Christmas Shopping at Bass Pro Shop

Earlier today, my family and I went Christmas shopping in Round Rock, TX. Round Rock is the home of two destinations: Round Rock Premium Outlets and the Bass Pro Shop. (Full disclosure: I do not like to shop, period.)

Bass Pro Shop

I have never been to a Bass Pro Shop before. Boy, was I in for a surprise. My wife parked in one of the handicap spaces and I dutifully hung her blue placard. Her knee was doing pretty good, so she decided to leave the wheelchair and cane in the truck, knowing that if she needed either one of us could just walk out and fetch.

As we walked up to the main door, we were greeted by this:

The main entrance: quite a welcome!

Note the second welcome, just over the doors... I just had to take pictures, just to prove that I was not in the third category in describing the place!

Inside those doors is a lobby. Just look at those very comfortable couches!

To the right of the couches was this H.U.G.E fireplace!

Panning to the right, there was this small Christmas tree.

On the other side of this lobby, there was this H.U.G.E Christmas tree...

Beyond the lobby, was this main aisle...

This wildlife theme was carried on throughout the store. Here is a fitting room...

The store had the expected collection of boats, boots, clothing, fishing supplies, outdoor and camping gear, and weapons for sale. One surprising entry that instantly caught my attention:

An outdoor-themed Lionel® model train!!!

Walking down to the other end of the store, we found another lobby. This lobby was nautically themed. The crowing jewel here was this fisherman...

What a catch!!

To the left of that statue is a restaurant and a bar inside the "fishbowl" bowling alley! Here, the theme is the fishing and sea life...

All that walking took a toll on my wife's knee and made us thirsty, too. We stopped at the bar and ordered four Duck IPAs (IPA: India Pale Ale, a type of beer) and a medium pizza.

Yes, between all the gawking, we actually did some Christmas shopping!

Round Rock Premium Outlets

It's a shopping mall with minimal holiday decorations. 'Nuff said.

Happy Twelfth Night!!

Today is the twelfth day after Christmas. This is the traditional "last" day of the Christmas holiday season. It is a time for parties, parties and more parties. William Shakespeare celebrated this holiday with its own play. We still sing about it in the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas." During the 1700s and 1800s, this was a big deal in colonial and early America.

But, where are the parties? The retail industry, always hunting for a new excuse to get us to shop, ignores this day. The hospitality industry, always hunting for a new excuse to get us to dine out and drink in their bars, also ignores this holiday. Why?

In bygone years, tonight would be filled with entertaining, masquerade parties, food, drink, gift giving (tomorrow is the traditional day of the "three kings" visit to the Christ child) and other debauchery. What happened? Why did this holiday vanish??

Under the Christmas Tree....

This year, my wife found this under the Christmas tree:

A new Husqvarna 20" chain saw!

The old one just plain wore out. The piston rings were so worn that the cylinder was not holding compression. This resulted in that chain saw being difficult to start and easy to stall. That is what happens when you cut as much wood as we do.

She got the chain saw. What did I get? The sharpening kit, of course!!

Bah, Humbug!!

One of my wife's traditions during the Christmas season is to drive through the neighborhoods looking at the Christmas and holiday light displays. Tonight, we did just that and we were sorely disappointed. Blocks that used to be ablaze with lights were dark except for one or two houses and even their displays were muted compared to years past.

During the "Great Recession," we could understand when people cut back on their light displays. The lights and electricity to power them cost money. Today's lights are Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and are both inexpensive to buy and use only a fraction of the power. But people have lost the spirit of the holidays to bother to set up lights.

This goes hand-in-hand with the stores, too. Retailers want us to spend our money in their establishments, buying our Christmas gifts, holiday supplies and decorations. But, they do little to get us in the mood to spend. Are the stores decorated and look festive? Do they give off an air of excitement for the season? No. It is just the same, boring, utility displays they always have. No excitement leads to disappointing sales.

The Annual Christmas Mart and Parade

There is nothing like a small town Christmas celebration. It is a real home-spun production. The street is lined with little booths, mostly covered by pop-up canapies. In the nearby town, it is called the Kris Kringle Mart. For a not-so-small fee, vendors are assigned a space, provided with electric power and provided with 24-hour police security. They sell food, Christmas decorations and pretty much anything else. Here we have one of the local "cheeer" groups performing for the crowd....

The local organizations, such as the various school bands, theatre groups, school clubs, veterans groups, civic groups and local government organize a parade filled with locally-made floats, local officials and, of course, Santa Claus. Here are some pictures from this year's parade....

This was the first unit. From nearby Fort Hood, the 1st Cavalry Horse team. Standing next to me was a dark blonde haired woman with light brown eyes and three small children, the youngest of which was just a small baby. As this unit passed, the tears streamed down her face. Here children were too absorbed in the parade to notice. I assume she is a blue star wife (deployed service member) or a gold star wife (killed in action service member), but I could be wrong. Around here, there are current and former service members who have come home, but brought the war with them in the form of PTSD.

Ya gotta have the Grinch...

Here is the local high school's FFA group. FFA used to stand for "Future Farmers of America," but the dropped it to just the initials because there is now so much more to agriculture than framing...

Since we are near Fort Hood, many different ethnic groups are represented, including Mexicans, Germans, Philipinos, Koreans, Canadians, Britts, American Samoans, and Japanese to name the larger groups. A perfect unit for the parade is the famous "Dora the Explorer."

Around here, children learn to ride early. Note the little one riding double with Mother...

Here comes Santa Claus! Here comes Santa Claus! Right down the avenue in a fire truck! This is always the children's favorite...

The last unit, and probably the most important: here comes the street sweeper!

Christmas at the Mall

We went to the mall last night to do some Christmas shopping. What a "downer" that turned out to be!

When we turned into the parking lot, we saw a fair number of cars parked out front, but strangely, there were lots of spaces available. We were able to park right by the mall entrance.

As we stepped into the mall, we saw some garland with ornaments slung over the ceiling beams. There was a "get your picture with Santa" booth set up in front of one of the department stores. The stores, however, had almost no decoration whatsoever. The card store did have an orniment display and a rack devoted to Christmas cards. Other than that, we did not see even one "Merry Christmas," or even "Happy Holidays" sign. Even more depressing, was the number of empty stores and mid-mall booths. There was no toy store, no Hickory Farms booth and no calendar booth - staples of this mall, and most others, in years past.

There appeared to be more store staff than shoppers. As we left the mall, we drove past the employee parking lot: it was empty. We believe that the employees were told to park out front to make it look as if the mall was busier that it was. The whole atmosphere was about as festive as a grave yard. In fact, I have driven past more festive Hispanic grave yards celebrating "Dia del Morte," the Day of the Dead!

Bah, humbug!