pampam

Sometimes I'll find an "important" ornament after the tree is finished and have to do the shuffle. The tree is designed to hold lots of ornaments- my huge collection has been accumulating for 60 years, starting in the 1940's by my parents- so moving one means moving five or six others. When I had real trees my cats loved to hang out, bat ornaments and snooze underneath. With the fake tree my four furbabies couldn't care less. It's just an obstacle in the way of one of their window perches.

All done. I went to the grocery store today to buy the edible gifts. Also bought enough food and other supplies to last through next week. No more stores until after Christmas!!! However... I may check out the nearest grocery store before it closes on the 24th. In the past their meat department has reduced everything an hour or so before closing. I guess they don't want it to sit out for a day and a half while the store is closed for Christmas.

The remaining gifts to be bought are at the grocery store. I'm giving chocolate and assorted candy to friends and the staff at my vets' clinic. There is NO WAY I could buy the candy far in advance. Too tempting to eat "just one piece". A couple of plants, a bottle of wine and that's it. Except for wrapping everything. Ugh. Wrapping. Everything.

There's a website for discontinued cosmetics that was recommended a couple of years ago at a different deal site, but I'll have to do some research to see if I can find it. In the meantime, check out www.cosmeticsandmore.com. They have small tubes of Lovey Dovey lipstick for $.99. Edit to add: I looked though the deal site and had no luck finding the info. Rats!

Haven't seen it. What group/person paid to produce this commercial and why are they targeting WalMart?

All I could find was two different sets of salt and pepper shakers for $2.99. Ducks: http://www.brylanehome.com/product.aspx?PfId=72872&DeptId=7484&producttypeid=1 Turkey: http://www.brylanehome.com/product.aspx?PfId=72874&DeptId=7484&producttypeid=1

Tonight I'm going to the Oriental Trading Company website and finish my online shopping. Last year I received some small unexpected gifts and am going to be prepared this year. Thought I'd buy some candy and small stocking stuffers plus half a dozen Christmas coffee mugs. Put stuff in mugs, add a bow and keep them in my car ready to give. I also have to buy wine and seasonal plants but can do that while grocery shopping. Looks like my goal of finishing by November 30th is going to be a reality. Yay!!

I did about 75% of my on line shopping this past weekend and waited until Monday to see if there were any deals on the rest of what I have left to buy. Nope. Nothing. Maybe all the publicity and hype for this year's non-event will influence merchants to have better Monday deals next year.

Any sort of home baked sweet treat is a nice gift. The woman who used to live next door always brought over the most amazingly moist, melt-in-your-mouth pound cake. I miss her and her yummy Christmas cakes. I've thought about regifting some of my neighbors with the presents that their dogs have left in my yard.

Because my tree always has an absurd number of lights I worry about the heat factor. Generally I'll turn them off around midnight.

I saw it mentioned briefly on CNN. The folks who were discussing it didn't believe it. Unless I see statistics from past years' sales to prove this I won't believe it either. For the past three years I've done 90% of my holiday shopping online and don't remember any special Monday deals. But of course I'll be looking!

Having read the "Brad, check out this crap!" thread in the BF forum (about a reporter who slammed GottaDeal) it seemed like the CNN story was a response to the lame brain who produced the negative review. It directly refuted his false information. I'll be here from now on. My "hobby" is online shopping and I love looking for deals. Even better: letting other people know about awesome deals.

About 45 minutes ago during CNN's ongoing BF shopping coverage there was a short segment about the impact of the Internet on BF shopping. Two sites were mentioned. Guess which one received more air time? There in all its colorful glory was a closeup of the Gottadeal.com home page. The reporter pointed out the long list of stores under the "Browse Black Friday Sale Ads" section. The report was accurate and positive. Gave Gottadeal credit for having ads up early- Wal-Mart in particular- and mentioned the various ways that this is accomplished. The other site was mentioned primarily because it had received cease and desist warnings.

Every year I eat Thanksgiving dinner with a friend and her mom. The mom believes, as did her Italian mother, that guests must be stuffed until they're ready to pass out. Sure enough, after two hours of stuffing myself I waddled home and passed out. The turkey weighed 20 pounds. There were baked sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, squash halves baked with maple syrup, sausage/onion/apple dressing, green beans, green peas, congealed salad, cranberry sauce with mandarin orange slices, rolls, and apple and pecan pies. There was enough to feed at least 15 people. But there were five of us. I was sent home with a huge plate of leftovers and am still stuffed.

I finally saw it twice this evening and now have a strong craving for an ice cold bottled Coke Classic.

Mine will be delivered and I'm not counting on all the ads being included because some have been omitted in the past. I e-mailed the paper's customer service department and promptly received what was left out.

I love it when the good, familiar commercials and/or their characters reappear during the holidays. The polar bears are the best. Can't wait to see it! My second favorite was the clucking Cadbury bunny and I was disappointed when the ad campaign was dropped.

Reading this made me smile at a forgotten memory. When I was a child a loooooong time ago there was an ad on TV during the Christmas season reminding everyone to get their Glass Wax stencils. It was a big deal to me when we decorated the windows because I was allowed to do one or two of the stencils. Mine stood out because of the drip marks. :) I just did a search and the stencils are available online at several stores. It seems that Glass Wax has been discontinued and replaced with something called Window Wax that supposedly works just as well.

I just discovered via e-mail that Kohl's has joined the smart merchants who are releasing ads early. Info from clicking the link to the FoodSaver in their ad: FoodSaver® Vac 325 Food Sealer sale $58.82 Final price $49.99 Orig. $99.99 (Kohl's tends to have unrealistic "before" prices.) EARLY BIRD SPECIALS available 5am-1pm Friday, November 25 only. They're also giving out $10 in Kohls Cash for every $50 you spend in the store Friday and Saturday.

Only one present, not wrapped. However I have a very detailed list so there's none of the what to buy anxiety. My goal is to finish shopping by December 1st. This is quite a change from my buying everything the week before Christmas. BF has made a huge difference in the way I shop. :)

My house has the perfect mantel for stockings. Because I live alone I hang my collection as part of the decorations and stuff them with tissue paper. I have two handmade stockings that I received as a child and the rest are cat themed for my spoiled fur-babies.

Target. I've never, ever encountered such rude and ignorant customer service as I did with their online store. Should have learned my lesson the first time it happened and definitely did the second time. I'm always very polite when writing a complaint so I was stunned by the snide and surly responses to my inquiries. That was five or six years ago and Target has been on my no-shopping list ever since.

I can never seem to find those when I'm looking for them. One of my favorite treats is to take one of the sticks, sharpen one end sort of like a pencil, and stick it in a lemon or orange. Because this particular type of candy is porous it acts as a straw. The citrus juice mixes with the peppermint and sugar and is yummy.

Last year I looked extensively on line for an electric blanket and found the best deal on walmart.com's Sunbeam blankets. At the time they were offering free shipping on a large variety of holiday gifts and the blanket was included in the offer. I just looked and their price is still very reasonable, but there's no free shipping right now. There's nothing like a nice warm blanket on a cold night. Only problem is four large cats who think it's theirs.

I have enough wrapping paper to last the rest of my life. While decluttering a junk closet I found all the rolls of paper that I'd bought at after-Christmas sales over the years. The closet elves must have hidden most of them. Now my shopping list has a large "NO PAPER!" written at the top. For the most part I use metalics because they look so pretty reflecting the lights under the tree.