Retirement Travel and a Weird Mix of Other Stuff
In today’s failing economy, buying gift cards this holiday season could be a BAD idea. My Mom mentioned this during a recent telephone conversation. I also got an e-mail about it today. So I decided to check SNOPES. Read for yourself. It’s WAY too long for me to summarize with any accuracy.
Though not a new scheme, you have to keep this in mind, too.
A week or so ago, I got the idea to Blog about the tackiness of Christmas this holiday season.
Just for the record, the picture at left is my tree from some years ago. It isn’t tacky (at least I don’t think so), I just hate pictureless posts.
Want to help? Here’s how.
Just tell me about tacky or fun Christmas stuff you stumble across. “Tacky” would be stuff like my Mom found. Another great example of tacky Christmas stuff can be seen in this picture. Actually the entire post from a 2007 Blog is worth seeing. Or you can peruse the whole blog.
“Fun” (to me) is stuff like this. Okay, it’s only sort of fun.
NOTE: this really is not meant to be mean. I realize it takes all kinds to make the world go round. So let’s not identify folks, unless they clearly want to be identified.
This effort will really kick off after Thanksgiving. But feel free to start e-mailing your links and/or images to me at toadmama@gmail.com. Feel free to mention this post to all your friends, too. Let’s see just how much crazy stuff we can come up with.
Today is November 14. Thanksgiving is still two weeks away. Yes, I know retailers have been gearing-up earlier and earlier every year. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
A couple of nights ago, Hubby and I went to the library. About halfway there, as we passed the Willow Oak Flower & Herb Farm, I groaned pretty loudly.
“What!?!” Hubby exclaimed. (I think I startled him.)
“Look, Christmas lights,” I said, as I pointed. Groaning again for emphasis.
“I just ignore them,” Hubby replied, inferring that my exclamation was unwarranted.
“It’s just that they’re the first ones I’ve seen this year…” I tried to explain.
Now he was ignoring me, so I dropped it.
That was November 12.
During my lunch break earlier today, I went to Mordor (aka Wal-Mart; aptly dubbed by one of Amy’s blogging friends). The guy out front with the red bucket on a tripod, wearing a Santa hat, ringing a bell should have warned me of bad things to come. But, I went in anyway. I mean, I needed to buy some stuff, which is why I was there.
On my way to the Pet department, I had to go past their Christmas section, which I’ve managed to ignore for at least a month, maybe more. That’s when I saw this, which was rather hard to miss…
The tree really is purple. I didn’t have my camera with me, so I borrowed these views from Mordor’s Web site. I did not Photoshop it.
What about this one?
But wait! There’s more…
That tree is NOT really dark green. It’s black. BLACK.
This is probably the least-offensive of them all. It’s close to the horrid silver ones that have been around for years. Of course, I never understood why anyone would want a silver tree either.
Here’s the worst one of all, in my opinion.
It truly is a quite-shocking blue. BLUE! (Although I must admit, it did make me think of Elvis singing “Blue Christmas.”)
Who buys these things? They are FOUR FEET tall (1.22 metres, for my ex-US fans).
I just don’t get it. Maybe I’m old fashioned. But I think even the more-modern folks in the family would probably agree these are awfully tacky.
Which gives me an idea. A mission, of sorts. To see just how much tacky stuff I can dig up, in person or on the Web, between now and Christmas. You faithful fans can help look for tacky stuff, too.
This could be quite interesting. Or quite boring. Depending on whether or not you have a sense of humor. Happy hunting!
