For me the 4th of July has always been about family and celebrations. Whether it has been celebrating at home or at family or friend’s home, we always tend to get together with others to celebrate the great nation that we live in, but also just celebrating the ties that bind us together. This year, instead of traveling to my inlaw’s house, we will be having a celebration at home (much of the reasoning behind this is because of what day of the week the 4th falls this year). We will be having a few friends and their kids over and will be having our own little celebration followed by fireworks that are sent up at a church which is within sight distance of our home, so we can watch them from our deck.

I am not the type of person to go all out with decorations or anything like that, but we do plan to have our whole deck set out and allow for the kids to have their own table as well so that they can have fun too. Don’t get me wrong, the American Flag will be flying and we might even have some fireworks of our own!

I was excited to be selected to work with Collective Bias on the #SearsPatio #GrillingIsHappiness campaign, as I had not been to Sears in a while and had not really explored the Sears Outdoor Living Section lately, as the last time I was there was around Christmas time and there were no outdoor patio sets or grills available at that time (or at least the selection of grills was vastly limited). I was asked to either shop fora new Patio Set or a New Grill, and let me tell you this was not an easy decision as both were needed and Sears did offer some great options for both.

When I went to the store I was impressed by the variety of things that they offered in store, as I had explored their online site (See below for links) and I knew that they had a wide selection of grills and patio sets. I was particularly impressed with the number of grills that they had in stock. From Weber to Charbroil and many others, you have a wide variety to select from.

I weighed my options and found a number of patio sets that I liked in the store, and I would have to say that the grill conundrum was equal, as my mind was left a bit boggled as there were so many options.

The salesperson that we worked with was very helpful and I was interested to see that he and his fellow co-workers were all using IPad devices to connect customers with their online sites. He showed me the items online as well as reviews that were there and as I continued my exploration, he kept track on his IPad of the items we were considering. At the end of the shopping trip he let me know about this and that he would email me links to all of the products that I had been considering in the store. How slick is that, and all he had to do is get my phone number and based on my Shop Your Way Rewards Account, he sent everything to my home email address.

I decided not to purchase anything at first as I wanted to go home and think about all of my options, explore the links that had just been sent to me as well as the rest of the Sears site itself and then make a final decision.

When I got home, the email that the salesperson mentioned was there and there were a ton of great resources included in the email itself. I explored these and the Sears website and I found both to be very helpful. I was happy to see that they had a review section as in two cases, patio sets that I considered were not receiving positive reviews from customers in regards to their overall outdoor durabilty, so I chose to steer away from these.

In the end, my wife and I chose to go with a new grill. Why did we choose this? Well, we do a lot of grilling and have come to find that Michigan weather is many times rough on grills. I have never had a grill that has held up to the elements after only a few years, nor a grill that I would write home about saying that it cooked better than what I could do inside (which really is not grilling). I have been a fan from a distance of Weber Grills for some time, but have never stepped forward to purchase one due to the overall cost. This shop gave me the opportunity to step over this and purchase the Spirit Weber Grill. I would have preferred the Genesis (The next size up), but no Sears stores in our area had this available and I would have had to pay over $100 for shipping, so that was not really an option.

I have just put this grill together in time for the 4th and I found that it did take a little longer than I had first thought, as I misused a few screws that I thought were to be used in another area, so it was definitely user error on my part. We ended up having our 4th of July Big get-together yesterday, and the grill worked amazingly well. The meat cooked thoroughly and I was impressed with how easy it was to use. The picture below shows you the last batch of meat that I had to throw on after my first batch was complete (people were eating a lot). People remarked later that the meat tasted great and I know that in part it was because of the tools that I was able to use!

What about you? What are your plans this 4th of July and is grilling a part of the plan?

For more information on Sears visit the following links:

• Catalog Link: http://bit.ly/CatalogCB
• Sears Local Ad: http://bit.ly/SearsWeeklyDealsCB
• Sears on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/#!/Sears
• Sears on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/sears
• Sears Shop Your Way Rewards on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/ShopYourWay
• Sears Style Hub (if purchasing a patio set): http://www.sears.com/outdoorstyle/
• Sears Grilling is Happiness (if purchasing a grill): http://www.grillingishappiness.com/

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Sears. #CBias #SocialFabric

All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by the company.  Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Please refer to this site’s Disclaimer for more information. I have been compensated or given a product free of charge, but that does not impact my views or opinions.

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