Well this was the weekend for the Brave Astronaut clan to really get moving on the Christmas spirit. Mrs. BA and I have also begun consulting with Santa as to what LBA and SoBA will be getting for Christmas this year - you'll see in a moment that they may need more presents than usual to bring the tree size into proportion.
The Brave Astronaut has a few things on his list this year and I am nearly done with gifts for Mrs. BA. I am looking for one other thing and know what other thing(s) I want to buy, so I am good there. Perhaps I might think about something from the 12 Days of Christmas? As in past years, PNC has created the "Christmas Price Index." For all 12 gifts (in their appropriate quantities), the price is $25,431.18, a 4.8% increase from last year. Gold is up 16.3%, but geese are up nearly 30%. "Personnel" is relatively stable with the exception of Pipers and Drummers, both up 5.5%.
My needs this year are small (I'm thinking of making the switch to an electric razor), nowhere near approaching the gifts out of the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book. Although had I won the PowerBall a few weeks ago (or somebody I knew won), I might be interested in the Private Dinner for 10. It's only $250,000. And I could certainly see LBA and SoBA drooling over their own personalized video game - it's a bargain at $90,000.
The Brave Astronaut clan and the OSG family have our Christmas tradition of going out to hunt our trees. For the past several years we have gone to a farm in northern MD / southern PA (it's really on the border - you cross the Mason-Dixon line three times to get to the farm). This year, we found a deal (and you know how much the Brave Astronaut loves the deal) for a farm in Harper's Ferry WV. So we headed out there this morning - had a lovely day with lunch after getting our trees, at the Blue Moon Cafe in Shepherdstown before heading home.
Here's the tree that we wound up with. It is possibly the biggest tree I have ever had. I had to go out for more lights and I used just about every ornament we own. If only I'd kept my hockey ornaments.
No comments:
Post a Comment