Why I Oughta...

We were at Costco over the weekend and what did we find?  Christmas stuff was already out! Last year, I documented Christmas Creep all the way to August 30th and in 2012, it wasn't until the first week of September that I spotted the Christmas decor making an appearance. This year it was August 19th - almost two weeks ahead of schedule. Like I've said in the past...I'm not a Scrooge, so I don't mind these things.  But....I *do* feel bad for Thanksgiving.  Halloween has hired the right PR firm the past few years and has started to keep up with Christmas in terms of 'stuff'.  Thanksgiving on the other hand?  Not so much.

Yes, the calendar says June.  But, that doesn't mean we can't talk about Christmas, right?  Specifically this new addition to our Chrismas decor arsenal:  a vintage Christmas Tree Turner for our tinsel tree.  We were down at my folks place for Father's Day over the weekend and this box (along with the working tree) were recently discovered by my Dad as he was cleaning out the attic.  My folks weren't sure what they were going to do with it; maybe sell it on ebay or something? I plugged it in and it works perfectly.  Spins really nicely just like it did 40+ years ago when my parents used it in their house.  It is to be used with a tinsel tree that doesn't have lights on it because the lights would just get tangled in the base.  There's that auxillary plug at the bottom that my Dad tells me is for a "Color Wheel" that rotates different colors through a spotlight onto the tree.  I've looked for the Color Wheels, but they're like $50 on ebay,...

I snagged this Elephant piece from my Dad's collection a few weeks back.  It is a set of 3 personal ashtrays.  You can see them there on the left of the photo above.  Very Mad Men-ish, right?  Take an ashtray and pass one around to your guests.  The elephant had me convinced we should take him home, but then I turned it over and was very surprised to see the mark:  Made in Occupied Japan. That means it is firmly dated from 1945 to 1952 per the info out on the web.   Neat stuff and thus far, it has fit in well on our mantle in the living room.