2 for 1

Who doesn't like a good deal? Well, tonight, you all get 2 for 1. Two blog-worthy events in one post!

First, it's beginning to look a lot like........
Christmas! Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is a Christmas tree in our living room. So why, pray tell, do the Kanes have a Christmas tree up already?

Well, we're going green. Last year, we decided we were tired of messing with needles. On the carpet, on the tile, in the garage, the living room, the bathroom, our broom, etc. We also didn't like trees being cut down just to be decorated and discarded in a month. So we've been saving our money all year and finally purchased an artificial Christmas tree online from treeclassics.com.

And we don't like it.

Well, when I say "we", I mean me. And Alpha.

We ended up with a tree that has fake pine cones on it. I had to agree to them because it was one of the only trees with non-star shaped LED lights that was on sale.

Oh, yes. LIGHTS! Did I mention the LIGHTS??!! This tree has LEDs that are 50% BRIGHTER. And let me tell ya, the picture on the website might not have been true to life, but when they say these LIGHTS are 50% BRIGHTER, they mean it! It lit up not just the living room, but the kitchen and half of our bedroom.

It hurt our eyes to look at it. The girls kept saying "turn it off!"

My main problem with it is that the "white" LEDs have that bluish cast to them. I know, I know. It IS a purer "white" than normal, incandescent bulbs. But they look blue to me, and I don't like them. We thought we were purchasing a tree with the newer "white" LEDs that don't look blue. (We saw some at Target.) Apparentely, we were mistaken.

Anyway, to make a long story short, we are considering our options. We can return it if we pay return shipping (yikes!). We can possibly buy an entire set of replacement bulbs that are a different "color". We can exchange it with another tree from the same site. I'm sure I'll let you all know what we decide.

Now for my 2nd blog post, you all get a 2 for 1 deal inside a 2 for 1 deal:
Two girls dressed as one! It's already beginning. The girls promise me they did not plan this. It was the first day it's been cold in quite some time. So they both got dressed, emerged from their rooms, and TA DA! Identical sisters! At least at these ages, they thought it was fun and cute, and no one pointedly stared at the other demanding "YOU change!"