AuntieJul

Great deal! Finished yet another Santa present... TY!

Another Black Friday has come and gone... yet Christmas still awaits us... Have a spectacular year with friends, family, and great deals!

25-Surviving Christmas Vs 2-Jingle All the Way 49-Desk Set Vs 15-Home Alone 2 58-A Christmas Carol- 1984- George C. Scott Vs 13-The Grinch 37-Bad Santa vs 20-The Santa Clause 3- The Escape Clause 50-Meet Me in St. Louis vs 1-Miracle on 34th Street- Original 1947 Version starring Natalie Wood and Maureen O'Hara 26-Prancer vs 54-Badder Santa 59-A Christmas Carol- 2004- Kelsey Grammar Vs 5-Polar Express 44-Love Actually Vs 23-Unaccompanied Minors 18-The Santa Clause Vs 11-Eight Crazy Nights 35-Last Holiday Vs 14-Home Alone 7-Fred Claus Vs 8-Christmas with The Kranks 47-The Bishop's Wife Vs 51-The Homecoming- A Christmas Story 62-The Nativity Story Vs 30-Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas 57-The Preacher's Wife Vs 34-Holiday in Handcuffs 21-White Christmas Vs 53-Miracle on 34th Street- 1994 version 29-Mickey's One Upon a Christmas Vs 46-Christmas in Connecticut 48-A House Without a Christmas Tree Vs 63-Santa Claus: The Movie 60-Scrooge- 1951 - Alistar Sim Vs 45-The Ref 52-The Christmas Shoes Vs 28-One Magical Christmas 55-Die Hard 2 Vs 31-I'll Be Home For Christmas 19-The Santa Clause 2 Vs 10-Deck the Halls 33-Christmas Do Over Vs 22-Scrooged 42-Holiday Inn VS 36-Three Days 3-Christmas Vacation Vs 56-Home Alone 3 43-Santa Buddies Vs 61-Ernest Saves Christmas 24-The Nightmare Before Christmas Vs 40-Smokey Mountain Christmas 17-Muppet Christmas Carol Vs 64-Santa Baby 9-A Christmas Story- 2008 Champion Vs 16-It's a Wonderful Life 4-Mickey's A Christmas Carol Vs 12-Elf 32-The Christmas List Vs 38-Die Hard 39-Gremlins Vs 41-The Holiday 6-Four Christmases Vs 27-Trapped in Paradise Wish I'd seen the note to vote - I would have added Home for the Holidays!

At 5am spent 40 minutes in line at Kohl's; from then on had DH wait in line while I grabbed items and piled them into his cart - had the time, so might as well! Only two items that I could not get from my list were Adidas sneaks at Sears and Down-Alternative Comforter at Sears (ended up getting it at BonTon).

Best Buy - HP Photosmart C4795 Wireless All-in-One Printer - $64.99 Toys R Us - Imaginarium Arch Train Table w/Big Train Set (Big Train Set FREE with purchase of Arch Train Table) - $79.99 Target - Nintendo DSi Video Game Bundle w/FREE $20 Gift Card - $169.99 JC Penney - Izod Sweater - $19.99 JC Penney - Van Heusen Shirt & Tie Set - $19.99 JoAnn - 5 Cricut Cartridges (on Saturday) - $144.40 @ $28.88/each For a grand total of $499.35

Wow! I love TOH! Thanks so much!

I did a couple of rebates last year from Kmart and it took nearly 4 months before I received my check. That was ridiculous! Rite Aid's are tricky but Staples are very easy.

Crisp snap in the air, Warm donuts and hot coffee - Shove your way in, man!

Nutcrackers! Whenever I put them out I try to make a little narrative in my head that I use in photo captions later...

Wow, allshoppedout! I love these ideas. I don't know what kind of spray or anything to buy, this definitely helps!

That's really cute, thanks!

Very cool! Thanks for sharing this - I will have to try it! I love it too but I hate burning candles sometimes especially when I'm baking - I don't like to have scents overpower the oven. :)

I have a very large, very old white pine tree in my backyard. A few weeks ago I collected a box full of fresh pinecones from those that had fallen on my lawn, and I've left them alone so they can dry. I had the great idea of saving them and "doing something" with them for the holidays. I don't know where to start! Do you have tips or ideas or things you've done with pinecones before? How do I have to preserve them (ie: with a clear coat of paint)? How can I decorate them? How can I turn them into decorations for Christmas packages? Thanks!!!

It's a Wonderful Life... although it's a little somber. I never really liked or made a big deal about any other Christmas shows.

My Chihuahua gets a Jumbone in her stocking every year - it's always as big as she is, and it'll take her all of a week to eat it, but she knows it's a special day. My mom and sister tend to buy my dog a new sweater or blanket or treats. Other than that, I'm just lucky I don't wake up every day in december to shredded wrapping paper!

Photo #1: So I got all this great stuff with the cash I got for my clunker mega-sized truck - except none of it fits in my new fuel-efficient hybrid! Photo #2: Now did I leave my fanny pack in here? Or in here? Photo #3: Their last Tweet: "Sent DH to unload packages in the car. Can't believe the deals I scored with GottaDeal! Man, I could use a Red Bull."

Gift cards so I can go shopping... and I would totally go for a Kindle or another electronic reader if only I knew I could get books from my library downloaded onto it for free! Does anyone know how/if that works? Or do you have to always buy books to read them on the reader?

For the DH: Clothes.... undershirts, a pair of khakis, other good stuff. We are budgeting about $30 to spend on each other, so we're keeping it modest. Last year we had a budget of $100 each and we both ended up buying almost the exact same items for each other! (A radio - since we would share the same one between the kitchen, the shed, the basement - he bought me an under-the-counter radio, I bought him another portable one!; also we bought accessories for each other's MP3 players... So... we're trying to avoid that this year).

Straight from the Christmas Cookie Weekend annals... Anisette Cookies 1/2 pound butter 1 cup sugar 6 eggs 4 cups flour 4 tsp baking powder 2 Tbsp vanilla extract or anisette flavoring Combine ingredients. Dough will be a nice fluffy texture. If you need instructions, combine wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately, then together. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Drop cookie dough (using tablespoons) onto cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly golden and puffed. Remove immediately from baking sheet and onto cooling rack. Drizzle icing and sprinkles on when completely cooled. Icing: Confectionary sugar and lemon juice (or anisette liquor... or another flavoring of your choosing) Bon appetite!

Among my family and stepfamily there are a lot of us cousins, and maybe one niece or nephew on any one side of my family to buy for. So, we have continued to do what we've done among us "adults" (moms, aunts, uncles included) - a Secret Santa grab-bag with a limit of $50 or $25 (depending on the side of the family). This included the new borns, too. It's been pretty successful but it's getting kind of boring because there aren't too many kids around to be excited for presents. With my mom's family we do a "Pirate Pollyanna" which is also called a Yankee Gift Exchange. We each wrap a useless gift or a re-gifted item and place it in the center of a room. We draw numbers and pick gifts in order. Except if you are #3 and you like #2's gift better than yours, you can steal it and #2 can't steal it back! And so on... So every year we try to out-do the year before's useless gifts. Examples of hilarious gifts include an unused duct vent, a shark in a jar (tourism gift from the Caribbean), ornaments, balls of yarn...

This is about my 6th or 7th year - I've had a miss a few in the last few years due to holiday travel... I'm not sure what our traveling plans this year entail but I'm ready to go! My mom used to take me to the mall early on special holidays, such as New Year's Eve or Day, for specials. That's the first time I really realized the potential of getting to be first in line for a deal.

Definitely take purel or some other antibacterial stuff with you and wash all day long.. avoid the store bathrooms... and use your gloves to open the doors. Or skip it all together and do BF online!

People who didn't read the ad - or claim they didn't see that the doorbuster ended at 1pm, or that some of the specials don't start until Saturday - and haggle with the cashier to give them the deal anyway. And you know the cashier won't, because they have the ad right in front of them and there's plenty of people in line ready to give you the money....

Oh, what I'd give to have Wawa coffee or cappuccino on Thanksgiving morning!!!! Nowadays I wake up with the DH, get the paper, read over the ads (though I've memorized them already from GottaDeal), then forget about BF until late after dinner has been cleared and dessert has been served. Then I make a map of the local area and highways, along with a list of stores and their opening times, and any sales that may be timely (ie: JC Penney's doorbusters end at 12 or 1). Make the final list of stores and items in order... Then enjoy a nice evening with the DH, set the alarm for o'dark thirty with clothes laid out... and get ready for some BF!

Fortunately for us we've been snow-free for the season so far, despite many forecasts... Central PA and the Catskills have not been so lucky...