Christmas Presents

Woohoo! I cannot believe how close to done I am with shopping for gifts. This is the first year since the kids arrived on the scene that I actually feel like I have a handle on the Christmas season. The tree is up, the lights are on the house, the inside is decorated, gifts for all but one niece and one nephew have been bought, gifts for our two have been purchased and the only left to do is stocking stuffers. Easy enough because I already know the things I want to get. It's just a matter of getting out alone to get them.

This year I gave up the idea of going out to stores to buy things. I figured out what I thought were good ideas, talked with Dakota and then ordered almost everything through Amazon. Genius! Online shopping is genius when you have kids and no time to do kid-free shopping.

Sure - as with any on-line shopping it tends to bring tons of catalogs and offers for 0% APR balance transfer credit cards but that's ok. I'm actually one of those weird people who don't mind mail in the mailbox and catalogs make me over the edge giddy. I love to look through them - and so do the kids.

And I don't know about you but have you noticed that so many places seem to have really great sales going on? Smart move on the stores part, too, as it makes it easier for people like me (on a super duper tight budget this year) to spend money in a more consistent manner. Target, just this week, has $4 games. That is a sale normally reserved for the early hours on Black Friday. But I was able to swing by and pick up really good games for a great price (because there is no way I could have gotten a $15 game for nieces and nephews) and I know they will be successful gifts. For me, it was getting 4 gifts for the price of 1. A good deal by anyones standards. :)

And who knows - at this rate there just may be a few bucks left over for Dakota and I to buy a gift for each other. I figured that was a lost cause this year but I'm feeling optimistic.