Dead Christmas Tree

 My neighbor and her husband were so busy, they just put lights on the front of their tree this year. No one walks around between the Christmas tree and the wall anyway.

When their granddaughter visited, she was eager to help finish decorating the front of the tree, the only place where everyone could see the decorations anyway. Good plan!

The next day, everyone went to work and school, everything going smoother because they anticipated Christmas cheer in the joy of going home to a cheerfully decorated tree.

No one expected to see what was in their house when they opened their door.

The Christmas tree died from front-heaviness. 

What do you think?

Shouldn't they just roll it over? I mean, it was already decorated.

What Kind Of Store Is This?

With Christmas coming, consumer spending, and money being shelled out for things people might not need or even want, I was actually stopped still by this sign I saw in a retail store.

 I mean, honestly, what retail store in its right mind encourages shoppers to spend less money?

Is it a trick?

Is it some kind of reverse psychology?

Are they trying to make shoppers think that all the stuff in their store is high quality, thus matching high standards?

Or do they really care about helping people save money?

Maybe they just don't want to process a lot of returns.

What do you think? Is it a store with a real heart? Or is it subtly messing with shopper's minds?

And Merry Christmas! This reminds me of the family tradition we adopted with our three youngest sons (since we didn't think of it with our three older ones.) We told them that Jesus got three gifts, and it's a celebration of Jesus's birthday, so each of them would get three gifts.

Wow. Simple, focused on the reason for the season, and no more counting gifts or tallying costs.

Now there's a sign I'd put up in my store!

"3 Gift Christmas. Happy birthday, Jesus."