nikkilugi

I just ordered my shirt - Olathe KS - with shirt on!!

I prefer colored but my dh prefers white only so that is what we do. White on the tree, white on the house. I do add some multi's to the yard decor though.

We don't wrap the Santa gifts at all. Then I use whatever wrapping paper I have bought otherwise. I go for cute stuff, reindeers, Santa, Dora, Spongebob, etc. I don't use gift bags for the kids but I do use them for my cousins presents.

Haven't bugeted in the past and it has bitten me in January :) I am sure I spend about $1500 but then I of course overbuy for my kids, I buy for my mom and dad, dh's mom and dad, 2 nephew's, 2 niece's, my grandma, and 7 cousins who are younger than me, and of course dh and I buy for each other - some years it is more than others although last year I spent about $200 on dh. I spend about $20 per niece and nephew and $10 per cousin. This year will be so nice because my last car payment is in a couple of days!! Yay!! That free's up $500 a month which I will be putting into savings for BF and Christmas.

My kids are 7, 6, and 2. They all believe in Santa although my dd2 is just understanding about Christmas. This site has gotten me so excited for Christmas I have been telling my dd that she has to wait until Christmas for all the toys she wants. Now everything she sees she says "I want this for Christmas". LOL it is so funny because basically everything is for Christmas.

A Christmas Story. I broke down and bought that on dvd so I don't have to wait until Christmas Eve to watch the marathon on TBS.

My mom works at Garmin and they always have a holiday party with Mr. and Mrs. Claus there as well as clowns, crafts, and treats. It is lots of fun and I get to take my own pics and Garmin also takes some and prints them out there for us. Mr. & Mrs. Claus look so real it is nice. My dd hates them though. Both years so far she has been red in the face and screaming. I don't think it will be any different this year. It is too funny but my dh doesn't think it is quite as funny as I do. He can't stand to see his little princess crying.

Santa brings 3 for each child and they are always unwrapped. This year Santa is bringing a Wii which will be for all 3 of the kids and then each child will receive 2 others. They also get some things in their stockings as well. The rest of the presents are from "Mom and Dad". As my husband likes to say - "You go buck wild at Christmastime and none of it is for me", LOL

In the past I have spent between $500 - $600 but this year I am buying larger items so I think my budget will be around $1000 - $1500. I already have the Wii for my kids which is my big purchase for them. I'm hoping to find a good deal on some TV's this holiday season.

Last year was messed up - we were out at 3:00 am at Wal-Mart, then we headed over to Target right when they opened the doors (since Wal-Mart wouldn't match until Target opened). Well after Target my van started messing up, we stopped by Chick-Fil-A to redeem our free sandwich coupons given out that morning, and then my van conked out for good. My tranny went out on BF and I had to have it towed home. I was so bummed we didn't go out anymore that day. I did alright though at Wal-Mart and Target before that disaster. This year if all goes well we will be out like in years past. Out early depending on which store and then we pick up my grandma later in the morning and shop some more with her. We don't get back until probably around dinner time.

I will for my grandma. She is too old to get out there with the crowds. We usually pick her up a little later in the morning though and she will go out with us then for a while.

Does anyone know if Wal-Mart has the ability to lookup a purchase with the credit card like Target can? My dh threw away one of my receipts and I wanted to take something back to the store and actually get a refund instead of a merchandise card. TIA

We bought a 16' x 42'' intex at Wal-Mart for $150. Target is putting them on clearance - right now they are only 30% off but they will probably go to 50% off soon.

I go with my mom. She isn't as hardcore as me but she does love a good deal and this day is one of the ones where I am actually organized, LOL. One year there was an altercation at the Wal-Mart we were at my dh loved hearing about it. He acted like he wished he had been there but I know he would NEVER get up at 3:00 in the morning to go shopping. This year I might camp out and he will need to stay home with the kids.

Target does carry them - it is hard to find them in stock though - that is why they are going so high on the other sites.

Found 3 MM juice packs today - ya hoo!! This was my first time ever finding those dang things. I noticed that there were quite a few play tents at 50% off at this store including the backyard shark, a dora shade tent, and a few others. The cranium super fort is also 50% off. Pools are 30% off - I am going to wait until at least 50% on these.

I think the coupon was only good for 3 days - Thurs, Fri, & Saturday.

I saw the Planet Heroes in Walmart today. They are setting out their new toys - just thought I would give you a heads up if you wanted to go look :) I think the new Mickey Mouse clubhouse stuff will be hot again. My dd (2) loved everything she saw - they have new figures, a jammin' bandstand, new plush dolls - she wanted it all. We saw the furreal parrot and she wasn't impressed but she did like the big Kitty in the box and that was much better priced at $39.99. There is a vtech zoom camera that also takes video that I think will do well also.

My dh is in asset protect at DG. He isn't aware of this coupon but he said that doesn't mean much, LOL. We did think it was funny that the word purchase is spelled wrong on the coupon (purcase).

My Wal-Mart's deals never get that great either. Everyone is buying the toys when they are only marked down a couple of dollars. I don't think Wal-Mart shoppers are Target shoppers, LOL, they don't realize the longer you wait the lower the price will get. :) Although my Wal-Mart isn't that great about marking their clearance down much and they are especially slow about it when they do markdown.

Cricut is a scrapbook machine that makes die cuts electronically. It is very cool but very expensive too :)

I have actually seen them pretty often recently. I went to Target two different days and they had 2 one time (my kids were crying because I told them we couldn't afford it - they don't know I already have one hidden for Christmas). They had about 4 on Saturday while I was there. I have seen the selling price go down on ebay so maybe the resellers aren't buying as many and that is why I am seeing more now. I snatched the one I saw at Walmart a month ago because that is the first one I have seen on the shelf around here since they have come out. Granted I wasn't on a mission to find one but I would always walk by the game department at both Target and Wal-Mart to check each time I was there.

My kids are still too little to snoop. I have a closet up in an extra bedroom and that I am using. It is full of a bunch of junk so I just add my bags of presents in there behind the junk that the kids couldn't move if they wanted to, LOL. If I hid presents in all the places everyone else is mentioning I would forget where I hid it. I have actually done that before :)

I was at a store this Saturday and we cruised the toy aisle. I had already spent $150 at this store on Thursday so I wasn't expecting to find much, however, I was able to find a couple of things that were either mistagged on the regular aisle or not tagged at all as clearance. The fisher price music imagine chair thing was only marked 30% on the tag and it was in its regular spot on the shelf but I told my mom to scan it and it scanned 75% off. My mom bought it for my grandma to give one of the greatgrandkids as a birthday gift. I also found 2 v-smile games (the batman, and the alladin) for $4.97. They were on the shelf with the regular games and they weren't tagged at all. I knew they were clearance though because I had bought each of those titles on Thursday for my kids. My mom said I needed to come with her to Target all the time because I catch stuff like that which she doesn't, LOL. I attribute this new skill to reading these boards and having an eagle eye now for bargains. Thanks everyone!!

If you haven't bought the Wii yet I would recommend getting that now. I have heard that nintendo is trying to ramp up production but they still anticipate a shortage this Christmas as well.