I got Christmas bedding, ya’ll.

(The ‘you-all’ contraction was for emphasis; I’m not a Southerner–despite Andrew’s insistence to the contrary–nor do I say it that often in real life.  It just felt right.)

I have wanted ‘Christmas’ bedding for like, THREE YEARS.  Seriously.  (Currently having second thoughts about admitting that.)

Regardless, truth be told, I have tried for THREE YEARS to snag up some Christmas-themed bedding after said holiday on sale.  Key words: ON SALE.  Well, time after time, I’ve waiting too long and everything–and I mean EVERYTHING–was sold out.

Well, I vowed that THIS YEAR would be different.

And folks, it was, but just barely.

This year, sometime in early November–with coupon in hand and Andrew’s blessing–I put all these items in my online shopping cart…only to gag over the cost and have Andrew’s blessing ripped from my fingers.  No dice.

Weeks pass.  I still want said bedding, but drop the issue thinking–yet again–that perhaps I’ll find something at TJMaxx (nothing) or Marshall’s (nothing) or on sale (let’s not get our hopes up).

And then, just after Thanksgiving ,(after I’m sure I made some comment about said bedding), Andrew said to just go ahead and get it.  Perhaps he was feeling generous.  Perhaps it was because we had another coupon.  Perhaps… who cares?!  I, yet again, began the process of ordering our bedding online, only to find that IT WAS SOLD OUT.

AGAIN.  FOR THE THIRD YEAR IN A ROW I WAS STARING AT THE WORDS ‘OUT OF STOCK’ ON THE WEBSITE.

I could have screamed.  (In fact, I’m pretty sure I did.)  Yet again, I thought I’d have to wait until next year.

The rest of the story isn’t nearly as dramatic; a friend gave me the idea to call a local store and see if they had any comforters in stock they could ship me; in fact they did; bonus for using a coupon on half of the bedding items on a phone order and another coupon for the remaining pieces online and bigger bonus for finding a cheaper red blanket at TJMaxx.

The bedding, of course, was the impetus to paint the room green; I’d been planning to paint our room green for years now (we’ve had a blue bedroom for 10 years in both houses and green would match both our existing bedding–from our wedding!–and the new Christmas bedding) and figured this would be the time to do it for maximum impact.

Whew.  All those words for some new blankets and shams and paint.