OK, fair warning, Volume One and The Local Store are officially fully geared up for the holidays. Not only do we have our huge holiday catalog inside this very issue, but I’m also almost embarrassed to say the inside of the store will be fully decorated by the time you read this. To make it work for our staff schedules, we totally decked our halls on Sunday, Nov. 3.  Yeah, that’s a little early.  Sorry about that. I’m definitely one of the people who rolls his eyes at those a little too eager to get the season started, and now here we are part of the problem. At least we waited until after Halloween. But don’t worry, we won’t be lighting up the exterior of the building for a couple more weeks so you won’t have to worry about that just yet. That being said, I do hope some other downtown businesses and landlords can do their part to bring on some extra cheer this year. Last season we received an enormous amount of great feedback on our exterior lighting efforts, but we also had some people making fun of how hard we tried. If our effort stuck out as possibly “too much,” it was really only because many other downtown businesses hardly try at all in that department. So I say it’s time we all challenge each other into making downtown Eau Claire a holiday destination. And that starts with the look of it. Let’s get warm and fuzzy. Get out there and put up some lights!