brynnfromtheblock

I spend BF with my mom and it's a tradition thing for the 2 of us... If she wasn't here though and I didn't know anyone in the area I would probably be happy to do this..

We have the same problem but we have the Thanksgiving meal at around noon or 1, so it gives me time to get everyone out and clean up and still have time to rest

I don't spend a 100, but it ends up coming close... you don't realize how much all that little crap costs until you get to the register.

Never had that happen for BF, but have had something similar happen for Concerts.... some of the ticket outlets hand out tickets to everyone is there like 15 minutes before they open, and then they draw one, and whoever that person is the line starts there, and the people in front of them move to the end. Seems unfair but I can see their POV on it.... they have to spend extra $$ for police patrol if they have x number of people camping out in their parking lot and it's alot of hassle. This way noone is going to come early early because it won't do them anygood, but they have a way of fairly deciding on who gets to go first. The thing that's different than BB though is they clearly note on the store windows that this is what they're going to do.

Nope, have the week off to get ready!!

West Palm Beach here..

We do the same thing... it has to be something meaningful and I get one for our tree and one for each of them.

This was originally posted last year by Crazymama 80... I know it's in the archives but this was so funny I thought some of the new people may like to read it this shopping season.... (Right now I have trouble keeping up with all the posts on a daily basis nevertheless be able to go through the archives!!) 15 Things to do at Wal-Mart while your spouse/partner is taking their sweet time: 1. Get 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people's carts when they aren't looking. 2. Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals. 3 Make a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the rest rooms. 4 Walk up to an employee and tell him/her in an official tone, 'Code 3' in housewares..... and see what happens. 5 Go the Service Desk and ask to put a bag of M&M's on lay away. 6 Move a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area. 7 Set up a tent in the camping department and tell other shoppers you'll invite them in if they'll bring pillows from the bedding department. 8 When a clerk asks if they can help you, begin to cry and ask 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?' 9 Look right into the security camera; use it as a mirror, and pick your nose. 10 While handling guns in the hunting department, ask the clerk if he knows where the anti- depressants are. 11 Dart around the store suspiciously loudly humming the "Mission Impossible" theme. 12 In the auto department, practice your "Madonna look" using different size funnels. 13 Hide in a clothing rack and when people browse through, say "PICK ME!" "PICK ME!" 14 When an announcement comes over the loud speaker, assume the fetal position and scream "NO! NO! It's those voices again!!!!" ( And; last, but not least!) 15 Go into a fitting room and shut the door and wait a while; and, then, yell, very loudly, "There is no toilet paper in here!"

My grandmother used to put a dollar a week away for each kid, and at the end of the year we'd have close to 50 bucks to shop with... We had so much fun!!

I grew up in a family where my mom loved to give presents, even when she didn't have alot of money she always did her best, and now that she's successful she showers the grandkids with gifts. So on that side, everyone gets and give presents. My husbands family is the complete opposite... they get the kids something little and bitch about getting each other presents. They started doing a gift exchange a couple of years ago, which is fine by me... I think my mother overdoes anyway... My Sister in law and I cracked up this year though, my mother in law said now that there are so many inlaw's they shouldn't do the gift exchange!! We tried to point out that they would still only buy one gift no matter how many people there were, but we were laughing to hard to tell her.

K-mart had a bunch of different sets of the rudolph characters last year... If I remember right there was a bunch left after Christmas and they were 50 -75% right after.

Those are both good, I had been to the SantaLady website last year, I'll have to see if there's anything new.... and I definitely need to check out the other one... Anyone else have any ideas? We do about 5 games throughout the night...

We have about 50 people at our Christmas party every year, pretty evenly split between kids of all ages and adults. We're always looking for new games so we don't do the same ones every year, we do some for just the kids and some for the adults, so we need ideas for both including some that encompass all ages... any ideas?

We have a big open house on Christmas Eve, lots of family and neighbors come over and everyone brings their favorite dish and we have a big buffet style feast. We have games for the kids which they love, and a few for the adults... then the kids karaoke Christmas songs and we have a mass present opening for people you aren't going to see the next day (I buy a ton of small things and monitor the present opening to make sure everyone gets at least 2 things). Then the girls get to open one present (usually PJ's) and they put out milk and cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer. Then while we're waiting for them to fall asleep DH and I clean up the house and finally put out the presents... we're dead tired when they wake us up in the morning but its fun.

I have seen those big plastic bins to store toys and stuff decorated with princess decals in the stores (I saw it in Burlington Coat Factory but guessing they have them lots of places). If you can't buy a princess one you can get a cheap (they're only like 4-10 bucks) one and decorate it with princess decals yourself.. then it's useful as well

I saw these.. http://cgi.ebay.com/GIRLS-DISNEY-BARBIE-SHOES-DRESS-UP-PRINCESS-PAUPER_W0QQitemZ6010727576QQcategoryZ113016QQssPageNameZWD10VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Not exactly the normal dress up ones but maybe you can use something like this

Fifty dollars? That sounds a little steep to me....I appreciate all they/you do but with 3 kids in day care, 2 teachers a piece that's 300 bucks.... Honestly with having to pay for daycare for 3 kids I'm not able to spend that much a piece on half my family members (brothers sisters etc)

I went and got them today... they were ringing up 25% today even though there was no sign (the BF price) and if you use your SEARS card you get an extra 10%.... if I didn't love A Christmas story so much I don't know if I'd get them, but since I do I got Ralphies house, triple dog dare, and opening the leg crate... if they go 50% the day after Christmas I'll get Cleveland Elementary...

I looked all over last year and they are so expensive and since there are 5 of use I was hesistant to buy one. I wanted traditional looking ones, not character ones. Right before Christmas at things remembered they went on Clearance for 14.99 embroidered, and they had a Buyone Getone Sale, so 2 were only like 23 bucks..... they're very traditional though, don't know if you were looking for something more fun. Actually when I just checked on line they're 14.99 now with BOGO!!! They have red and green and snowflake

Anything Dora or Carebears is good. My middle daugter just turned 3 and the thing she wanted most this year was a doodle bear.. which was right up her alley since she writes all over everything... it's one of those bears that they can color all over with markers and then mom puts it in the washing machine and you start all over..... I think somewhere had them for 10 bucks recently, and the glow in the dark one is on sale for BF for 20

\\ I didn't care for the globes, or Christmas Candy or the perfect tree, but did like double dog dare and unpacking the leg lamp...I didn't see the house itself... where did you order from, and does it have the leg lamp in the window? I told my husband last night if they have the house I would definitely buy that...

We didn't have anything cool like that for getting gifts... but an idea for next year for giving gifts my grandma used to do for us was starting in January every week she would put a dollar into this huge soup tureen for each kid, we'd count it every couple of months and were so proud of watching our money grow. Then the first week of December we got to take it out and she would take each of us shopping to buy presents for the rest of the family.... we would carefully fork out a dollar here and there for each person... I remember that being so much fun.

We do our own at home in the morning, go to my moms at about noon, and my husbands mothers for dinner

I've never done it on purpose, but last year they had the GB Advance SP for 59.99 and I was getting it for my mom to buy for my nephews, she got stuck in the crush at the door so I kept going, but didn't know what colors she wanted so I grabbed 6 and headed back to her. When she took the ones she wanted there were a couple of moms who had braved out by themselves with little ones in strollers and they couldn't get near the pallet so I handed them out to them.

I had a cheap Joann's village which I was very happy with, but my aunt started getting me a Dept 56 house every year. All of a sudden the old houses just didn't go with it, and now I'm addicted!!! Did anyone see the new Dept 56 set? It's the movie "A Christmas Story"!!! I love that movie, you know I'll have to get Triple Dog Dare and the Leg Lamp.... they are 25% off on BF, but it looks like they're 25% off now at Sears.... they're sold out on line but I am going to go tomorrow and see if they have any in stock. For all you collectors we'll have to post a picture of your villages... mine goes up on BF!!