Why I Oughta...

Back in September, Nat and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary.  10 years.  Holy cow.  I find it so hard to believe how lucky I've been.  Although I failed at *some* of years in terms of delivering to her the 'traditional' anniversary gifts, I've tried to stick to the plan.  For instance...nine years is pottery.  So, I got her both a flower pot and a glazed tile.  Ten years?  The traditional anniversary gift is tin or aluminum .  That one had me scratching my head.  I try to buy something vintage for these gifts and all my searches turned up housewares (platters or toasters or serving utensils) and I knew those wouldn't work.  But then I found this Merry Christmas banner.  It is tin.  Or maybe aluminum.  Not sure.  But it *is* metal and super thin and foldable/bendable/creaseable.  It was broken at the time - cut into four segments.  But the price was right - $5 - and I figured I could use some brads and a hole puncher to reassemble it back together

We have a room in our #newoldfarmhouse that goes by a bunch of names:  the front room, library, green room, quiet room.  It is your normal formal(ish) living room.  But...Whatever we call it, it also is home to our more 'formal' Christmas tree.  And is a nice little tree to experience. I posted a photo of our Family Room tree yesterday.  That tree is big, gangly, colorful and full of ornaments of various shape and kind.  This tree?  It is understated.  Short (like seven feet tall), white lights, nicely-shaped and has all of our vintage Christmas ornaments on it.  It fits perfectly into our Green Room.  Like last year, it is a Fraser Fir and glows from the front window .  I've posted about our Christmas trees since 2010 including yesterday's tree. Here's our family room tree from this year (2018) that I posted yesterday . Here's v1 of our 2017 tree - our first in Downers Grove.  Here's v2 of our 2017 tree - the one in our family room . Here's

Oh Christmas Tree.  Oh Fraser Fir Tree.  This year, we went back to the Fraser Fir for our family room tree.  Or at least we *think* it is a Fraser Fir.  This tree is just about ten feet tall and just barely clears our ceiling.   Here (below) is a photo of me installing the tree into the stand (the Krinner XXL stand ) to give you a sense for the scale of the height of this tree.  Just like last year , our Christmas tree sits in our Family Room - in a corner near our patio doors.  Also like last year, we have two trees this year again, but I'll get to the other tree in a separate post.  I've posted about our Christmas trees since 2010. Here's v1 of our 2017 tree - our first in Downers Grove. Here's v2 of our 2017 tree - the one in our family room . Here's our 2016 tree - our last one in Elmhurst . Here's our tiny tree from 2015 at Equation Boy/Man and Vic's house . Here's the tree in 2014 at our old house . Here's the post of our 2013 Tr

Like a lot of you guys, I have a whole bunch of Christmas traditions.  Sure, there's the Christmas Train and all the various foodstuffs, but there's also one that is gardening-related:  Planting an amaryllis bulb.  Here's a post showing the two bulbs I planted last year (one from Wannemaker's and one from Menards) .  If you look at that post, you'll notice that the one from Menards - that cost $2.99 - never took off while the $15 version from Wannemakers shot up and bloomed right around Christmas Day.  This year, I simplified things and decided to just do one of these and (obviously) went with what worked last year and bought the $15 version from Wannemakers.  You can see how they pack the bulbs above in a kind of foam carriage to protect the bulb while keeping it free from trapping moisture.  When I was at the store recently, I couldn't remember what variety I bought last year, but remembered that I went with a double flowering version.  So, I poked arou

If you look closely at the Marshall Field's Macy's State Street windows you'll notice a little bit of corporate synergy showing.  Or corporate strategy at least.  In one of the window scenes you that you can see above, you'll see Santa in the midst of his North Pole glory with what I think is an Elf and a bunch of presents.  Right next to the center 'tube' is a little dog.   Zoom in and you'll see his collar.  Says "F. A. O. Schwarz".  Struck me as odd. So, off I went into the Web to find out why.  Does Macy's own F.A.O Schwarz?  The answer?  Nope.  But they're working together.  This NYTimes story from 10 years ago points to the partnership .  Apparently, I haven't been paying any attention. Two of New York’s most venerable retail brands, Macy’s and F. A. O. Schwarz, are teaming up for a risky experiment: bringing toys back to the department store.  F. A. O. Schwarz will open shops inside 685 Macy’s stores over th

Another day, another Lemax Christmas Village building. This one is from the Carnival Village and is called The Round Up.  It is pretty neat.  Lemax lists it as being released in 2012 on their site , but this is the first time I've seen it at Menards.  Quick refresher for this year's Menards Christmas Village buildings: 1.  Draft Brothers Craft Brewing Supplies Store  from the Harvest Crossing Collection 2.  The Elf Workshop from Santa's Wonderland Village. 3.  Nora's Christmas Boutique from the Caddington Village Collection.  Now comes the first carnival-focused, animated, musical structure here on the blog.  This isn't the first one we've bought or come across, but the first one on the blog.  And it is pretty neat. Called The Round Up Village Carnival Ride - priced at $89.99 -   it is described by Menards thusly : The Round Up is an absolute blast! This spinning carnival ride puts gravity to the test as a southern-sounding cowboy announcer tell

The lighting of the trees around City Hall and the County Building happen every Fall and I've been documenting it on my walks to work for the past few years.  Here's the lights going up this year in the photo above.  I took this photo more than a week ago, so despite me posting it on the 26th, they technically started the lighting the trees in mid-October.  Here's the post from 2017 showing the lights going up  on October 27th. In 2016, the lights went up in early October . And in 2015, the lights went up in September . This raises the age-old question about Christmas Creep when it comes to holiday decorations:  Is this genuine Christmas Creep?  Or is it just good planning?  

Looks like Marshall Field's Macy's is once again prepping their annual State Street window display, but this year, it seems that they're ONLY going to be using windows *on* State Street.  And that means that they're NOT going to be using the theme for this year's story on the windows on Randolph Street.  Here's my post including a photo of the 'reveal' windows at the State Street store - but you'll note that the window in the photo is actually on Randolph Stree t. The folks at Macy's already have the three windows on Randolph Street dressed up for the holidays - in a tinsel-strewn vintage-inspired way, too.  Which is really nice, right?  We always make a trip down to the Walnut Room, so with our three kids - who will press their noses up to the glass - we'll be sure to take them in. Can I guy dream about an Uncle Mistletoe-themed story this year?  Please?

Continuing the annual tradition of trying to document on the blog the various times we first come across the Menards Enchanted Forest Christmas setup.  Posting this on the 24th of September, but I took this photo a week ago.  I've talked over the years about the notion of "Christmas Creep" and how I'm just fine with it.  Mid/late September is right in the middle of Fall holiday planning for most, but I understand why retailers are moving Christmas earlier and earlier.  I've done the Christmas Creep documenting on the blog over the years.  Here's 2017's version  that I posted on September 28th. Here's 2016's version that I posted on September 26th. Here's 2015's version that I posted on October 6th. Here's 2011's version that I posted on September 17th. So this is the second earliest, but based on when I took this photo, it might have been a tie?  As for the actual display, they have both their Halloween stuff up in

Continuing the series of items that 'got away' from a recent Estate Sale up in Wisconsin.  First there was the telephone chair .  Then Da original Mare primary poster .  Then the Snoopy bank from my childhood.  Today, it is this set of beautiful Christmas ornaments.  I've bought plenty of vintage glass Christmas ornaments from Estate Sales and Garage Sales over the years.  But they were almost always a deal.  Like $1 a piece.  As you can see in the photo above, this sale had a heckuva collection.  Some really nice ornaments.  But they were asking $5 a piece for each of them.  Too rich for me.  I took this photo on Friday and knowing that they cut the prices on Saturday, I went back.  And all of these were gone.  At 50% off, they're closer to being the right price for me.  But alas, they weren't meant to be.  Seems that how I value these is off from the market?  Good data point for when I come across more ornaments in the future.  Seems that $2.50 is the po

Just last week, I posted the most recent Marshall Field's Walnut Room Christmas mug that I came across at an antique mall up in Wisconsin .  That made it five in the collection here on the blog. Here's the list of posts on the topic here on "Why I Oughta...": 1980 -  Tree with Bear tall glass . 1981 -  Contortionist Santas glass mug . 1983 -  Uncle Mistletoe tall glass . 1986 -  Greetings from Mistletoe Bear Red outline 2000 -  Mr. and Mrs. Santabear Marriage glass mug with multiple colors . But, you'll note that sometime between 1983 and 1986, Marshall Field's moved from using Uncle Mistletoe to someone called Mistletoe Bear.  And then by 2000, the bear had gotten married and his name changed to Santabear. That set me down on an eBay rabbit hole to see if I could piece together the full list of mugs.  Here's the fruits of that effort:  The Definitive Guide to Marshall Field's Christmas Mugs.  I have been able to document every year starti