lilac100

Ok my biggest stress tip is to hang out here and read everyone else's horror stories. I realize my day wasn't nearly as bad as all that.

We open ours Christmas morning. We go to my family home on Christmas Eve and exchange gifts and have a meat and cheese type meal. After we have breakfast christmas we go to my DH's family home and exchange gifts and have a formal lunch. When we get home I sleep for a week.

Fake. I can't kill a tree for Christmas and keeping one alive through the holidays is just too much more stress.

OMG the question should be can anyone stay in their budget for Christmas. I can't remember ever not overbuying for christmas.

Hotwire is the one I use online to find good rooms.

Looks like a Woot killer already. Basketball thingy.

The bike gets them out of the house and playing with others. Ok maybe I wouldn't haven't done the motorized thing but if he is ready go for it.

Nope only one address here. Sometimes hubby enters with his addy if it something he wants. He actually plays the Puff your Space game daily.

Ok I usually do candy and small dollar toys for my DS8 and my DS16 gets games and stuff (braces so no candy). They both always get a water gun in their easter basket. Goes along with the dollar toys. We dye eggs together the day before easter. After our easter egg hunt we take my 8yr old to the church egg hunt. Dinner with the inlaws and then finally I get to rest.

I love party city for things like this.

This is the best site on the net. Thanks to GD I had over $350 in winnings in January.

I'd go with the one you feels gives you the best deals. I don't have a costco around here.

Well I would say the laptop hubby bought for me, but really it was before christmas. My family actually cooperated in getting a family portrait taken. Not once but twice. We tried to go to wal-mart one weekend to get it done. Made the appointment showed up 30 minutes early. Waited and then---they started taking walk ins before appointments. I tore up not only my appointment sheet but all of their appointment sheets told them off and walked out. I made an appointment at Sears for the next weekend and it was fantastic. No waiting, fantastic pictures, and the kids didn't whine about me making them do it. You can't get any better than that.

Hi all. My DH got me a laptop for Christmas. It is a Toshiba Satellite. It is Vista ready. Core Solo processor. More computer than I need for what I do online. 100 gb harddrive. Fantastic. Here is my favorite part, as I love my freebies, I registered the computer. When you registar a Toshiba they give you a choice of discounts or a free mini mouse. I choose the mini mouse. It should be here in 6-8 weeks. YEAH free stuff.

That makes the camera $99.50 at OD with the 50% off discount. Great Price I want one.

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When my older son got caught doing this I rewrapped everything. The thing was he thought he was snooping in his own gifts he didn't know the things he saw were for his younger brother. Boy was he disappointed Christmas day when his brother opened some toys he really thought were for him. I never told him they weren't his so in his mind he thought I gave away "his" toys.

Best Buy looking for a laptop and a new monitor

I think they have lawyers watching these sites. If something gets out of hand they would probably step in and shut the site down.

My oldest is 15 now but when he was 13 he watched my little one for 2-3hrs at a time. He always knew where I was, when I'd be home, who to call in an emergency, and that if he did good he would get some extra allowance. Mind you I live in a small area outside of town and my in-laws live less than a mile away. I am still always worried when I leave them home together but my son is responsible and I trust him. If you do leave them home together is their a neighbor that could maybe keep an eye on them, not babysit but check in from time to time? My neighbors do that every now and then for me. Good luck I hope your mom can babysit for you.

Haven't done any of them but they look like fun. What is a code 3 anyway?

I took Thanksgiving week off work. Maybe I'll go by myself some afternoon. The kids like to act too grown up to see it, but I'm not too grown up to go.

I try so hard to wrap as I go, but I usually end up wrapping my kids stuff on Christmas Eve.

Christmas is Coming

I see alot of recipe replies and such but the biggest thing we do is go around the table and list what we are thankful for. The food the weather the kids the new dishwasher, anything that you are thankful for.