Well. Now that we’ve had an entire four days to recover from the most delicious meal of the year… is everybody ready to SHOP??? Because as much as we swear that THIS year, we’re going to be simple, and we’re not going to spend a lot, you know you always end up spending more, getting more, and really, when you get that *perfect* gift? It’s SO worth it!
So today, we’re hittin’ the mall! That’s MOA up there, by the way. It’s kinda near Joy’s place, give or take an hour… and if you can’t find what you’re looking for there? You should probably head about an hour south to Owatonna. You’ll find everything else you need there.
Tell us what you’re up to this week… are you, like the rest of us, getting ready for Christmas? Making lists, shopping, writing out cards, shopping, baking cookies to freeze, shopping, wrapping, shopping, cleaning, shopping, putting up a tree, shopping, decorating, shopping…. And then collapsing at the end of each day, thinking about how much you have to do tomorrow? And loving every second of it, by the way…
Remember, be nice, or we can arrange for something far nastier than coal in your stocking. I happen to know Santa’s Stable Manager personally…
Us Girls..Our Views 
This week I have some cleaning to do. I have been so busy, I have had no time to clean up the little messes that happen as the day goes by, and they of course become big messes. My kids’ toys have so many loose parts, it can get crazy pretty quickly. So at some point, I just need to buckle down and clear stuff up. I need to put together a few bags of stuff to hand down to my sister’s tot and get the rest of the stuff organized. Because I want to bring up the Christmas stuff from the basement this week, and I’m not doing it with the house all messy.
Yesterday we watched Scrooge, which was the third and last Christmas movie that I required my kids to watch with me this year. It was pretty intense for them, but a good mind-stretcher. Now once I bring up the stuff from the basement, we’ll have a gazillion Christmas books to go through. I am hoping that a lot of them will be of the “read once and give to cousin” variety. I just love getting rid of stuff! (My poor sister, though! But she is a stay-at-home mom now, and has a lot more time and need for the stuff than I ever did. She rotates the stuff on a monthly basis.)
I have some more online shopping to do. My kids are mostly done, but I have hardly started on all the other people I buy for. I also need to get the kids’ photos done for the Christmas cards. Do you think this will be the year I get my Christmas card list in decent order? Ha! It would be nice to get an early start on that, but I’m not gonna hold my breath. I bought a few crafts for the kids to work on with Nanny on Saturdays, so that will be their gift to people.
As for mall shopping, I don’t plan to do any of it. I will probably go to Wal-Mart and pick up some generic gifts for the people whom I don’t really care about but need to buy for, and I’ll check out TJ Maxx, Michael’s, and Lowe’s to try to find stuff for adults who are closer. If that doesn’t pan out and I don’t find good ideas online, then people are going to have to settle for gift cards. Malls have completely lost their charm for me.
This week and for the next month, I have to be pretty intense with work. Besides that, I have a few personal things I need to do (other than Christmas stuff). We may have houseguests at Christmas, and then we’re off on a boat the first week of January, so I have to finish all the year-end stuff early. I’m kind of looking forward to the challenge of having a lot to do that’s worth doing. Now here’s hoping I am able to focus and keep up with it.
I hope everyone has a great week!
Thurs is Dec 1, which means that Twinkle will be returning to stay with us until Christmas. Which means that I have some preparations to do before he gets here…
I also have a massively messy house that needs cleaning, and a bunch of things that are just taking up space that might generate some money for shopping. So I think this week is going to be Photo and Post week around here. Our town has an “online garage sale” FB page, where people post stuff they’re trying to sell. I’ve got friends who have had some real good luck with it, so I figure I’ll give it a shot and see what I can purge outta here. I need space to breathe!
I wish Christmas didn’t stress me out but it does. I love decorating and getting together with family…it’s the whole *spending money* thing I don’t like. We save every year, and every year something happens. This year, both vehicles went out, at the same time! Oh, well. We’ll survive, we always do and it’s never as bad as I really anticipate it to be.
We were planning on getting our tree Saturday, but none of us felt like going anywhere. It was cold this weekend. I think we’re going Wednesday. I did put some lights up, and all my decorations out. I decided we need a new tree topper, and I kind of want a star instead of an angel. My angel has seen better days, and besides, she doesn’t match so she’s got to go.
I have nothing going on this week, that I know of. Hope everyone is having a good Monday!