Specifically, how to get them to agree to darken the door of a thrift shop, my favorite kind of store. Certainly my three sons have no desire to tag along while I poke through piles of vintage linens and pick through stacks of old books.
To get them to shop, you must appeal to their primeval instincts. FInd a thrift shop that not only sells old guns, but displays them openly in an unsupervised room. We found such an enchanted thrift shop in Colorado. (NOTE: all photos taken by my husband, so if you have any safety concerns, please address them to Chris.)
If there are hats and shirts to try on too, so much the better.
But getting back to the guns.
In the hands of Che Guervara/Minnie Pearl, evidence of Rocky Mountain riverboat days.
For once, I was not the only person in this family enthused about an amazingly well-stocked thrift shop! I shall treasure the memory of this particular Christmas miracle for the rest of my life.