pogiporkchop

I always have a total amount in mind that I'll give. When I go out I make sure to have some change in my pocket and I'll give some to each of my kids because they like going up and putting it in the collection :)

The pictures don't do the place justice - you need to go there to really get a sense of just how big it is. The whole area, often referred to as Little Bavaria, is an interesting place to visit and one restaurant has an outstanding chicken dinner that's well worth the price.

I'll have cold hard cash... my husband just gave it to me last night!

A couple of years ago I adopted a family even though my own budget was much tighter than it is now and I was able to watch this mother and her two kids open their gifts (no waiting for Christmas there!). It was priceless, and I had a nice chat with the mom - who was working on getting a drivers license, looking for work and trying to go back to school. I felt good knowing that I helped :)

Depending on how many you need - and if you can find one suitable design for all - you can order the custom printed ones from OfficeMax/Office Depot/Staples or the like. If I remember correctly there are at least some that are blank inside and you can put whatever message you want. Other places do this too, so it might be worth checking out.

The trees we have here only have tags saying if it's a boy/girl and how old they are. Even on the info pages for adopt a family that I've seen the requests/wishes are reasonable. What makes for an interesting read is the Thanksgiving Wishes section of the paper... have to read them all carefully to see if what is being wished for if really needed.

Can't... breathe.... laughing... too... hard...

The link to the article that the numbers came from is www.twice.com/article/CA6383869.html (I got the numbers first from another BF site first and posted them just as I found them.) As I just posted in the other forum the article uses "top tier (1-2)" and "major brand". It's a very interesting read not only for the possible price points but also for the likely marketing strategy.

I have the mother of all Christmas stores for you: Bronner's Christmas Wonderland (www.bronners.com) in Frankenmuth, Michigan. They've got a great online shop, but if you've never seen their store it's HUGE (world's largest Christmas store, in fact). It's all about Christmas, all year round. Everything you might need - ornaments, wreaths, Santa suits, etc. it's all there. Go check it out!

If WM can't then BB sure can. I posted some possible numbers that I found on another site this morning... check the rumored sale thread in BB forum

I have two of my friends in Japan done but that's about it. Many, many people to go...

I saw those too yesterday, on an endcap. I also saw them setting up Christmas stuff in the garden area :)

At last count I saw 2, possibly 4 storage units in my garden center. I think I'll go again today just for fun.

BF means I get some time to myself; it's the only day of the year I'm guaranteed this. I'm also encouraged to go shopping, which is not usually the case I enjoy people watching and taking everything in as much as, if not more than, shopping itself.

I do this too. Each Thanksgiving in our paper is a section of Thanksgiving wishes and it's become something of a ritual for me to peruse them. Then there's the Angel trees... if I can have fun and help someone why not? :)

I think it's great that you're doing that too I'm going to do a card project with my son this year since he can write his name now. You know what comes to mind? Wet wipes and q-tips... don't know why or where I saw them mentioned, but they seem practical...

If you want a good place just to get some ideas go to treatsfortroops.com. I was there recently just browsing and you can get some good ideas... of course you can buy too if you want.

A couple of times a day for me, generally morning and evening and sometimes afternoon if the kids are playing. I don't know who is more eager for the ads - me or my husband :)

I love to cook all the regular stuff on Turkey Day, but since it's just me, hubby and the 2 kids it doesn't seem worth all the work. Think I'll try doing something extra simple and spend the time saved planning my strategy for BF!

Great, I'll prepare for the screaming match between my kids and bet that it's torn up by noon!

This will be my first year for doing this, so it hasn't been decided yet but there are so many ideas to choose from! My son and I had better have a plan in place before Thanksgiving!

My son's teacher has split the class into thirds (it's a small class) and each has a turn "hosting" a holiday party (Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's), with each student bringing something as assigned by the teacher. Anything goes at these parties, and on birthdays when the birthday kid gets to bring a special treat in... for example, someone had a birthday today and she brought in homemade cupcakes. On regular days it's normal snacks like pretzels and crackers. This is his first year in school, so I'm eager to see what will be done for Christmas. I should ask his teacher if classroom supplies are needed- that's a very good idea.

In the store closest to me today I saw them setting up toy displays in the main aisle with Dora's Pirate Adventure ship, Bratz items and the Barbie and the 12 dancing princesses.

That's a good question for me... I have no idea where I'm going to put all my shopping, especially the bigger things for the kids (our place is very small with almost no storage space). Better start cleaning those two closets...

Same here, no such thing as breakfast that morning!