floridasun5

I live about 2 miles away from one of the largest roads here that has all of the large stores on it like Best Buy, Target, Home Depot, Circuit City, local mall, etc. so not far at all :) However, if I want to travel to the bigger mall with the nicer stores, its about 20 minutes.

This is the first year I will be looking for a new Christmas tree. I lost mine in a fire this year, so I need a new one and am finally going to buy a pre-lighted one. I'm looking for a normal size tree - 6-8 ft, pre-lighted. I never paid attention to the tree deals previous years, so can anyone tell me what kind of deals I can expect for trees? Is it possible to get one around $100? Target? Lowes/ Home Depot? Thanks!

YES..and it got me excited! I was in Best Buy this past Sunday and they had full pallets of things in the middle of the floor like Xbox, Rockband, GuitarHero, Playstations, TVs, etc. Kinda fun to see instead of keeping everything taped up in a stock room somewhere.

Yum...I'm already hungry and reading this thread is just making my mouth water. LOL Going to have to try out some of these recipes. Now for another question.. Previous years I've always made a lot of cookies and treats about 2 weeks before Christmas and gave out most of them, but this year I dont think I'll be giving many, so what do you all do with most of the cookies? In other words, do you freeze them? Do they freeze well? If you freeze, dont they get soggy when you thaw them out? I love to make cookies, but am worried about wasting them. Please share some ideas about keeping them as well!

I would go back and tell as well. The cashier could very well lose her job if the store was to find out that she missed something, especially as expensive as a camcorder and I know I wouldnt want that on my shoulders just to save a few bucks that I had already planned on spending anyway.

How do you make room? You put your foot down with the kids and make them give up some of their toys that they dont play with to either give to others who are in need or throw away things that are not "donate-able". Try freecycle.org, post on Craigslist, give to the church, ask people you know if they know anyone who needs a helping hand, put a sign in the front yard for free stuff and watch it go. The stuff about the kids not allowing things to be sold would not happen here. Sure, the kids can be involved if they are old enough to understand and tell them why, but work with the kids to make room for the new toys that Santa will bring, dont let them rule the roost in other words.

One at a time here too. Of course we just have a small family but I like the fact that it takes about an hour or so to open gifts. I also like to discuss the item with the person because I'll usually always have a story about how I got the item, why I bought it for them, etc.

I totally understand and I hate to sound like an old cliche, but it will get better with time. My grandfather died 9 days before my 16th birthday. It has been over 20 years now, but geez, up until about 5 years ago, I would still cry myself to sleep some nights missing him and recalling the times we had together. I was my grandfathers SHADOW! I mean, I was practically raised by my grandparents and my grandfather was my hero, buddy and everything in between. I know I didnt lose him when I was an adult, but I still remember that torture of being a teenager still growing into myself and losing him, then having to deal with my 16th birthday without him. I know others have traditions that they do to remember loved ones around the holiday, but I dont really do anything, but remember him in my own special way and sometimes even talk to him. Maybe someone else will chime in with some more ideas for you, but just wanted to let you know that others have been there too and it will get better.

So, last year my 14 year old daughter decided to start being sneaky. Not only did she unwrap some presents under the tree but I'm sure she also sneaked into the closet that I keep them in as well until I wrapped them. Unfortunately the attic isnt an option and neither is the car. I also dont have any family nearby to leave presents with. Can anyone share some creative hiding spots for gifts? Not just the normal closet, under bed, etc. spots, I need some really creative and different ideas!

I'm Steffani (Steff) and I lurk around Gottadeal.com all year long but try to become active around this time of year as I love it! :) I live in Central Florida, 37 years old, married for 9 1/2 years now and have a teen daughter who will be 15 next week. I am currently the owner of a small retail store, but we are getting ready to probably shut it down in November due to how bad things have been. I have been BF shopping off and on for many years. I'm not a nut about it and have to go out every year, I just base it off of what I need and what is available. I didnt go last year, but will probably go this year as long as the sales are acceptable. I dont do the camping out anymore as in my area, there are a lot of die-hards that start lining up EARLY and I wont do that, so I pretty much stave off doorbusters and just get the regularly good sale items. Looking forward to more ads soon!

Couldnt figure out how to put my placemark on the map, but I'll be shopping Altamonte Springs, Florida

I did have color themes previous years....it was usually burgundy, gold and silver as well. Unfortunately all of my tree trimmings were damaged in my house fire this past Spring and since my house has been redecorated as well due to the fire, I get to buy all new things this year. Kind of looking forward to redoing the tree, just not sure what Im going to do yet. However, I always do the fancy type of tree with white lights, ribbons and whatever color ornaments that I find that I like.

I'm anxious to hear Christmas music already! Unfortunately our radio station here doesnt start playing it 24/7 until Thanksgiving Day. Think I'm going to have to start work on my Christmas music playlist for my ipod. LOL

I post every year that I dont do Angel trees for kids since those are usually the ones always picked first and always taken care of. I donate and prefer to take care of the elderly who have no family or family that doesn't want anything to do with them, or even the ones that can barely afford their medications or food so they never get anything for themselves, or I donate to the animal shelters.

I broke down and bought a Dyson DC14 today, expecting it to be just the greatest vacuum I've ever owned. I was excited to use it. Put it together, ran it and was totally not impressed. So, I have an area rug in my bedroom that is like a medium shag rug. Its not a full shag with really long fibers, but has a shaggy type of pile to it, almost like a high pile carpet would, but the pile is loose. I cannot push this vacuum across it at all! The front yellow bar that is supposed to auto adjust almost pushes down against the rug when I push it forward and will just not move. So, my question is, does anyone that have any sort of higher pile carpet or rug have any problems with using a Dyson? I also didnt like the fact that it seems as if you have to use the bare floor feature on all rugs except wall to wall carpet, which is a turn off since I dont have any wall to wall carpet in my house! So, I'm not impressed so far, but wondering if maybe I am doing something wrong, or even if there is another Dyson model that would work better on our rugs? Has anyone experienced this, or have any suggestions? I'm so upset that I just spent $400 on a vacuum that is worse than my Hoover and I'm seriously considering taking it back!

I am in search of one too. Either the DC14 or the animal, just at a good, reasonable cost as I cant afford full retail. Amazon.com does not currently have any refurbished ones for sale. If anyone can help myself and OP find a great deal, please let us know. Thanks!

I always feel out of the loop nowadays since my dd is 14 so I dont need to stay up all night putting toys together LOL and I dont have the kids that come jumping into the bed early in the morning to wake us up. So, I was in bed about 10:30pm and dd woke me up by just banging around in the kitchen at 7am :)

Another broke wallet here LOL Didnt go overboard for Christmas, but all of our money went into our busines and unfortunately I have some big expenses coming up like new tires, yearly vet bill for 2 dogs, etc. that I have to pay for instead. No shopping for me.

Some of both. Most all gifts are wrapped except for the big ones. My dd is 14 so we dont have Santa gifts anymore, we just put out the ones that we dont wrap first thing on Christmas morning before she gets up.

Well I think we all want world peace, a maid, kids that listen, etc. LOL So, in addition to all of that, I only have a few things on my list this year as dh and I started a business this year that took all of our time and money. A Kurv vaccuum for easy cleanup of dog hair LOL An All Clad slow cooker to be able to have a nice meal when I get home from work late every night Some Victorias Secret silk pajamas Gift cards so that I can buy what I want/need during the year and not have to take money away from the business

Uughhh, I have to go out today and am sooooo dreading it. Especially Walmart. I've got to pick up a gift card since Walmart lost the one I ordered online! I've got to go grocery shopping, pick up some supplies for the dogs and fish and stop at JCPenney. Hoping I make it back alive! LOL

Hoping someone here knows this answer. I know some other stores like Publix's, Walgreens, etc. have gift cards for many other stores in their store. I'm trying to find out if anyone knows if you can find Walmart gift cards in any other store, other than Walmart. I'm really trying to avoid Walmart but I need a gift card as the one I ordered online never showed up! Thanks.

Wow, they dont seem to have their act together at all this year! Hoping none of my items get cancelled....so far, so good...no doom emails yet!

Even though my dh got a bonus this year, compared to how his boss is, it was nothing! Now, I have to paint the small picture so you will all know what we are dealing with. His boss just bought a 2.5 million dollar house, just bought a $95,000 new car, buys $10-20k watches every few months, has taken 3 $10k vacations in the last 6 months and plenty more crap! He had to try and find the cheapest restaurant he could for our Chrimstas party this year that nobody wanted to go to anyway and we wound up with $200! My dh busts his butt for this man making him millions of $$ each year and each year, although the boss keeps getting richer and richer, the Christmas gifts/bonuses keep going down and down! Oh, also, one other thing, one of the boss' clients just let him have a free rented Lamborghini for last weekend and then the boss had the nerve to ask my dh why the employees didnt get him a gift!!!! Grrrrrrrrrr

Just placed my order! :) Shipping was a bit high at $18.95 for 6 things and of course all of the codes for the free items expired other than the $5 off, but I kicked myself last year for missing out, so I wasnt going to miss out this year :) Merry Christmas