The Annual Marks Family Pre-Fall Outing

Anthony was quite taken with "Tommy Turkey." For years we've wanted an inflatable turkey decoration for the front yard. This year, we're getting this one as well as a jack-o-lantern. Even if the holidays are "canceled" - we're going about our business as if they are not. 

For a number of years we've had the tradition of going out on the last weekend of August to see what various shops had in the way of both Fall - meaning generic/neutral Fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving - as well as Christmas decorations. We were unable to do this the last two years for various reasons, but this year, it's back! Take that, 2020. (Yes, we are still living in a not entirely free world given the ongoing pandemic that the powers that be don't want to end any time soon. We are still taking our precautions. But, doggone it, we cannot live as prisoners forever. As I wrote early on in the pandemic, we need to try to maintain some normalcy and try to make things as special as we can.) So, we donned our masks, on this - the hottest weekend of the year - to reinstitute our family tradition. 

We now have an At Home (formerly, and what I grew up knowing as, Garden Ridge) near us and it has great seasonal decorations. Augie and I had each been there already doing a bit of pre-scouting, if you will. Toby has been quite eager to get there.

Anthony was quite creeped out by the witch here which talked and moved. At Home has a balance of the creepier, witchy stuff and the "nicer" autumn stuff that's not overly cutesy. 

I used to be annoyed by the Christmas out this early. Now I think "whatever, at least we're acknowledging holidays." And, in embracing this, part of our tradition is to take it ALL in. So, you have the witch across from the artificial Christmas trees. 

Another view. That inflatable jack-o-lantern up top says it's only 10 feet tall. I think it's taller than that. It was enormous. 

Look closely and you'll see alot of decorations with a candy corn theme. That seems to be in this year. Yankee Candle had candy corn themed decorations as well. I asked Toby, "Who decides that a certain thing is in each year? And how does everyone else know? I've seen this in fashion, too." It's interesting to me. 

The somewhat "darker" stuff I'm not all that fond of. 

Quite the selection of Nutcrackers, a great favorite here. 

I agree with both sentiments! "Thankful for every moment" and "I've never met a pumpkin I didn't like." I've loved fall and pumpkins my whole life. Lucky me, I met and married a man who appreciates it all as well. 

I like this shade of jade green on the left. It's soothing to me. 

This turkey amused us. I have a growing collection of turkeys. 

We were going to purchase a few things, but the line was so long! We'd have been there another hour. Toby will go back some time soon during a lunch break and get our inflatables and some skeletons Anthony wanted. 

Next, we hit our local Yankee Candle. This same weekend each year they debut their Halloween and fall decorations and candle line. We usually buy too much. Oh, well, candles do not go to waste here. Today, however, I was rather disappointed. They had their Boney Bunch collection out which neither Toby nor I are all that fond of. I was more interested in smelling their Bonfire Collection and grabbing a few old favorites like Harvest, Kitchen Spice, and Cinnamon Sticks. The latter three were no where to be found! Disappointment! Their fall section of candles was actually rather bare - as in - empty shelves. Why?! I did grab one candle in the Bonfire Collection called "Warm and Cozy" which I liked. The others were meh; some had the distinct smell of grapes, which we do not consider to be fallish. I did get a Spiced Pumpkin candle in a nice jar and found this pretty candle shade which Toby and I agreed goes with our "late Summer season." It's burning now. 

We could have stopped at our local Hobby Lobby (which doesn't do Halloween, but has nice fall and Christmas things, of course) or Michael's, (which is a great favorite of ours because they carry a particular line of Halloween village pieces; in fact, after Toby wrote that review, Michael's gave him that piece!). But today we headed into Plano to go to another local favorite instead, Holiday Warehouse. (I always get its name confused with Decorator's Warehouse in Arlington, which was our next stop. But more on that in a moment. To me, they should be reversed. One is clearly more holiday than decoration. But I digress...) 

Anyway, we head up to Holiday Warehouse only to find that it was closed. They are renovating and will reopen "next month." We are eager to see how that turns out. I'll say that my past impressions of the store is that it's pretty, but, frankly, the decorations are extremely expensive for the most part and not the kind of stuff that works in our house. Toby has covered some extremely beautiful things there on his blog.

Next up was Decorator's Warehouse. It is like a big display worth seeing for that reason alone. (Toby has also covered it on his blog before. Such neat stuff!) The last two times we've gone there was a pushy salesman trying to sell us these super expensive Christmas lights. He was worse than a mattress salesman. Toby and I wondered if he'd be here today... He was not. We were left in relative peace to browse the store. Here are some highlights.

Lucy and I thought these reindeer were a bit scary looking. Those eyes...

I grew up with ornaments and bubble lights just like this - in similar packaging! 

I really liked the way the lights were done in this tree. 

Those are good looking fake trees, but so expensive! 

My beloved and truly the best dad ever - he was smiling at me through the mask. He gave me a Fauci approved peck through the mask.

This was one of several very cute music box/snow globes. We came home with one that had snowmen. 

Anthony is quite taken with it. 

These are the best lit trees I've seen. 

We had hoped to hit Joann Fabric. We've found in the past - our last outing over two years ago - that it has great fall decorations at reasonable prices. Today, the older two needed to get back to get some homework done. I needed to get dinner prepared and then work on a brief myself. But there is still time! We just need to take it. 

Today was a fun outing - hot - but there is the promise of Fall weather to come. In the near future, our temps will moderate and we might even see a bit of rain. Even now I hear rumbles of thunder. 

We celebrate September 1 as the first day of Fall here, as it is Meteorological Autumn. I've written before about how I think this makes more sense. We will be putting out our more "neutral" Fall items, then work our way to Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then our sort of Orthodox Advent / Christmas / Nativity. We are blending many new (to us) traditions here now that we are Orthodox with a different calendar and yet still celebrating our older traditions as well. 

We came home in time for me to make dinner: Picadillo, a Cuban treat that we've just learned about. Stay tuned. I'm going to introduce you to a YouTuber that has just the best videos of his trips, especially those out West who introduced us to a new staple in my menu that we consider delicious comfort food. 

Thanks for reading!