Why I Oughta...

Menards has their Lemax Halloween village back up this year with a few new additions including this Tombstone Quarry with skulls on a conveyor belt.

Two weeks ago, I posted this image of the one Lemax building that I thought I'd want the most - Frosty's Christmas Tree Lot .  When I found the CaroleTown buildings at Lowes this weekend, the first thing I noticed was the copycat Tree Lot - with a different name:  Sowders. So, which one to buy?  Whichever is on sale after Christmas?  It's a deal.

(that title is - as they say - tongue in cheek.) Nat and I stopped by a Lowe's this weekend to look for a new fridge for the basement and we came across a HUGE Christmas section.  They had more inflatables than Menards by a large measure.  And look at what I found?  A pretty good selection of what looks like Lemax Christmas Village buildings.  But they're not Lemax?  They're something called "Carole Towne Collection".  But turning the box over unveils some details.  They are indeed Lemax Village buildings.  Just sold by Lowes. What does this mean for Mantleburg?  Not sure just yet.

After a quick glance, it appears that the winner this year from Lemax is this Frosty's Christmas tree lot table piece.  It isn't lighted, but it is the cutest one.

Of all the Lemax Christmas Village buildings that spoke to me at Menards, this Brewery building was one of the standouts.  There's a ton of things going on - with movement, lights, and sound so it is a fun piece.  I didn't look to see what it was priced at, but if it goes on red-tag sale, I'll try to scoop one up.  What's not to like?  Giant beer stein?  Big pipe and gnomes?  Yes, please.

If you were around last Christmas, you know that I somehow got hooked on Lemax Christmas Villages .  Yes...it is embarrassing.  Yes, I know. That's why it was so hard to just walk by the huge display of Lemax stuff at Michael's this week.  Look at all that stuff.  And, there's some "exclusives" that Michael's is marketing.  I can't rationalize why I want these things, but my brain has a blip in it apparently. If I let myself go crazy, I think you could probably point to this 'hobby' as the reason for why Nat would ask me to move out. Thankfully, I've shown tremendous restraint thus far.