Holiday traditions, giveaway and the 6th day of Bookmas. Whew!

I was about to revive an old holiday tradition the other night when I realized that a lot of other people must be doing the same thing.

You see, growing up, we had those big holiday bulbs on the tree. Do you remember them? They were the old fashioned lights. And I loved them. Probably because I remember sitting in the living room as a kid and just watching the tree.

When I moved out, I actually took my parent’s big holiday lights with me. Yes, it was an unnatural attachment. Anyhow, I used those lights for years, until I got married and my husband gently pointed out that my beloved light strings were starting to short out, running too hot and to top it off – they’d burned large brown spots into the tree.

So with great reluctance, I gave up the big, bold lights for the newer, smaller, flashy ones. The replacements were pretty. Life moved on. But I still missed my old standbys.

Flash forward to late November of this year. I was wandering through Hobby Lobby and saw my old fashioned lights. Multicolor! They were gorgeous. I so wanted them! But in a temporary bout of insanity (or possibly shock) I didn’t get them. I waited. They’d still be there in a week or two, right?

Well, the other night we were putting up the tree. We were ready for the lights and I was telling my husband about the lights-that-got-away. Whether it was the wistfulness in my voice or the fact that I’d been thinking of Christmas lights for two weeks, I’ll never know. But Jim encouraged me to put on my coat and go out and get them. He’d put them up that night.

Excited, I rushed right up to Hobby Lobby and to the lights aisle and to where they were – and they were gone. According to the guy working there, almost all of their holiday decorations are getting scarce. It seems like December is too late for lights. Who knew? The next day, my husband checked Lowes, Target and Wal-Mart for my old fashioned lights. Nada.

It seems the tradition will have to wait until next year. Be warned – I’ll be scouting the Christmas displays as they go up in July (or earlier – it seems earlier every year). And because chocolate makes everything better, I’d like to give away a box of chocolate turtles to one lucky commenter, drawn at random. Just tell me your favorite holiday tradition.

And the 6th day of Bookmas clue is: clothes

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