Another Public Service Announcement...

a/k/a Customer Warning.

I ordered an item for DH for Christmas on Thanksgiving Day online at Sears.com...the item was on a fabulous special (more than $100 off the usual price) as a one-day special. I ordered it, paid by e-check, and received e-mail confirmation that same day that the item would be delivered by November 27.

Fast foward to November 26...I receive another email from Sears.com stating as follows:

"Thank you for shopping at Sears.com. We are experiencing a delay in sending order confirmations due to the volume of orders received during the Thanksgiving holiday. please be assured we have received and are processing your order." (Duh -- I had already received my order confirmation!)

I called Sears.com again on December 4 when I still hadn't heard anything. I was told that they apologized for the delay but that the item was being shipped that very day and I would receive a shipping confirmation e-mail within 24 hours.

I never got that e-mail.

So I called again today and spoke with a very sweet customer service representative. She's actually from this general area. She was helpful and checked the records and saw that, indeed, I had called and checked on the status of my order and that, yes, I had been told it was shipping on December 4. However, she told me that the item was no longer in stock and was a one-day special, and was not going to be restocked -- at all, ever. (This particular item was not even available in the stores, just online.) She was quite apologetic and said she had handled several calls in the last couple of days about this particular item. She then confirmed that yes, indeed, the money for the item had already been taken out of my bank account (paid by e-check) -- in fact, the money was taken out of my account the day after Thanksgiving (which I knew, but I was glad she confirmed that they did indeed have my money for an item that I was never going to receive, and which they had led me to believe was going to be shipping any day now.)

She recommended that I go to my local Sears store tonight and demand an instant refund, otherwise it will take 5-7 days to get my money back. She cancelled my online order and gave me the information I will need when I talk to the manager of the Sears store tonight.

I am so ticked off. I finally found the item online somewhere else this afternoon and ordered it, but there is a price difference. It will be interesting to see if Sears will do anything to right the situation with me...

I'm so glad I called today -- otherwise I doubt they would have contacted me about this.

So, my customer service warning and PSA for today is this: DO NOT SHOP AT SEARS.COM

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

at our house! Would you like to take a tour (of the part of the house that's decorated)? Please, come in!

This is our front door. Terribly exciting, isn't it? Maybe not...but it's really beautiful at night when the lights on the trees and the garland are turned on. I do need to replace the wreath on the front door but haven't found the right one yet.

I should mention that there is, obviously, no snow on the ground. That's because it was 80 degrees outside when I took these pictures this weekend. Insane, isn't it? Definitely not typical Christmas weather...

I found this wall hanging at a fun Christmas shop several years ago. I love its beautiful, muted colors. I prefer to decorate with burgundy, deep green and blue, and silver. I guess the rebel in me generally avoids traditional Christmas colors.

The exception to my Christmas color scheme is found hanging above our fireplace, in these beautiful Christmas stockings my MIL made for us. They are so pretty and festive and we love them. A commented the other day that she hoped Oma (German for Grandma) would be able to make stockings for her family when she gets married and has children. That's how much we love them!

It really wouldn't be Christmas without an advent

calendar of some sort so the kiddos can count down the days. B and I made this a few weeks ago with a Making Memories kit I found at Target. It was quick and easy...a fun project for the two of us to do together. It came with everything we needed, and then some. Each of the numbers is on the front of a little drawer. We put some candy (chocolate, of course) in each little drawer for a treat. I need to add a scripture verse and Christmas song to each drawer, also.

This is a wide view of our entertainment center. I don't know if you can see them or not, but the words "Love" and "Joy" and "Hope" are on top. I found those at Wal-Mart last year and I leave them up year round. The garland and poinsettias were aded for the holidays. The shelves look a little bare because I can't find some of the decorations I usually put out on the shelves. Guess that means I have to buy new ones!

This is the lovely nativity set I wrote about a few days ago. I love the soft, muted colors and the classic elegance of this set. It is set on a top shelf in the entertainment center, underneath a light that we like to turn on at night to illuminate the scene.

This is half of our glass tree "forest." Note the fake snow...since we don't have the real thing this will just have to do. It doesn't make as much of a mess as the flaky snow (confetti-type stuff) and isn't as hard to handle as that silky angel hair stuff. I have two shelves of these trees, one on each side of the entertainment center. I really would love to get more of these trees but haven't seen any anywhere in a few years. If you know where I can find some, please let me know!!

And of course, the Christmas tree. I'm still trying to achieve the look I want, but I'm happy

with the tree, generally speaking. We want to get a much taller, prelit tree...maybe next year. We definitely have enough room for a taller tree. I try to keep a theme of stars, hearts, dated silver bells (one for every year we've been married), with words (love, hope, joy, peace). I try to keep the color scheme to mostly burgundy, blue, green, silver, and white, but the girls love to add their special ornaments so the theme doesn't exactly stick every year. That's o.k., because someday they will be out on their own and will take their ornaments with them...and I will miss seeing them on our tree.

OK, so it's not Christmas-y, but I had to show you this fabulous vinyl lettering quote that my friend Sheila did for me. I love it! I'm going to frame some black and white pictures to hang with the quote. It takes up quite a large space on one of our walls (a few feet high and wide) and I love it! Check out her work... http://www.asimpleimpression.blogspot.com -- you'll be glad you did!




And finally, as you look up at this beautiful quote on the wall, the following message is spelled out atop our bookshelves....

I have a wall plaque that Sheila made for me, that says "Wise Men Still Seek Him" (you can see it on her blog, use the above link) and I really love it...just didn't get a picture of it. And I received one other wall plaque in the mail today but haven't had a chance to hang it up yet. It was made another friend of mine and it says "Believe."

Those are my closing thoughts for today's blog entry...."Wise Men Still Seek Him," "Believe," and "Merry Christmas!"