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Oh no! That is really funny and really not! Why didn't sil throw it out after it started smoking instead of shelving it?

Ok, I retract my statement that I will not be bringing Sing-a-ma-jigs into my house. Ever since my 9 year old daughter and I spent some time at the store playing with them, she has been asking for them. So I picked up all 6 currently available colors for my girls at Christmas. When I was at the store buying them I couldn't help playing with them awhile before I hit the checkout. But I stand by my statement they are creepy looking lol. I also play with the Sing-a-ma-jigs harmonizing here: http://www.thesingamajigs.com/landing.aspx They are available at the stores but seem to currently OOS just about everywhere online.

I stay up late and wrap on Christmas Eve. I have no where to hide a bunch of wrapped gifts before that. Plus I would get too confused on who has what, and how many go to her or him. I have to wait until almost the end and then lay out all the gifts and make sure there are an even number for each kid. I do keep a written list but I even get confused with that.

yeah ditto. if you need any help that doesn't take much time ... or effort , I'm there!

My husband and I sat in the trampoline line all night at WM last BF. We were directly across from the $97 DS display and watched them go one by one. They were gone by 5am. People were coming in at 5am on the dot and asking about them and shown an empty display. So sad that those that slept in until 4ish am missed out. There was a ton of them too...

Only time of the year hubby will shop with me!

I absolutely agree!! HEXBUG NANO HABITAT. Anyone have any input or experience with it? The reviews on Amazon are good and at $30 it seems like a good price for a playset...

My kids are pretty easy to redirect. For toys that DH and I don't want them to have, I usually explain to them why the toy is not a better choice, either bad reviews and we talk about the reviews and problems people have had with the toys. Or that daddy and I don't want the toy in the house for given reason. With toys that they have shown interest in and we approve of, I let them know the good aspects of the toy and we talk about how cool and fun the toy would be. Then they are excited for the toys that they are on the mom and dad approved list. So far we have not had any problems with our system. But this year my daughter is asking for a DSi and we don't have the money for it. I've explained to her Santa might not think she's ready for it because she has misplaced and temporally lost her DS Lite many times and that she should not be surprised if he waits until she is a little older to get the upgrade.

I ordered one for my sons birthday next month! Thanks!! Now I just hope the order will go through because I literally have no money in my account until I get my student loan check in the bank on Monday. I placed the order Saturday hoping it wouldn't hit my account until Monday but I already received an email from Amazon that the payment didn't go through and I need to submit an alternative payment. They usually give 2 days to submit the new payment, so by then I will have the funds in the bank and can resubmit. It's really sad that I am familiar with this system....

I received it yesterday and I would have to say it's.... I'm not sure. It has soft stuffing but is well filled with it so it feels firm. If I hold the dolphin under the belly below the dorsal fin, the front half will flop down. In the picture you can see the girl is using two hands and if the hand on the upper half was not there it would probably flop down. But if I lay but head on the dolphin it is not gushy at all. My feeling is that the stuffing is soft it's just filled really well, with time is will become more gushy. I'm happy with the purchase, it seems well made and the eyes look good.

I broke down and got some too. I said I wouldn't get them because I think they will get annoying pretty quickly. But my daughter and I had a lot of fun playing with them at the store and ever since then she has been asking for some. I got them now for the same reason, I'm not confident I will be able to get my hands on them closer to Christmas.

I wonder why... it is Prime eligible for me. Thanks jeninpa for the M&D Dolphin link! I ordered that for my older daughter for an x-mas present. She loves dolphins and stuffed animals. Perfect!

LOL! I think we are all a bunch of enablers and would make a lousy support group for your problem . But I love that you bought a mini-van with BF in mind! There I go enabling again...

I'm almost done shopping and I'm waiting for BF. Like starbeck, I buy the stuff I don't think will go on sale or things I think will be harder to come by the closer it gets to Christmas. I have learned that shopping this early I need buy at brick and mortars and save the receipt. So if the items go on sale I can price adjust or return and re-buy. By the end of Oct. I usually feel I have to have all the must haves on the wish-lists and then BF comes and I discover deals on all new items. Then always seem to decide to add more gifts under the tree. Now that I know (admit) this about myself, this year will be pretty much the same by shopping ahead of time and BF will be for the fun of it and for whatever great deals I want. But I will budget/limit my BF shopping to $100-$200 depending on what I can save/budget for it. Except if I can find some cheap laptops, then the budget is out the window.

Jen8112 said it all for me. Pretty much the same experience I had last year except replace Target with Kmart and at WM my husband waited in the door buster line while I shopped and waited in the checkout line. And I totally agree with loving BF but not enough to ruin Thanksgiving over it! I've never experienced shoving or pushing in lines around here. I have actually experienced crowds starting to fill isles and people just stopping and waiting. That's when I start weaving and maneuvering my way through. Sometimes people are surprised by that. I'm not from this town and don't have the patience bred into me I guess. I don't like to take my children because- 1) they would slow me down 2)they don't have the stamina 3)I buy Santa gifts for them on BF If I was a single mom, did not have anyone to watch the kids and knew my children could handle long shopping trips, I probably would take them to to get the deals on clothes, pj's and such.

YIKES! That is very rude! The OP was asking for thoughts on taking her kids out again on BF with another one in tow this year, or looking for sales on other days. NOT your opinion on how many children she should have. Geez!

Thanks for mentioning the "Jacob" fleece mom2monkies, I have a "Team Jacob" daughter that will love one! I didn't have a good chance to look through the catalog before I moved and now I cannot find it. I too prefer looking at the print catalog and feel I don't miss anything that way, but I still like to check on-line often for their on-line only deals.

I just buy for my 4 kids and a small gift for my mom. Everyone else gets a Christmas card with a pic of the kids and/or Christmas dinner cooked for them. Lucky them right? . Right now my kids are young enough that I just need to match the number of gifts. They get one larger gift/play-set and then smaller gifts. Luckily they can't tell a $50 Polly Pocket set from a $20 Hot Wheels set...yet. So my budget determines the number of gifts. This year the budget is going to allow for only 3 gifts per kid. Luckily I have some items left over from BF's of the past, so I only need to buy about 3/4 of what I still need.

Wii Just Dance is a lot of fun for all ages! But my girls especially love it.

2 Laptops for the kids but would be willing to get a couple desktops instead if the price is low enough

Paper Jamz seem really cool put a bit pricey imo. At Walmart today the Squinkies play set collection was different from what I saw last week and not many of them left. On closer inspection I prefer the Squinkies over Zoobles now. The Zoobles are a larger play set and if we didn't already have many Polly Pocket and LPS play sets around the house I would probably be more interested in them. But the Squinkies and their smaller play sets are much more appealing to me. Plus I can just see them as a grade school fashion for pencil toppers. Walmart was out of the Furry Frenzies large play set. They did have some last week and the dept employee told me the would be getting plenty more in. Walmart also had the Woodzeez. Same isle as the Furry Frenzies, Zoobles, and Squinkies. Oh and the Sing-a -ma-jigs are soooo funny! Ugly as heck, kind of creepy really, but they are so fun to play with. I will not bring them into my house though, I can tell they would quickly become annoying.

I've read from teachers before that they've received gas/gift cards and loved it. I've given $10 gas cards a couple times since and they were well received.

I've got the X-Mas bug and reading through this thread has not helped! LOL DD 9 has said in the past couple weeks that she likes Squinkies. Looking them up on-line we did come across Zoobles but we didn't realize they are similar to Bakugans. She loves her brothers Bakugans so I will definitely be getting her some Zoobles for Christmas. Thanks to Mom2Monkies and others for the heads up on those! DD also wants more Polly Pockets. DD 4 is the only one who still loves the Zhu Zhu's they got last X-Mas (ahh ZZ hunting....good times). She is now asking for the Furry Frenzies. I think the FF play set is a much better idea than ZZ system. DD will be getting Furry Frenzies for Christmas. A big thanks to Rose0426 for the FF Ladybug offer!! DS 6 wants Lego's and a Morphibians remote control car. Those cars look cool http://www.amazon.com/Kid-Galaxy-Morphibians-Control-Vehicle/dp/B0009ICKBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1283758337&sr=1-1 DS 7 wants the Nerf Big Bad Bow and more Bakugans. Pretty easy. I have to tone things way down this year. Probably 2-3 gifts per kid and hopefully a couple laptops for the the family depending on what kind of BF deals we find.

LOL, ditto!!!

WoW!!