AuntieJul

I'm not sure, KellyMarie - I think the Amazon.com description and the customer reviews could help you with that one. I'm just a price-watcher. My brother, who works with building computer networks all day long, tells me it's such a great deal he's going to buy it - and that means something coming from him!

http://www.amazon.com/TomTom-4-3-Inch-Widescreen-Portable-Navigator/dp/B000WEOWM6/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1237479567&sr=1-9 This is the best deal I've seen for a widescreen, speaks-street-names TomTom!

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks for the inside scoop, luv2shop! I don't have an outlet store near me but maybe the retail stores will have the same deal.

Anybody know if there will be any in-store specials for L.L. Bean on Black Friday? Or are there any online specials to know about? My stepdad is really picky and has lots of items picked out for Christmas from LL Bean. I'm lucky enough to have an actual store near me (and so does he, actually) and I'd like to plan my attack - whether it's online, or if I should fight the crowds for a worthy deal! With enough caffeine I'm up for a fight! I know that right now if you purchase online, you earn a $10 gift card for a $50 purchase. Last year they had that same promo, in stores and online. Thanks for your help!

I agree that in general I haven't found many deals that I would absolutely get in line for. I've always had luck with odd gifts from Lowes and Kmart, like pajamas, toys, and holiday decorations. The Kmart Saturday Sale is usually just as good as the Black Friday one, and I've learned to read their ad very carefully because of the distinction between the days. While Sears is generally great, they hardly ever have the tools for gifts at the one by me - even if you're first in line. It's always disappointing, so much so that you're better off shopping at home. Last year I purchased gifts from Best Buy online the weekend after Black Friday, and picked up in the store to avoid shipping charges (and insane crowds). Thanks to sites like these, I've been able to find gifts now at prices that I know are either as good as or better than Black Friday prices. I'm still hoping for a Boscov's and a Christmas Tree Shop add...

Before we were living together (we were dating long distance for two years before I moved in with him), our limit was about $100 for gifts for each other for Christmas. The first year we were living in our house together, we bought things for the house and called it our gift to ourselves. We bought one of those custom-made cast address markers, and did a lot of renovations to the inside of the house. Then last year, our first Christmas as a married couple, we had a $100 limit to buy for each other - and ended up buying nearly the same thing for each other! I bought him a small SanDisk Sansa mp3 player, nice headphones for it (we jog together outside), a cable so he can listen to it in the car, and a boom box for him to use either out in the garage or in the basement that could also play the mp3 player (since he was always stealing my little radio from the kitchen!) He bought me nice microfiber socks (for jogging), headphones, cables to plug my mp3 player into the car, and an under-the-cabinet radio/CD player with a light on the bottom for the kitchen - since he was always stealing my little radio! Needless to say, we had quite a laugh on Christmas morning last year and decided not to return anything. And this year, our gift to each other is to finally redecorate the last major room we haven't yet touched - the master bedroom.

My suggestion would be a write-in. The forum question is: If you had $1,000 to spend on your charity of choice, what would your charity be, why, and what would you buy on BF for your charity? An example might be Toys for Tots, and I'd buy as many Lego kits and My Little Ponies as I could find at Toys r Us, Target, and Walmart. You could even have a forum question where users are given a certain time to submit their write-in, and then all of the readers on the forum get to vote on the top, winning submissions.

That's a great idea, and the ornament you found is lovely. I don't know if you have a store like this by you, but we have some pottery stores that will let you come in and paint anything that you'd like, such as ornaments, mugs, plates, photo frames, etc., and they'll fire it and seal it for you. Then you could make something together or make something for each other while spending some time together! I don't know how much the cost is, unfortunately. The stores are sometimes called Pottery Place, or Color Me Mine, at least around here. Whatever you do, I'm sure she'll cherish it as much as she cherishes you.

I know they've already been said, but the Very Special Christmas album series has a lot of classics and easy to listen to songs while you're wrapping, decorating, or entertaining. For whimsical winter nights at home, there's a Celebrity Christmas CD that I have around here... Maybe it's NBC celebrities and stars? John Lithgow I remember is one of the stars that sing on it.

My husband and I will finalize our plans of attack, including the opening times of stores and driving efficiency. Any "down time" (though I can hardly imagine any) will be spent at one of many Dunkin Donuts, refueling on caffeine. Then, it's rush rush rush between Walmart, JC Penney's, Kmart, Boscov's, Lowe's, Home Depot, Dick's... Whereever we need to go that year! Home by 12, call Mom and make her jealous with all the good deals I got, toast up some open-faced turkey sandwiches and stuffing/dressing, take a nap, and prepare for Saturday's deals!!! (Like Kmart's).

This year I'm making crochet scarves for all the women in the family. I have a lot of yarn that I need to use up, and I thought it would be an easy way for me to clear out old yarn I've had for years and make something useful for others. The pattern that I'm using this year is the "Two for the Road" on the LionBrand yarn website, made for Vanna's Choice yarn. I'm learning new stitches (I consider myself an intermediate crocheter, I've been crocheting for 5 or 6 years), and the pattern is basic enough that my plain old yarn looks great and dressed up. I have a lot of baby yarn leftover from baby blankets, so for all the babies that are 2 years old or less, I'm making baby hats. If I have time, I'll make matching scarves for the moms. Another thing I used to do was make a little ornament / gift box decoration that was a crocheted log basket. It was maybe the size of a fist, and it was really very cute, took only an hour to make (single crochet), and you'd use cinnamon sticks from a craft store as the "logs." I made them for an ornament party exchange one year, and if I have time I'll make some this year. A lot of great pattern ideas can be found on CrochetPatternCentral.com.

100% other people. Although it KILLS me not to get great deals for myself (which is typically my MO when shopping for me - I pride myself in getting the best deals ever). My husband spends every day between, oh about now, and Christmas reminding me ever so patiently that the holiday is about other people, not about us. UGH. He's so good. December 26th it can start being about me again.

I haven't even decided what to get people yet... I usually make a spreadsheet and start plotting out the best deals for things I want to get... I'm definitely going through spreadsheet withdrawal at this point.

My Black Friday Migraine - For years I would go out shopping on Black Friday, and whether I had left the house at 3:30am or 9:00am I would always have a major MASSIVE headache by midday and would have the spend the rest of the day lying on the couch. I always assumed it was from having to wake up early, rush out the door in freezing temperatures, the stress and excitement from the day - I even thought it was from low blood sugar or too much caffeine! My Black Friday headache was so bad three years ago that I had lost my vision for a few minutes before I retreated to the couch in tears from the pain. I worried that the price I was paying for the excitement of deal hunting was taking too large of a toll on my sanity. That was until one day in March, when my mother-in-law invited us over for a turkey dinner on a Sunday afternoon. Wouldn't you know it, but the next day around mid-morning, noontime I had developed a Black-Friday-like Headache, complete with seeing spots and pain so bad I became nauseous. I went to the doctor and discovered that I was getting full-blown migraine headaches from the turkey - and since I don't eat turkey a lot, when I did eat it the effects were that much worse. So now every Thanksgiving it's one thin slice of turkey for me and a happy Black Friday shopper all weekend long!!! (Thank goodness I don't get migraines from chocolate - then we'd be in trouble!)