The following is a sponsored post for Sears facilitated by IZEA. The opinions are mine.

So, it's the holidays. Woo! I've been lucky enough to have been approached by IZEA to pull together a way cool blog post about Sears. Sears sent me 100 bucks to go spend in their store and blog about it. Sound cool? It is. And you know what? I wasn't buying a dishwasher, so put away your snarky comments. Not to mention, read through, and you'll see that you get a shot at 100 bucks yourself. So, stay put.

This holiday season, Sears as put together this really nice campaign reminding you to not just give a gift, but grant a wish. I think it's a great campaign. They have a bunch of famous people talking about the gifts that were a big deal to them and such. It's kinda sweet. If you wanna check it out it's over here.

Well, there's a Sears walking distance from me in Hoboken, but I figured this would be a good excuse to go see my parents. You see, they just came back from a 2 and 1/2 week cruise. So, I decided a trip so Sears was in order! Luckily I livestreamed the whole thing on Qik from my iPhone. Here's the link to that. That's probably fairly entertaining. I'll also embed videos as they become pertinent. Oh, by the way, I brought my mom with me. She is awesome. She makes a few appearances in the stream(s), too.

I've gotta say, since acquiring Kmart, Sears has become a lot more everything-friendly. They do everything now. They're not just about appliances anymore. They've got clothes, tools, and the normal Sears faire, but they've also got a surprisingly deep electronics department now, which surprised me the most. I remember as a kid always being disappointed at Sears' lack of or miniscule electronics department. So, you can imagine my surprise when I stumbled on an entire area fenced off by glass walls devoted entirely to electronics.

I also have to say: shopping for my dad is always very difficult. They guy usually has almost everything you'd think to give him, so it's tough to find stuff for him. I meant to go and pick up something for him for the holidays, but instead I ended up getting things for four people! Woo!

The store itself was pretty deece. It's not perfect. It's a Sears. it feels like a Sears when you walk in there. But I do have to point out that at the Route 1 store in NJ, the customer service was excellent. Everyone we walked past seemed eager to help and when they could, they did so. Especially Jared, the cashier who rang me up in the electronics department. He was terribly patient with me while we figured out which numbers I needed off of the gift card Sears has sent me.

(FLASHBACK) I forgot the gift card at home, so I was going off of a picture of the back of the card that my dad had snapped and emailed to me. (END FLASHBACK)

The real challenge wasn't finding our way around the store, it was finding something we wanted to get my dad in the store. I get what Sears is trying to say with the campaign, and that's kinda how I think when getting presents. I hate getting things for people what are on their wish list. Then it seems so thoughtless. I really enjoy looking for something for someone that they didn't realize they said they wanted. Gifts, I think, should be should be a product of conversation, and they should have some kind of meaning behind it. If I can't get behind a gift, I won't get it for someone. My mom and I talked about it a lot of the time we were at the store, and it's a really nice campaign for the holidays. You can make a wish happen for a friend or loved one, you know? I can tell you what my dad didn't wish for though. A Hannah Montana doll. If you watched the video right above this paragraph, you're probably giggling right now.

It took over an hour, but my mom and I finally ended up finding 4 different things for 4 different people! I was quite exited. The receipt came out to just over 100 dollars. So, I paid 7 and change for 4 presents! I'd rather not disclose what it was that I purchased for fear that the people will read this and know what I got them. Suffice it to say that I got something for my brother Erik (@kingoffools), both my aunts and my friend Ryan (@homersimpson813).

My biggest gripe with the store is that not a damn thing is labelled with a price! Nothing! (Ok ok, not nothing, but a lot of stuff) So everything is free? There's no price on it! So can we just walk away with it? I could understand if the product were in a bargain bin and there were a sign that said "Everything in bin is 25$", but there wasn't. There was a bin, though. Multiple bins, in fact.

Well listen, I had a great time shopping around with my mom as you'll see in my Qik streams, but what about you!? Here's where you come in. Guess what? You could win a 100$ gift card to Sears courtesy of IZEA! How, you ask!? Well, listen here, I'll tell you!

You can do one of three things. You can:

(1) Comment on this post about what YOU would get if you got a Sears Shopping Spree. It's got to equal or be less than $100.00 and you've got to include SKU's. If you do, make sure your email address in included in the comment. You don't have to make it public, but fill out the field.

(2) Even better, you could tweet this for me! I've even done it for you! Look!:

RT @hellyes0: Please grant my wish to win a $100 #Sears gift card - tweet to make your own wish http://urlbrief.com/e99472

See!? Just copy and paste it and tweet.

(3) You can also create a blog post on your very own blog and link it here to my blog post. We'll know that you did by using science.

Of course, that's just the short version. Want the whole set of rules, you say? Oh, okay. Here you go!

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Well happy holidays, all. And please do comment on the post and email me and everything else me. I want to hear from you!!! Be well and take care of each other!