I'm a firm believer in not rushing the holidays. I do not want to see (and will not buy) Christmas decorations in stores in Sept. Even more specifically, I don't put up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving? Fair game.
But yesterday I made a small exception... we put up our outdoor Christmas lights.
It was sunny and in the low 50s so the weather was perfect for it. Plus, the weekend after Thanksgiving I am scheduled to work both Sat & Sun. Regardless of whether it rains or is cold in the coming days, we've already got our lights up and ready. But we vowed NOT to turn them on until after Thanksgiving.
We will spend Thanksgiving and some of Fri in VA with our family, as usual. When we get back home Fri afternoon or evening, I'll probably put the wreaths on the doors and start putting out our interior decorations. Then (hopefully) on Sun after work I'll put up the Christmas tree and string the lights on it. The following Sun we're having our annual Christmas tree trimming party where our friends help us hang all the ornaments, and in exchange we provide food and drinks. Its always a good time and one of my favorite holidays traditions.
We recently bought some new outdoor furniture, and it snowed.
Typically you wouldn't think of buying outdoor furniture in the winter or when there's even a possibility of snow, but that's what we're forced to do now by retailers. If you wait until the weather starts to turn warm and you can actually use your new outdoor furniture, there will only be scraps and pieces left over. To get what you want you have to shop 'off season'.
So we went ahead and got the new outdoor furniture for our screened porch (which is currently being stored in our dining room) and within a couple days it snowed.
This irks me. I hate that retailers of many seasonal goods force you to shop 'off season'. Go into a department store in January and you're hard-pressed to find winter clothes. Instead you'll find swim suits and cruise wear.
One time I went into a Dollar Tree store in Aug and saw stuff for Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. In August!!
FYI - the reason our new outdoor furniture is being stored in our dining room is because we are replacing some of our old outdoor furniture. There isn't room on the screened porch for the new stuff until we get rid of the old stuff, which I'm going to sell, but I don't want to try and sell the old stuff while the weather is still cold enough to snow.
So, for at least a few more weeks our dining room will be packed with our dining room furniture and our outdoor furniture as well as a bunch of new pillows.
