Where's the Xmas junk?
This year I decided it was time to get a decent Xmas tree. The one I currently use is the one I call the 'Miller time' tree. This tree is about two and a half feet tall, fully decorated with the lights attached. I store it in a box out in the pole barn.
When it's time to put the tree up I go out to the barn, get the box, bring it in and set it on the dining room floor, open it up, grab the tree by its top and yank it out of the box, put it up on the table, plug it in........ Miller time.
This year I decided to get a nicer and larger tree that I can put in the living room so I headed out yesterday on that quest. HOLY TINSEL! Trees are really expensive. I skipped Walmart because I already saw the selection of trees back in July (may have been September) and didn't really like any of them. So, I headed for Meijer's; nope, nothing better than Walmart that was in my price-range. Then I went to Home Depot, and they had even less affordable nice ones, so I headed to Lowe's; no luck there either.
Then I went to Menard's, my favorite home decorating/remodeling store. They had a HUGE selection....on display. In stock? Not so much. They have a veritable forest of trees but when you go to he racks to get one in its box? Not much left. I found one I really liked within my budget and there were two on the rack. I decided to make one more pass to check out one other one I liked and decided that I liked the first one best and headed over to the rack to get it. Nope; gone.
Then a sales gal came up and asked if I could help, and I asked if there were any more of the cheap one that I had chosen. She said that she would check stock and 'orders' and if there were no more coming in, I could buy the display. Sweet; already assembled and poofed up. Nope; they have more coming in. Then, as a good sales person, she steered me to another one; too small, and another one, too tall, and just when I was about to give up..... She said there was a really cool one that looked more real than most of the really expensive ones; it was on sale, but was still $30 over my budget. I decided to check it our and ended up buying it. It really does look real.
Now, the next step was to buy some ornaments. I have some on the 'Miller time' tree, but just like the tree, they are tiny and will be lost on a larger tree (not necessarily a bad thing). I picked up a few packages of them at Menard's along with four boxes of 100 mini-lights on sale for $2.17. Since I was near the mall I decided to head over there since they always have lots and lots of Xmas decorations.
First stop, J.C. Penney's. In the center of the main aisle was a display of Xmas decorations, almost no ornaments. I perused that for about 10 seconds and asked a clerk where the Xmas decoration display was. She said, 'This is it'. WHAAAAT? Last year JCP got stuck with a lot of Xmas stuff that they practically gave away after Xmas, so this year they decided to 'cut back'.
I went to three other large mall stores, and the Xmas displays looked like it was the week after Xmas and not the month before. Where are all the decorations? Even the mall itself wasn't all that 'merry'. Off to Goodwill on Monday.
When it's time to put the tree up I go out to the barn, get the box, bring it in and set it on the dining room floor, open it up, grab the tree by its top and yank it out of the box, put it up on the table, plug it in........ Miller time.
This year I decided to get a nicer and larger tree that I can put in the living room so I headed out yesterday on that quest. HOLY TINSEL! Trees are really expensive. I skipped Walmart because I already saw the selection of trees back in July (may have been September) and didn't really like any of them. So, I headed for Meijer's; nope, nothing better than Walmart that was in my price-range. Then I went to Home Depot, and they had even less affordable nice ones, so I headed to Lowe's; no luck there either.
Then I went to Menard's, my favorite home decorating/remodeling store. They had a HUGE selection....on display. In stock? Not so much. They have a veritable forest of trees but when you go to he racks to get one in its box? Not much left. I found one I really liked within my budget and there were two on the rack. I decided to make one more pass to check out one other one I liked and decided that I liked the first one best and headed over to the rack to get it. Nope; gone.
Then a sales gal came up and asked if I could help, and I asked if there were any more of the cheap one that I had chosen. She said that she would check stock and 'orders' and if there were no more coming in, I could buy the display. Sweet; already assembled and poofed up. Nope; they have more coming in. Then, as a good sales person, she steered me to another one; too small, and another one, too tall, and just when I was about to give up..... She said there was a really cool one that looked more real than most of the really expensive ones; it was on sale, but was still $30 over my budget. I decided to check it our and ended up buying it. It really does look real.
Now, the next step was to buy some ornaments. I have some on the 'Miller time' tree, but just like the tree, they are tiny and will be lost on a larger tree (not necessarily a bad thing). I picked up a few packages of them at Menard's along with four boxes of 100 mini-lights on sale for $2.17. Since I was near the mall I decided to head over there since they always have lots and lots of Xmas decorations.
First stop, J.C. Penney's. In the center of the main aisle was a display of Xmas decorations, almost no ornaments. I perused that for about 10 seconds and asked a clerk where the Xmas decoration display was. She said, 'This is it'. WHAAAAT? Last year JCP got stuck with a lot of Xmas stuff that they practically gave away after Xmas, so this year they decided to 'cut back'.
I went to three other large mall stores, and the Xmas displays looked like it was the week after Xmas and not the month before. Where are all the decorations? Even the mall itself wasn't all that 'merry'. Off to Goodwill on Monday.
