KittySkyfish

I only hit Garden Ridge just to get out of the house and stretch my legs. IIRC they do their 72-hour marathons starting Thanksgiving Day.

This year will be 20 years! I had one year where I visited my SIL in a small town that had little shopping and while I was happy to visit with the family...I was sooo depressed to not be out in the thick of things. To me, Black Friday is like the first day of deer season to die-hard hunters!

I know you're looking to use these lights this season, but if you can watch inventory and wait, Target does a KILLER after-Christmas sale. Prices go 75% off. Okay, that said, also check places like Hobby Lobby or Garden Ridge for their sales. Their regular prices are not that hot but they often do a 50% off sales before Christmas. Garden Ridge might do their sale over the Thanksgiving weekend. One other thing - a few years ago I bought a few trial strings of the LED multicolor lights and noticed that one of the cheaper brands skimped on the blue and green lights. Normal multicolor strands are equal in color quantity but this cheapie had 2x more yellow and orange lights than any other shade. The reason why is there is a slight variance in the manufacturing cost of each color, so they loaded up on the cheap colors. This shouldn't be a concern with major brands though.

I try to make as many 'do ahead' dishes as possible so I can avoid being locked in the kitchen all day. Some great dishes that I do the day before are lamb and rice stuffed cabbage rolls, which can be reheated in an electric roaster. And as a plus, they taste BETTER when they are reheated as the flavors and spices mellow. Also, gratin potatoes do well when made a day early and reheated in the oven. I love pies but prefer cakes for Christmas because - again lol - they can be made early. My favorite cakes are lemon cream and carrot cake, but I do have brownies as a backup for die-hard chocolovers. Roasts are a great idea since they are fairly simple to work with. For a larger crowd, pair a brined pork or ham and a roasted turkey breast. I do a lot of baked pineapple because it goes so well with ham - it's a custard of canned crushed pineapple, eggs, sugar and cinnamon. Very easy to make, too!

Maybe she'll calm down and surprise everyone with acknowledgement at Christmas when she realizes that she survived the wedding.

I'll probably be in Frisco, TX at the Stonebriar Centre area - Target will be my first stop! :)

Excitement Rises! A Crowd of Christmas Chaos Swells Outside the Door.

I am sooo excited about our trees this year! I cleaned house at Target's after season sale and picked up beaucoup decorations in brilliant shades of orange, lime, red, blues, pink (I think), sparkley metallic multi-color garland to match and lots and LOTs of colored lights. Seriously, I think I picked up 15 sets of 100ct lights + 7 sets of twinkle 100ct lights. And a few strands of bubble lights! I just have to watch the sales at Garden Ridge to pick up a new tree to go with it. (there's a particular tree I love and I'm willing to strip the pre-wired lights and put up my own!!) That tree is going to be ON FIRE. Four alarm and glorious. We also do a family tree with a sea of white lights (over 2,000 of constant on and twinkle lights) and silver ornaments/garland. Then we fill it out with all the ornaments we collected over the years. I'm not much of a white light fan but this one with tons of light and flashing silver all over the place is really beautiful. :) What else....we have a 4' tree in the dining room that's white and red lights with red, bronze and gold ornaments and filled with golden branches. And a pink tinsel tree with pink lights that sits on the alcove above the front door. I think that'll go in the master bath this year.

My family always had a closet equipped with a keyed knob. All the presents went in there and it was 100% tamper-resistant from us kiddies. Mom even placed a towel floor-level on the other side of the door to keep eyes from peeking underneath! :)

Oh man, I collect so much stuff!! Here's my biggies: Department 56 - Original Snow Village. I normally receive a building or two for Christmas each year. My photo website contains pictures of all my pieces so family can figure out what to get me next...haha! Christmas trees. I collect fake christmas trees as well as smaller glass and ceramic ones. I have some Fenton glass trees and I covet my electric ceramic ones with the plastic lights. Ceramic or glass candy or sweets. I'm always on the lookout for ornaments that have a dessert theme, like cupcakes, candy canes, lollipops, etc. My favorite piece is a 2' high Dept. 56 samovar that is styled after a gingerbread house! Oh so cool!

This year it's going to be just the two of us, so I bought a 9.5 lb turkey. Wee lil' birdie! I prefer a whole turkey over just the breast because I like to make stock w/ the bones n' carcass. :)

Usually I shop from a list because there are certain 'must have' items that I know will make them really happy. But then I impulse buy stuff for stockings and small extras. :)

I've seen nice trees at Lowes for the $$ you're talking about. They have a GE 7-1/2' Deluxe Just Cut Franklin Fraser Pre-Lit Tree that's $300 and looks great! The lights are the GE ConstantOn lights and the tree was very well lit and sparkling at the store. Very nice density too. It seemed to have a quality look about it and was fuller than a lot of the trees in its price range. This was one of their 'top models' and they carried trees for less, too. If you are really picky-picky about the quality of the tree itself and want one that's dense and lifelike, try www.treeclassics.com. Get an non-lit one - the prelit ones are cha-CHING! I have one of their non-lit trees and I love, love, love it! It's luxurious, intricately sculpted, dense and full. Some of their non-lit trees have hinged branches, which might be something you'd like.

Thanks for the update! Allen Premium Outlets (TX) announced that many of their stores will be open at midnight, right after Thanksgiving ends. Other stores will open for their official BF hours, which are 7:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. No stores are listed by opening time on their website.

I use only fake trees with removable branches, and my trick is to wrap the trunk with lights before putting on the branches. I let the density of the tree be my guide as to what type of lights I use at the trunk. My white tree is moderately dense, so I use mini lights. However, my main green tree is exceptionally dense so I use C7 lights for extra internal illumination. Also, this is a good time to attach the multi-plug extension cord to the trunk. By running a 9-plug extension cord up the trunk, it allows me to limit training my lights end to end, and it cuts down on the amount of plugs at the base of the tree. Once the branches are on, I work lights in a loose 'round the tree' method. I go around and tuck lights into the branches as I move. This stage is relatively sloppy and I try to be generous with the lights as I go. When I'm finished, I go back and straighten and tuck correctly. How many lights do I use? My 7.5' dense tree will take 14 strands of 60-light LED C6 lights, plus 2 - 50 light C7 strands at the trunk. This works out to 840 LED and 100 C7 bulbs. My 6' moderately dense white tree takes 1 strand of 100 mini white lights at the trunk and 10 strands of 100 multicolor mini lights at the branches = 1100 lights! << need sunglasses...lol

Both! We have four trees we light each year and all are either multi or a mix of color and white. Our white tree has white lights wrapped around the trunk while multcolor lights adorn the branches. The lit trunk brightens the tree to the point of looking angelic! Also, I love combining white lights with gold/yellow or red. One of my small trees is a mixture of twinkling white mini lights blended with red mini lights, with gold, silver, bronze and red decorations. Gorgeous!

I also was never taught about Santa being a real person. We were brought up to believe that Santa Claus is the *face* we give to the holiday spirit of kindness, charity and love, and that anyone who keeps those values close to your heart becomes Santa.

That's us too! I was finished packing my Christmas closet by March! But this season I hope to get everything back to normal by Superbowl....

Same here. I love plants and find it depressing to hang pretty decorations on a dying tree. We have a non-lit fake tree from TreeClassics. It's gorgeous! So dense and full - I love it! We keep this one by the picture window and it's so dense the outside light doesn't filter through the branches. Adding: we bought the non-lit version because I like variety in Christmas lights. We've done multi-color c-7 LEDs and mixed up clear and yellow lights. Both turned out so pretty!!

We do the trees (we decorate four!) on Thanksgiving weekend and the outside lights go up Black Friday afternoon. All other decorations come out during Thanksgiving weekend and the following week. I can't wait!!!!

Check with your friends and neighbors to see if you can borrow a few electric roasters. In our house these are indispensable around the holidays! Our oven is too small for the turkey and we've made beautiful hams and turkeys in roasters. Plus, it'll free up your oven for other baking needs. Some roasters also come with steamer tray kits that you can use to keep prepared food warm. If you're serving 40 people, this might be a help. I also like the idea of a ham and turkey, instead of two turkeys! Also, if you're going to stuff a turkey, microwave the stuffing and fill the turkey with *very hot* stuffing to cut down on roasting time. This ensures that your bird won't be overcooked while trying to get the stuffing up to safe consumption tempuratures.