First Snow

Someone got to experience snow for the first time!!  He absolutely loved it.  I think he was in shock a little bit, but when I brought him inside, he whined because he wanted to go back outside!

My Favorite Retailer

Hands down, my favorite retailer is Amazon.com.  No, they aren't paying me to write this post; I just love them that much.  The number of orders we place on that site each year probably borders on ridiculous, even more so around Christmas time.  That's why we have a Prime membership.  For $79/year, we get free 2-day shipping.  If we need something super fast, we just pay $3.99 to get it overnight.  The Prime membership also comes with instant streaming privileges of lots of movies and TV shows.  Our new TV came with the Amazon app, so it's super easy to watch them in the comfort of my living room!

Another reason I love Amazon is their Subscribe and Save feature.  As a mom, I constantly need diapers and wipes.  Through Amazon, I pick the brand and size I want, and they provide it to me at a discounted price because I sign up to receive it on a schedule.  I can pick how often the items get shipped to me, and I can change the items at any time.  I haven't shopped for those items in a store in months!  Pretty simple.

But, let me get to the real reason I'm writing today.  I need to give Amazon major kudos for treating me like a valued customer.  They have this option on some of their items, called the "Low Price Guarantee."  They can offer a refund for a price adjustment if they lower their price within 14 days of it being shipped to you.  That's not unusual, lots of stores do that, BUT they stand out because they will also do that if you find a lower price on other qualifying sites.  Some stores will price match a competitor at the time of purchase, but Amazon will let you do it within 14 days after purchase!  That's cool. 

We bought a Panasonic TV from Amazon in late November, and a couple days ago, Meezy noticed that the price had dropped by $39.  He mentioned it to me before we went to bed on Sunday night, so I told him I'd look into it on Monday.  Well, what do you know, when I researched it on Monday, it happened to be 15 days after the shipping date.  Crap!  If I had just submitted our request for a price adjustment the night before, we would've saved $39.  I hate when stuff like that happens.  Even though I knew their policy was clear, I went ahead and sent them an email just to see if there was any way they could still give us a refund.  I wasn't expecting anything, because I knew we were outside of the allowable time.  To my surprise, they emailed us back and said our request met their qualifications for a refund, and they were crediting us back $39 plus tax.  Bad ass!  I love companies like that.  I will continue to be a loyal customer!  

Changes Around the House Continued

I mentioned in a previous post that we bought a new flat screen and mounted it above our fireplace.  We made some more improvements to that area this past week.  Meezy and his brother ran the cables from the TV, through the wall, into the adjacent cabinet.  We also bought a cordmate kit to help hide the cable coming from the outlet, since it's not on the same wall as the TV.  It looks awesome!

No cords!

Hidden cord from outlet to cabinets

Early Holiday Celebrations

We went to an annual Christmas party on Friday night, and in previous years the theme had been tacky sweaters.  This year, the hosts decided we should all wear festive PJs.  I made a Target run and was pleased to find they sold adult footed onesies.  I could've gone all out and purchased the cheetah or zebra ones, but I opted for a slightly more muted striped one with a monkey on them.  Imagine my surprise when my friend, Sharon, showed up in a similar pair!  Lol.

 

I didn't win the prize for best outfit, but I did win for best gift!  I brought a frisbee disc shooter and a marshmallow shooter.  You gotta know your audience!  A bunch of guys who have been drinking will love stuff like that!

This weekend, we also started putting up our new TV in the living room (merry Christmas to Meezy).  Our previous TV was also a flat-screen, but we had it on an entertainment stand in the corner.  We bought a new one to mount directly onto the wall above our fireplace.  It has really opened up our living room!  We haven't hidden all the cords and arranged the other electronics yet, but I'm already very pleased with the results.  I wish I would've taken pics of where the TV was before, but this is all I got.

Previous view of the fireplace

New view! (Casey doesn't move much)

Holiday Express Riding Train

My sister told me about a man in Richardson who set up a train in his backyard and opens it nightly during the holiday season for anyone and everyone to come ride.  It's pretty amazing to see in person, and if you've got little ones, you should definitely stop by!  They run the train every night from 6-10pm, between Thanksgiving and New Years.  I recommend you go on a weekday night because there will be less people there.  We visited tonight, and it was so much fun!  They don't charge anything to ride, but you can certainly make a donation to help offset their operating costs, if you feel so inclined.  It's a fun family activity, and your kids will love it!  You should check it out.  Here's more info.

 Train that goes around a large display of lights and holiday characters

Dutch's first train ride - trying to take it all in!

My niece and I having a blast on the train

And here's a video of it to give you a better idea:

Easy Update

I think I always have at least one home improvement project in the works at any given moment.  It's hard to find time to get them finished these days, but I can actually mark one off my list.  We bought cabinet and drawer hardware for our kitchen a few weeks ago and finally got around to installing them today.  Adding hardware in your kitchen is a relatively cheap and easy way to give it a little more character.  With almost 30 cabinet pulls and 10 drawer pulls needed, though, I knew the actual installation would take a little bit of time!  Once we created a template that could be used on all the cabinets, that sped up the process.  Unfortunately not all our drawers are the same size, so we had to create multiple templates for them.  The finished product came out beautifully, though, and I'm glad we did it.

    Boring drawers and cabinets before

Finished product