MarkRaby

The Roomba was created several years ago and was ridden with problems back then, but they've continued to roll out new versions that improve the quality and power of the vacuums. I got the Roomba Scheduler for my mom last Christmas. It was fairly new back then and continues to be the top-end model of Roombas. It cleans my parents' floors very nicely, and they can schedule it to run every day in the middle of the night. So no manual vacuuming required, and they don't even have to worry about it getting in the way while they're in the house (since they're asleep). My mom has a bad leg and my dad works all day, so it gives them great peace of mind, and their floors always look great. There's no waiting until it looks really bad. It just runs every day and still works fantastically. You can purchase a Scheduler attachment for most of the current generation Roombas as well, so you don't have to shell out the $300 for the specific Roomba Scheduler vacuum.

This is a long shot, but are there any specials on Nintendo DS games? -Mark-

I've still got maybe 6 or 7 presents waiting to be wrapped, but that's out of 40 or 50 total presents, so I'm doing well. Besides, these last few are ones that I like to look at before I have to wrap them up -Mark-

We used to go to church every week, but it's kind of slipped on our list of priorities and we really just go for the big religious holidays (Easter, Christmas, etc). I would never miss going to church on Christmas Eve. It gets me in the spirit of the holiday more than anything else. -Mark-

Anyone remember or have a good story about their first time? For me, it was 1999. My sister really wanted one of the new Pokedex toys. It was the hot toy of the year and they could not be found anywhere. My brother and I (with help from our mom) got her one for around $80 from some Yahoo store. One of the first things our family ever bought online, actually. -Mark-

This is kind of for the younger people here and/or those with really good memories. I remember that I was I think 7 or 8 when my mom essentially told me that Santa wasn't real. I had made a comment one day about something like the magic of Christmas wasn't quite the same that year. I was referring to the fact that one of our favorite Christmas VHS tapes (Toyland) had gotten ruined. My mom mistook it to mean that I knew Santa wasn't real, so she had a talk with me saying not to spoil the fact that Santa didn't exist to my younger sister and twin brother. The irony is I still believed in Santa myself, so she kind of crushed me by saying that. But I guess it would have been only a couple years before I found out some other way, anyway... -Mark-

Heh...CG480 made a mistake by not including a 0 - 10% option in this poll. I also do not ever buy clothes for Christmas gifts. -Mark-

Hopefully my mom will feel up to going to Kohl's tomorrow for this sale (she's been under the weather lately) so she can cash in her $30 Kohl's Cash certificate we got last week. -Mark-

I've been hearing that the day after Christmas won't be that great this year. They had some guy on CNN the other day saying that, since gift cards have been booming exponentially in popularity, retailers won't be marking stuff down so soon after Christmas, and that the really good "after Christmas" specials will not be until the first week or so of January, when most of the gifted gift cards have been used. -Mark-

Awesome! Thanks! We got our dad an XM radio for Christmas and this will be really nice for him. -Mark-

Isn't that technically mail fraud? If you put something in your mailbox and it arrives to the recipient without any postage? I remember hearing something about a mailman who lost his job because he put Christmas cards in everyone's mailbox on his route without stamps. I don't know if it works the other way around. Doesn't seem like the kind of thing for which you should get into trouble... -Mark-

Actually, my dad got her a 27" Flat Tube TV/DVD/VCR combo ($400 from H.H. Gregg), and my brother/sister/aunt/grandma really don't have the ability to buy really nice gifts (either from money or mobility restrictions), so basically other than the gifts from me and my dad, she's getting a bunch of small (but thoughtful) gifts. -Mark-

For my aunt, so far, I've bought a nice Godiva gift box, a printer for her computer, and a $25 Pier 1 gift card. I also have bought a couple books for my grandma, in addition to a plaque thing that reads "World's Greatest Grandmother". These are the only family members that live close to us. For our main out-of-state relatives, we usually just send a nice fruit basket or something from all of us. -Mark-

What could you possibly need? You already live in the best state in the US -Mark-

You should just tell them. I probably never would have bought the things like the Roomba and Crockpot had she not mentioned that she really would like them. -Mark-

Well, of course, if I were to count up the past 18 years, I'm sure my mom's Christmas gifts to me would equal about $4,000, whereas mine to hers would probably equal less than 10% of that. I'm just trying to pay back for all the great things she's done for me in years past. Moms of young children here should pay particular attention to this thread . -Mark-

By the way, just to illustrate my craziness about Christmas a little better, here are the approximate totals of how much I've spent for the rest of my family: Dad: ~$100 Brother: ~$200 Sister: ~$500 I don't play favorites. I got everyone some major things that they wanted this year. It's just unbelievably hard to shop for my dad and brother. They always say they don't want anything...actually, I kind of do that too. I guess it's just a guy thing. -Mark-

Tallying everything up this evening, I realize that the amount of stuff I got for my mom is kind of disproportionate to what I bought for other members of my family (but maybe that is because she has been talking about wanting some high-end stuff more so than the others). Anyway, here's her present list this year: - Tassimo Machine (http://www.tassimo.com): $105 - 3 extra packs of Tassimo T-Discs: $20 - Roomba Scheduler: $210 - The Martha Rules: $11 - Jigsaw Puzzle: $10 - KitchenAid Mixer: $180 - Frasier: The Complete 6th Season: $35 - Pyramid Home Game: $7 - Dick Van Dyke DVD: $4 - "Smart" Crockpot: $60 TOTAL: ~$642 (For those wondering, the great prices on the Tassimo machine and Roomba are from me using my Best Buy Bucks -- those reflect what I actually had to pay to get them, not the price they were at Best Buy when I bought them. They essentially ended up being 40% off. If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry about it) One thing's for sure: my mom is going to have a great Christmas! -Mark-

Oh, yeah. I always buy right up to the last minute. All the major shopping is already out of the way. Like abentley, I think this is the really fun part -- just picking up a little trinket or gift card somewhere as a last minute touch. -Mark-

I heard on our local news last night that the guy had to pull the plug on this display because the amount of people coming to view his lights had created a public traffic hazzard. -Mark-

It's definitely one of the newest table games around. I've actually never played it before but have seen full-size boccerball tables at places like Dick's Sporting Goods and it always looked really interesting, so I am excited about it. -Mark-

I mentioned this in the thread about the free $10 Sears gift cards, but was reflecting about it again and thought I should make a new thread because this deal was so awesome. Sears was giving away those $10 gift cards to the first 200 customers again, on Saturday, so I went out early and was able to get two (since there was nowhere close to 200 people). I went back home, got some rest, then went with my mom back out to that area -- we were planning on going out shopping that day anyway. So we stopped by Sears and I saw this cool tabletop Boccerball table that I really wanted. It was listed as on sale for $40 (regularly $60). Since my mom is recovering from an accident and was in a wheelchair, I couldn't easily tell her I wanted it for Christmas and have her come back without me to get it, to keep it a secret. So she just bought it for me right there. I even let her use my two $10 gift cards. The coolest part was that it rang up at the cash register at $30! So it ended up costing her only $10 (since I used my gift cards, I ended up actually paying more for my present than she did, but it's definitely a "gifty" item, so instead of just paying for the rest of it myself, I'm letting her wrap it and prevent me from opening it until Christmas). Bottom line, though -- $60 boccerball table for $10! How awesome is that? -Mark-

I know a lot of us are too busy buying gifts for others to even think of ourselves, but surely there's that one item that you're just praying someone else gets for you. For me, it was kind of tough to think of anything I really wanted (especially since, for a couple months, pretty much anything I was dying to have I could buy at Best Buy and use my Best Buy Bucks ). But after looking through the BF ads and seeing a bunch of game tables, I've decided I really want a nice air hockey table (i.e. a real "air" hockey table, electronic scoring, etc). It would sure beat paying 50¢ per game at the arcade. -Mark-

Just got back from using my 2 $10 gift cards I got this morning. I got a Boccerball table (yeah, I know, what's that? Look it up) originally priced $60, was listed on sale for $40, rang up at the cashier for $30, minus my gift cards = $10 for a $60 game table! -Mark-

Thanks for the heads up, you guys! I would not have known about this promotion were it not for GottaDeal! I just came back after getting 2 of the $10 gift cards (nowhere near 200 people so I went through twice, after assuring there was a different guy I could get one from...not that he'd have remembered me anyway). None of the sales today really impressed me, so I figure I'll just get $20 off a normal-priced item (but there was no need for me to stay out there to do that; will hit the store later when I plan to be out that way again anyway). -Mark-