Gporter34

The first Saturday of December we go downtown and watch the Christmas paradeThen we go to a local holiday craft show. That evening just before dark, we go to a local park that is decorated for Christmas. At dark, the park is lit, and there is a college group who sing, dance, and play Christmas music. We always take lawn chairs and hot chocolate and have a great time. After the park we walk a couple of blocks downtown and go to each of the shops are open, hot chocolate, hot apple cider, and cookies are served in each. There are Christmas Carolers, dressed as Dicken's characters, and carriage rides. The kids also get pictures with Santa made that night on the Square. The next week we go to the Christmas concert at the high school and listen to the band play Christmas music. After the concert we drive to a local church which portrays a living nativity every year. We also have the annual Tour of Lights.

1. Christmas Vacation 2. Bad Santa 3. The Family Stone 4. Elf 5. The Polar Express I have it real bad about Christmas Vacation. It's a running joke in our family that I must have switched at birth because I appear to be the long lost "love-child" of Clark Griswald and Martha Stewart!LOL My mother found a cute little stuffed squirrel a few years ago that goes in one of our trees evey year, I also have several othe items from that movie and I am always looking for more. The kids found me a copy of the soundtrack and I have every song memorized. I also watch several times during the year, anytime I need a little dose of Holiday Cheer!LOL

In recent years I have taken down Halloween decorations and put up Christmas decorations on November 1st. However, now that the kids are getting older, and have started complaining, I am going to TRY to wait until the weekend before Thanksgiving. I put up a lot of decorations outside, and decorate every room in the house so it takes alot of time and I want to enjoy it for awhile.LOL I am using alot of pumpkins and scarecrows this year that will go on through Halloween so hopefully that will help curb the urge to decrate early.

Christmas eve is pretty hectic. We have to wrangle a birthday party in the early afternoon for my daughter who will be 14 this year. then I make assorted food for the evening, when my parents arrive we watch a Christmas movie, eat, and open presents. Then the kids are off to bed after leaving pumpkin pie and eggnog out for Santa.

Thanksgiving: Turkey, dressing, rolls, sweet potatoes, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, Sunshine cake, green beans, cherry cheesecake. Christmas Eve: Appetizers, finger foods, deli sandwiches, and Birthday cake!LOL It's my DD's birthday. Christmas Day: It varies each year, sometimes Italian, Chinese, Mexican, or whatever everyone wants.

My favorites are All I want For Christmas is You, Mary Did You Know, I'll Be Home For Christmas. My favorite Christmas CD's are all of my Elvis Christmas cd's, Trans Siberian Orchestra, and Motown Christmas cd.

I have it bad about lights!LOL My trees are pre-lit, but I still add about five or six strings of lights to each tree. I wrap each branch and the trunk of the tree.

We use white lights on all of our Chrisstmas trees, but we use multicolor lights on the outside of the house and the yard.

We open gifts from each other on Christmas Eve night and stockins and gifts from Santa on Christmas morning. This is how it was my whole life so I just kept it that way with my kids.

On the white tree I use an angel. On the green tree I use a Santa. Neither lights up, but I put bows around each one.

I am SO ready! I love this time of year!

I am so glad to see that everyone else is as ready for BF as I am! I have been ready since the first leaf fell in my yard!LOL

I am going to be trying to get some of these for my kids because they HAVE to have them. But for the life of me I don't have a clue as to what they do!LOL My three oldest have iPods, and I am getting mp3 players for the two youngest. Do they need iPods to use the iDogs, or can they use an mp3 player? Or, do they even need one at all?

While my husband doesn't go shopping with me on BF, we always pick a day when we go shopping together and just enjoy all of the holiday decorations, a nice dinner together, and pick up a few more items from our list. I love doing this every year and look almost as forward to it as BF. Even though he can't last as long as I can when it comes to shopping.LOL

I always find it amazing that the very same people who swore last year while waiting for 5am that they will NEVER go to WalMart again on BF because this is crazy, are the very same people behind me complaining next year!LOL

We open all of our gifts from each other on Christmas Eve while watching Christmas movies, then they get their "Santa" gifts on Christmas morning. We have several traditions that I make sure get passed down to my kids. Tradition and family are very important to me and I want the kids to have these traditions to pass on to their families.

It's almost time for our local events to start. Next weekend is one of our local craft fairs, "Tinsel and Tidings". Then onto BF, and the weekend after that is our Christmas parade! I get so excited when all of the fun starts!LOL

I stumbled across that site last year and I have gotten some really great recipes there.

Thanks guys! I appreciate all you do throughout the year!

People who complain that WalMart is already crowded with people waiting on the blitz items when they get there at 5am!!!LOL They complain because th can't go to a store that has been open all night right at time for the sale to start and get everything they want. Even with stores that close on Thanksgiving night there are people in line way before the store opens and every year, the same people wait until the last minute and then complain and gripe about it. Geesh, get a clue. It's BF, if you really want that laptop, get your butt out of bed like the rest of us and wait.LOL

Paula, that's a great idea. You are right, even though it's their job, if they weren't willing to work that job, we wouldn't be getting the items we want at all. All jobs have their drawbacks, true, but it's nice to know you are appreciated. I'm not sure about other retailers, but WalMart employees aren't getting rich by working there.LOL They, for the most part, are trying to support their families like the rest of us. I worked in management at a fast food restaurant for years, and trust me, there is in no way enough money to put up with the crap off of customers I had to put up with everyday. I left that job and was lucky enough to find something else, which I am very thankful for, but it's not perfect either.LOL It's just that I would not want to deal with customers on a regular basis for nothing, people are too rude now. They rarely say thank you and even if it's my job, what's wrong with courtesy and good ol' fashioned manners?!?!?:)

I am hoping that the GameBoy Micros, iDogs, and bikes are easy to get, but that's just wishful thinking.LOL I will also be trying to get a few other things, but, I think those ar the ones that will be causing the most drama.

To answer the question...no, I don't think these ads are fake unless the stores purposely leaked fake ads, unlikey. This site doesn't post ads unless they are real. That's why there are "rumored" ads until they are posted by Brad. The question was also raised last year because people wonder why the ads are leaked. Employees who want to share the info leak the ads. Thanks to them, we can plan ahead, which really helps me with five kids to know approximately how much money I will need and have time to get it together. I love this site and the great people here for that reason among many others. Really, though, if you look in the archives from last year there was the same discussion. If an ad turned out to be fake, it's not because Brad and the other admins here didn't do all that they could to make sure they were real. HTH

No stocking stuffers at Radio Shack so far!LOL I may still go just out nof habit on the way home.

That's what I thought. I have never been able to find mosst of the things I am looking for on BF ahead of time at WalMart and pm them. I have noticed that there is almost always some diffrence which keeps it from being pm'd.