009, at the Milleridge Inn my father fixed me up a cup of coffee with milk and sugar and convinced me to try it.  I tried it and loved it back!  Nowadays Black Friday doesn’t have the same appeal to me.  I still went this year and got some good deals but my girlfriend and I didn’t get started until around 1 pm.  I think what killed it for me was the idea that Black Friday now starts on Thanksgiving.  As much as I love a good deal, I value my time with my loved ones a little more.  By starting Black Friday at 4pm Thanskgiving Day, it just kills the holiday for me and isn’t worth it.  Today is finally the end of the bargain shopping with Cyber Monday.  I will say that hands down the best site I’ve seen today has to be Abercrombie which has a 50% off sitewide sale.  While Abercrombie isn’t really my cup of tea, kudos to them for really going above and beyond.  Target also deserves a kudos for their 15% sitewide sale although everything I noticed being good seemed to already be sold out and their site traffic is at a premium.  Of course, my favorite Cyber Monday site is Amazon who continue to lure me with their lightning deals throughout the week.

Site Updates:  I got some great feedback on the first video we launched on the official daily spotlight YouTube channel on Thanksgiving Day.  That video, for those who’ve asked was shot during my annual tradition on Thanksgiving Eve in which a few out of town buddies and I gather at Aunt Bellas Restaurant. It’s always a great time and as you can see at the end of the video, everyone really got into it.  If you haven’t done so you can check out our first video right here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp_U76Nifok! The plan with these videos is to roll them out 3 times a week to start on Tuesdays, Thursdays and at some point over the weekend.  There will be a definitive focus on Travel type videos that I’ve shot over the last three years.  The plan for this week’s videos is to roll out my video on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Tuesday, a video on the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting (which I will be attending live on Wednesday night) on Thursday and then a video on Dubai’s historic Burj Khalifa this weekend.

We’ve also gotten a ton of great feedback on a few posts we did last week on the Lapsed Fan Wrestling Podcast’s new Starrcade journey and on a look at the WWE’s 2002 appearance at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  It’s been a lot of fun interacting with a number of wrestling fans and wrestling legends over on twitter @tommyonthespot or @daily_spotlight.  I have plenty of fun posts on the way this week including a sports update that I’m finishing up right now looking at one of the crazier weekends in all of sports this past weekend and a movie review on The Night Before, which I thought was fantastic.  Until then I appreciate all of your support and hope you all have a kick ass week.