The Bargain of the Day

Z and I were at TJ Maxx today, searching for a hair straightener (for those of you who know me...it is not to straighten my curly locks....just a few stray pieces :)). Z calls this store the "truck store" and as always we had to check out the toys and books. At Christmas time, the number of toys in the store doubles...it is fun to hunt around and see what they have. All of the children in my life are all set for Christmas (I finished my shopping for them awhile ago) but it is still nice to see if they have anything for birthdays that may be coming up.

Z found the toy pictured here first....and it was perfect! It brought together his love of trains, my love for Christmas and the story, The Polar Express. This toy is made by Brio and I had seen it before but it was around $30. This set was only $9.99 and it was the only one...my heart started beating fast as I tried to figure out how I could buy it for Z for Christmas without him knowing :) He would not put it down and kept pushing the button to make the tree light up. I knew that the only way we could add this to his train collection was to buy it for him as an "early gift".

In a few weeks, we will be riding the Polar Express train with my parents. I thought that this set was the perfect thing to get him excited for that journey (not that it will take much). It would have been ideal to wait until that day to give it to him, but as I said, it was the only one and I risked it not being there if I went back to buy it later. I then hoped he would forget about it once we got home...no such luck! As soon as we walked in the door, he started to cry out "play trains, play Christmas Tree trains" :)

It is so adorable and I am so glad that we got it today. At the end of the Holiday season, we will carefully pack it away and bring it out again next year. I do think it is something that we will be able to hold onto for our grandchildren to play with (just as my parents saved all of my sister's Brio trains for Z and G). If you have a train lover in your life...check out your local T.J. Maxx...they have tons of great Brio items :)