tn20

1- Christmas Vacation 2- The Santa Clause

1- Christmas Vacation 2- Christmas Story 3- Elf (AK, this one is hard... I just like both of these movies, both of these movies are my favorite.) (My 5 year old DS runs around the house singing, "I'm in the house, and I'm singing! I'm in the HOUSE and I'm SINGING!" hehehe) 4- Polar Express

I received my About Me books today, too, and was also impressed with their size and how nice they are! And they look hilarious! I looked at one for about a second before my DS walked into the room and I had to quickly hide it, but the page said something along the lines of, "I wish I were a giraffe" and "I'm glad I'm not a giraffe." Then they check the box for whichever one applies. LOL. TOO FUNNY! I know we're going to have fun filling these out!!!

My son's teacher (2nd grade) is a big animal fan.... she has lizards and tarantulas in the classroom (*shudder*). My son is really interested in animals and loves that she includes them in so many of her teaching units. So he went to Borders and picked out an encylopedia of reptiles and amphibians (<-- one of his spelling words a couple months back, LOL) to give to her. Its a great book and although I'm sure she already has lots of books, I sure hope she appreciates the fact that it was a thoughtful gift from my son's heart. :) Last year, his teacher was athletic and her and my son shared the same favorite college football team, so he bought her a visor with the team logo on it. She put it straight on and there was instantly a chorus of 6/7 year olds yelling, "Teacher! Teacher! No hats in school!" Hehehe- it was so cute. In Kindergarten, my son's teacher had a list of books that she was going to pick up from the book fair, so we bought them and had the librarian take them off her list... So anyway, my vote goes for something a little more personal, if at all possible.

Thanks for posting this! And thanks tinkrbel for posting about the About Me book. I had never heard of it before, but I LOVE the idea! I just ordered 2 copies... one for each of my boys. The price is down to $8.25 (still listed in the over $10 section) and I got 2 copies shipped w/Prime for a total of $8.25. GREAT stocking stuffers! I wish I weren't so broke; I'd be stocking up on Seuss books!

ROUND 3: 1- Christmas Vacation 2- Christmas Story 3- The Santa Clause 4- Mickey's Christmas Carol 5- The Grinch 6- Elf 8- Christmas With The Kranks And for the first time in Tournament History 3-Way Dance 7- Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas

I hope its ok that I skipped ones where I'm not familiar with either of the movies! 1. Christmas Vacation vs Last Holiday 2. A Christmas Story Vs Three Days 3. A Miracle on 34th Street -The Original 1947 Version Vs The Santa Clause 4. Mickey’s A Christmas Carol vs Eight Crazy Nights 5. The Polar Express vs The Santa Clause 2 6. Four Christmases vs Miracle on 34th Street- 1994 version 7. Fred Clause Vs Bad Santa 8. Christmas with The Kranks vs A Homecomming- A Christmas Story 9. Jingle All The Way vs A Christmas Carol- 2009 w/ Jim Carrey 10. Deck The Halls Vs Trapped in Paradise 11. Elf vs The Christmas Shoes 12. The Grinch vs House without a Christmas Tree 13. Home Alone vs It’s a Wonderful Life 14. Home Alone 2 vs A Christmas Do Over 15. Muppet Christmas Carol vs Meet me in St. Louis 16. Santa Clause 3- The Escape Clause vs I’ll be home for Christmas 17. White Christmas Vs The Ref 18. Scrooged vs The Preacher’s Wife 19. Unaccompanied Minors Vs Santa Claus- The Movie 20. Nitemare Before Christmas vs Badder Santa 21. Surviving Christmas vs Gremlins 22. Prancer vs The Nativity Story 23. One Magical Christmas vs Smokey Mountain Christmas 24. Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas vs Home Alone 3 25. Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas vs The Bishop’s Wife 26. The Christmas List vs Die Hard 27. Holiday in Handcuffs vs The Holiday 28. Holiday Inn vs The Family Stone 29. Santa Buddies vs The Night They Saved Christmas 30. Love Actually vs Christmas in Connecticut 31. The Desk Set vs Scrooge- 1951 w/ Alistar Sim 32. A Christmas Carol 1984 w/ George C. Scott vs Santa Baby

Allshoppedout- Make sure that you are adding the DVD to your cart with the actual Lightning Deal link (If you already have the DVD added to your cart beforehand, you won't get the deal. You have to add to cart from the LD's page)... The movie is still available... then it should have a pop up window giving you 15 minutes to check out with it. In your cart it will show at $11.49, but then below that it will say Special Price- $6.49. Then when you go to check out, it will have the $11.49 price, but below that it will show a discount and your total due will be $6.49. HTH!

I didn't purchase this item, but I'm pretty sure that the reason why the seller is sending refunds by check and the free nunchuck is to avoid having to process credit card returns through Amazon. I know some people who are merchants on Amazon and I'm pretty sure that I've heard them mention that they can lose the ability to sell on Amazon if they have too many refunds... even if they were able to explain to Amazon what happened and Amazon was willing to reinstate their account, they might miss the much needed Christmas selling season in the process. My guess is that they are sending out the nunchucks to make everyone as happy as possible so people aren't reporting them to Amazon for not delivering the items and that they are sending out checks (that I would guess will go through just fine), so they don't have to worry that Amazon will boot them off their site for having so many refunds in such a short period of time.

Always a real tree! I definately enjoy the scent of a good old Douglas Fir, but for us, it is mostly about the tradition of getting the tree! First, we make up a couple of thermoses of hot chocolate and pack up a baggie of homemade cookies, then we drive about 30 miles to a tree farm (there are several closer to us, but we like this one best- went up into the snowy mountains one year, had a blast, but the tree was definately a Griswold tree- bit full, lots of sap, and suprised that we didn't have a lunatic squirrel nesting in it!). We wander around the tree farm for about an hour, searching for the perfect tree. Every year my DH wants a 6 foot tall blue Noble fir, every year he gets overruled and we end up with a 7 1/2 ft tall Douglas Fir. DH always forgets his saw and has to go borrow one from the people who own the farm. Every year their saw is so dull that it takes DH about 15 minutes of sawing to cut through the trunk. Then we pop it into the back of the pickup and take it up to pay for it.... usually costs us $25-$30. The boys get all excited when they put the tree in their "shaking thing" which shakes out loose needles, then they twine it's branches in to make it easier for us to put up. We drive home singing Christmas songs, drinking our cocoa, and eating our cookies. Then we get home, DH drags the tree into the house (always saying, "Next year, if you want this big of a tree again, you get to cut it down and haul it into the house!"- yeah, like that's gonna happen! ), we put the stand on, get it positioned, and cut the twine. Then we put on a Christmas movie and decorate the tree. It is one of my most favorite days of the year and I wouldn't change it for anything!!!

I can't wait!!!! We are pretty traditional... this year my Gma, mom, sister, and I are going to all get in and make everything together at my Gma's house. Its going to be a lot of fun!!! Honey-apple home smoked turkey Bourbon-Gingersnap ham Dressing (I would do a sausage dressing, but my Gma is a vegetarian (in a family full of meat-obsessed hunters- LOL), so I have to alter the recipe a bit...) Candied Sweet Potatoes or a sweet potato casserole, I'm not sure which Sour cream and chive mashed potatoes Deviled Eggs Cheddar cheese and green olive stuffed celery Rolls Gravy Cranberry sauce Cream Cheese ball with Wheat Thins for snacking on while we cook everything else... Dessert this year will be... Homemade pumpkin pie Homemade Pecan pie and I am going to make a Sweet Potato Cheesecake with candied pecans for the first time- hopefully its good!

Tinkrbel- Check out kellytoy.com... I bought 2 at Costco that I *think* are about twice the size of the Pillow Pets. My boys have had them for going on a couple of months and are REALLY rough on them... they "ride" them, have pillow fights with them, etc. and they are holding up WONDERFULLY! The tags on them have that kellytoy.com site listed, so I don't know if you can buy them there or not... I just saw them again today at Costco for $16.XX. A few bucks cheaper than Pillow Pets, just as nice IMO, and my boys LOVE that they are so big... my almost 5 year old lays on his and just the ends of his legs hang off. We have a lion and a tiger and they are super cute!

I cannot decide if I want to buy this movie or not... I thought it was good, but it freaked my kids (4 and 8) out! Plus, it left me having to explain all sorts of things that I'd rather not do at this point... especially with the 4 year old, like when my 4 year old asked why the souls were all moaning and pulling along their chains and my 8 year old asked me to explain why the one soul told the woman and her baby on the street, "I wish I could help you!" Unlike other, more child friendly versions, which seem to show all the good things about giving, sharing, and the Holiday spirit, this version was more authentic Dickens (with the obvious addition of certain scenes) and instead of feeling warm and cheery afterwards, my kids were asking questions about death and not going to Heaven. Needless to say, I don't typically watch a Disney movie to trigger a conversation about eternal damnation. This sounds like a good deal if you are interested in the movie (and we already have the game and it is good.... You go through a bit of the story, then you have to complete a few tasks before the story will continue- things like helping Bob Cratchit get coal into his fire without Scrooge noticing), but if you haven't seen the movie, I would recommend renting before buying. I was sure this was going to be a "must own," but now I am definately leaning towards waiting until my boys are older before adding it to our collection!

This is sort of off topic, but I didn't do this deal because of being unhappy with Swiss Colony in the past. Several years ago my sister and I ordered one of their large sets (at the time, it was one of the most expensive set they offered) and we thought it was going to be a HUGE assortment of things that we were going to separate into gift baskets ourselves and give to family members. We got a big assortment all right.... of TINY little 2 oz meats, cheeses, etc. We were SO disapointed! What we thought would fill 5 baskets only filled ONE! Not exaggerating, I would expect to pay $30-$40 for what you got (retail price, not even on sale!)... and this was either $100 or $125!!!... I can't remember if we were figuring on spending $20 a basket or $25... We called Swiss Colony and complained that the way they presented their product made it appear much bigger (the items were pictured next to knives, etc. that you assumed were average sized, but in actuality, they must have been manufactored just for them to deceive people). The lady basically told us that it was our fault for not inquiring about the product sizing further, maybe next time we shouldn't place a big order for an item without having more information, and to have a nice day. Technically, that is true. We should have. BUT, the way that the lady treated us (like we were complete idiots) and the complete and total lack of value for the product made me swear off Swiss Colony forever. I'm sorry that it didn't work out for everyone getting all their products that they ordered- but it definately doesn't suprise me that their terrible customer service didn't give you the option to cancel your order which I think is completely wrong!

My fingers are crossed for cheap bedding on Thanksgiving at KM! I REALLY would rather not go to WM at midnight just for sheets! Last year I went to KM on BF and it was INSANE there. There were no carts or anything and I remember buying 4 car seats and literally scooting this huge pile along the floor from the back of the store up to the checkout, then waiting in line forever. I swore to never go to KM on BF again, so unless the BF ad has something FANTASTIC, I will be sticking to Thanksgiving, when there are about 150 people at opening, but really not that bad. Please KM, give me a good Thanksgiving ad with $1 (or less) Christmas socks and inexpensive bedding!!! And I wouldn't be mad at you for throwing in a good deal on kid's slippers, cheap dvds, and other stocking stuffers!

I think there is a very good chance of Amazon price matching the DS Lite. I was shocked that everywhere wasn't offering cheap DS Lites this BF (due to their already being a DSi, DSiXL, and this spring, the 3DS) and I have a hunch that it may end up being a late edition add on sale item for several stores. My DS's bday party is 11-21 and I ended up biting the bullet and buying him a DS and Toy Story 3 game at a Veterans Day deal... DSL and game for $125, which works out to being about $10 more than the WM DS. I was debating returning and rebuying, but in the end, for $10 more, he can get his stuff at his party instead of waiting several more days, so I'm satisfied, but if the DS had been much cheaper at WM, that's what I would be doing! :) Good luck getting your DS without having to endure WM! I am debating going at midnight at picking up some much need sheet sets. I wonder how much of the crowds I'll miss by not going during the doorbuster time???

I'm pretty disapointed, too. I have already finished most of my shopping, but I figured I would be doing at least some returns due to the items being cheaper on BF. That is definately not the case! DH and I usually travel to the nearest "big" city (over an hour away) because as it is, we are about 15 miles from a town with WM, KM, and not much else. Not this year, though. I see nothing that is worth traveling for. Depending on the ads, I may go in to WM and KM after the crazy morning rush, but it will only be for (hopefully) good deals on things that we need (new pillows, socks, wrapping paper, hopefully some new sheets), not gifts. I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, I can stay up late Thanksgiving night eating turkey sandwiches and watching Christmas specials with my kids, then get the house all decorated Friday, and the presents wrapped. On the other hand, BF is one of the few times during the year when DH and I go out together, without the kids, and I'll miss that tradition, but something tells me he'll have no interest in battling the crowds for wrapping paper and pillows. I do think that the disapointment is a combination of weak ads and awareness of better deals throughout the rest of the year. When I first started shopping BF, I thought the deals were phenomenal, but now, it takes more to get me excited. I don't base deals on retail price, I base them on GottaDeal price! And when GD price has me buying Nintendo DS games for $5-$8 shipped to my door, suddenly getting up at 3am to get in line and hope I can get a couple of games for $7-$10 seems much less impressive.

ITA! In situations like this, I think that they need to honor the price for the customers who put the items in their carts after seeing the 90% off tags. Last Sunday at Kmart I saw this Wii game bundle that had a gun and 3 low-budget shooting games in a box with a sticker saying "$14.95." I thought that seemed low, but there were about 8 of them grouped together, all with $14.95 stickers on them. I figured that they were trying to get rid of them (I have bought many things at this KM for rediculously cheap- Mickey Mouse Clubhouses, the year that they were hot toys, for $1.50 each, a $40 toy gift set for $2 a couple of months ago). Well, I take it up to the register and it rings up $49.99! The cashier calls the front manager over to override it.... she tells her to call someone in electronics. The cashier says, "We have to sell it to her for $14.95 since that's what its marked." Manager says to call electronics anyway. Electronics lady comes over and basically says "too bad." That if the difference were less, she would honor it, but not $35. Didn't offer to meet me in the middle or anything. Then acted suprised when I said I no longer wanted it. After she leaves, the cashier apologized and I told her that it wasn't her fault, but that I thought it was illegal to not sell 1 of the item to the customer at the marked price. She said, "Don't say I told you this, but you need to go to customer service and ask to speak to the store manager." I did. The people at customer service called the store manager and explained, saying that the customer is not satisfied with the situation. He told them to sell it to me for the $14.95 but make sure they get the other units off the floor until they have been re-tagged. It was irritating (mainly the response from the electronics lady), but I was happy with the end result.

I can really sympathize with so many of you! Times are rough. My DH lost his job last January and we decided he needed to go to school. In our 8 year marriage he has been laid off, I think 6 different times, due to lack of work (all of his jobs have been tied to the housing industry, so when that went down, so did he!). He is currently in school and we are pinching pennies to get through. I think the thing that I need to remember (and I really struggle with this!), is that Christmas is GREAT, even without lots of spendy gifts under the tree! I am really trying to focus on memories and experiences, instead of pricey gifts (and am buying clearance/CHEAP stuff to make my money go further on the gifts I am buying- I'm pretty suprised at how much I've managed to get with my small budget). My DSs wanted several spendy video games, but instead are getting a few DS games (cheaper than Wii) that I think they will enjoy, but they weren't the new releases that they asked for. I am making gifts (the ribbon wreaths and marble magnets listed on the craft thread!) for anyone outside of our immediate family (or they have a $5 limit)- we had been planning on a bigger budget for a few of them, but DH's police academy classes have gotten even more expensive than we were counting on, so we had to rein that back in. When things started getting tough for members of my family a few years back, we decided, instead of nice gifts we would do a $5 limit gag gift exchange. It is SO much better than getting more pricey gifts because we all sit down for about an hour and laugh hysterically about what everyone else has gotten. We REALLY enjoy giving the gifts, and that feeling really seems to get lost easily so often. I got my mom a book one year that was nothing but pictures of bunnies trying to off themselves in various ways. This year, I think my step-dad, who happens to be 6'6" and hate vegetables, is getting a sign that has a picture of the Jolly Green Giant that says, "Remember to always eat your veggies!" that I found at a second-hand store. I had bought things recently and kept the receipts in case the items were cheaper on Black Friday, but as it turns out, I'm glad I bought them before, because BF is turning out to be a dud for me, as far as what I am interested in buying. When I come online sometimes its hard because there are always people who have much more and it makes me feel bad because I cannot provide for my children as well as they can provide for theirs, but then I see that there are people with much less, and I really try to count my blessings! Christmas is about much more than gifts and I really need to work on enjoying the season more and stressing out about number of gifts, cost of gifts, etc. less. This is the first year we weren't planning on picking a child off the Angel Tree (our kids probably qualify to be on that tree this year- LOL), but now I'm second guessing that decision. I hope everyone here has a blessed Christmas, whether they can afford to give their child everything or can only afford a few gifts under the tree. Drink lots of cocoa, cuddle on the couch and watch Christmas movies, put Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas CD on and sing at the top of your lungs in your best Chipmunk voice, but most importantly, remember the Reason for the season and enjoy your loved-ones!

A month or so back, we found off-brand "pillow pets" at Costco for... I don't know, like $15 each? I don't know if they are this brand (we got a lion and a tiger), but they are much bigger than a normal pillow pet and my boys LOVE them! I had been planning on getting them pillow pets, but I'm glad we went with the larger sized ones... my almost 5 year old can really lie on his and only part of his legs hang off, as opposed to just being able to lie his head on the little pillow pets. They are probably twice (or more) the size of the actual pillow pets. Sorry for being kind of off-topic, but I just wanted to recommend the larger sized generic ones over the little "name-brand" ones for anyone on the fence about it. Our's, at least, are well made, and have survived the last 4-6 weeks of my boys riding them, throwing them at each other, and other various forms of chaos, and are still in perfect condition (and still enjoyed- they are still slept with every night).

Aw man! I am desperate to see the WM ad! After the let-down that was Target (all I am REALLY after are a DS (preferably Lite) and Toy Story 3 for NDS), my hopes are resting on WM to have a good deal on them! Fred Meyer is having a $30 off $150+ electronics purchase tomorrow, 11-11, only. (Specifically excludes XBox Kinnect, so I assume other video games and systems are ok.) Which would make them.. $130 DS + $30 game = $160 - $30 coupon = $130 for both, which I am considering doing... maybe I'll buy it tomorrow and just keep the receipt safe in case somewhere has a better deal...

I know.. it was insane! At first I thought she must be donating it or buying it for some cause or another, but she was so snotty that I now have a mental picture of her sitting in her living room, covered in bags of candy saying, "Its mine... ALL MINE!" While laughing maniacally, of course. And the poor little old lady cashier was so upset after she left because the woman was so rude to her. All the candy was ringing up full price and had to be price modified to the .10, so needless to say, it was taking awhile. The woman was really impatient and snapping at the cashier about everything. By the time she got to me she was so frazzled and upset... I felt so bad for her. I chatted with her and let her vent about how the woman had treated her and by the time I left she was smiling and telling me to "have a wonderful day, dear!," which made my day. :) In addition to the cheap costumes, of course!

Yesterday morning, my walmart went to 90% off Halloween, with all Halloween candy being .10 (including bags of fun sized candy bars, etc.). I was too late for most of the candy (some people were just downright greedy... the woman checking out in front of me bought nothing but .10 bags of candy and spent $20!- then actually complained to the manager because she had called the day before and asked when the stuff would go to 90% off and they had told her they didn't know, so she had missed out on a bunch of the candy!), but I did get a bunch of costumes for my boys, who love to wear costumes around the house while they play. I ended up with 16 costumes that my boys will LOVE (Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Iron Man 2, Wolverine, Superman, Spiderman, Spongebob, Incredible Hulk, Darth Vader, Clone Trooper, Batman, Power Ranger, G.I. Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and a couple more I can't remember) and 10 little packages of How to Train Your Dragon candies for $23! I was really excited! I'm putting together a costume trunk for a Christmas present. My WM must not have sold much of their Halloween costumes this year, because there were hundreds of them at 90% off! Everyone went crazy for the candy and barely seemed to care about the costumes...

Thanks, Shortness! :) I told DH that we needed to open them up tomorrow and test them out. Hopefully any problems will show up within that 90 period!

Thanks! I took a quick peek at WM.com's reviews then I looked at Costco's return policy online... it says they will accept returns if you are unhappy for any reason... and it gave no return window! There were some things that said 90 days, but DVD players were not listed (unless I'm blind, but I kind of am, so that is a distinct possibility-LOL)! That makes me feel a little better. I guess I'll take them out today and try to use them off and on before the big trip and see if they work alright... if not, we'll take them back and see if there is something else... I'm glad this was posted... I would probably have not taken them out and tested them before our trip, only to find that they don't work as we're pulling out of the driveway!