bluebear

My son is in his 3rd year. First year he carried his big normal heavy laptop every day. Last year, he lived on campus so it wasn't so bad, and he uses that laptop as his main computer (it's a gaming laptop). This year he is commuting again, and we got him a Surface 3. He is much happier carrying that around every day!! And it works fine for what he needs on campus. If this will be your daughter's primary computer though, you may want to check with her, and see how she will be using it. The Surface Pro would be a better choice over a plain Surface 3 ( and I'm not sure they are selling those anymore anyway) and it should be powerful enough for most anything. It is a little bit bigger, but not terribly big and heavy.

Yay, thank you! Looks like there is a 20% off toys coupon, that's pretty awesome.

I *just* received an email saying "coming soon: Save $250 when you buy SP4 and type cover from Microsoft store." Details go on to say it's Oct 24-30 at Microsoft store online.

I know the Surface 3 had some deals last year, both at Best Buy and Microsoft store. Seems I was impatient though and bought it a week before just to make sure I had it.

I have made good progress, have bought at least one thing for 9 of 14 people. And just as important, I have a good start on my lists. My nieces are done, and mama is mostly done except maybe a couple of small stuffs I may come across. The thing I worry about, though, is that I am bad about buying right up until Christmas, no matter how much stuff I have. I have zero stocking stuffers though.

We have had at least one of almost every version of Surface. Husband always wants latest and greatest. Plus, he is the device tester at work, so he'll get th latest version and use it for several months. My boys got the RT the first year, both have Surface 3s now, plus youngest used the hand-me-down surface pro 1 for a while.Yes, you can get a dock and hook up your peripherals and use on a desk, use as a laptop, or use as a tablet. They are fairly powerful, especially for the size. I like the thinness of them, and the portability. My gang hasn't run into any issues or compatibility problems. My high school son takes it to school everyday, it's a great size and weight. The SP4 will run games okay, but it's by no means a gaming computer. All 3 having separate gaming machines. External USB DVD drives are not expensive, and I believe you can buy blu-ray versions as well. The Surface Book is also very nice,the keyboard doesn't come off, but it flips around for tablet use. Those are more powerful than the Pros. Macs... I also have an iMac here... Not a macbook. It is several years old, probably at least 8 (we bought it used) and it is still running. It's starting to get a little sluggish though, but we haven't put any effort or upgrades into it, it's not used too much. Like Kanyon mentioned, it's nice always getting the latest version of the OS. And I've not ever had any problems with it. There's a couple things I've come across that it wouldn't run, but I always have access to a PC, or like he said, a VM can be used. Things are arranged a little differently, but it's not terribly hard to get used to the switch.

My Walgreen's is open 24 hours, so I always get there right around midnight or before, and I'm usually the first or 2nd person to check out. There are usually about 4-5 people in there within first hour, most are in there for the toys.

It is a lot of money, and I still feel kinda guilty... But there are very few things that I say "I want", so my husband wasn't letting it go (it was my birthday present). He checked pretty much every day after release day ( it sold out before 11am, he was so upset because he looked at it around 9:30 but was too busy to buy it) and finally caught it in stock almost 5 weeks later. Since, I've seen it go in and out. This was for me, only my cat helped (not), but I might hesitate if I had littles that still liked to play. They do give you extras of most of the tiny unique pieces, so if things get dropped it's not the end of the world. But, YES, it is very awesome, more so than I had expected. It has some cool surprises. They will love guessing the different stories and seeing the accessories. And I didn't think it was very difficult. It took me about 18 hours, but several people who wrote reviews did it in only 12, so guess I'm slow!

Oh hooray, thanks! I am in a Lego mood this year... Just finished the 4000+ piece Disney castle! Even told my boys (17 & 20), who haven't built Legos in YEARS, that I am buying everyone a set so we can build together during Christmas break. We'll see how that works out for me...

When my kids were little I made them personalized mugs and gave them hot chocolate and popcorn. That was probably close to 15 years ago, and only the youngest is still a teenager, but they still go for those mugs every 3 years on our 1 snow day for hot chocolate! Another theme idea... "Curl up with a book" include blanket, books, amazon or B&N cards, slippers... I love buying small things for little gift bags and stockings... I oughta do the gift basket idea this year, good idea!

Yay,thank you! Fun to see what to expect.

We have had a Roku TV. It was fine. We got a really good deal on Amazon when they were fairly new. When the kid went to college last year, we sent it with him, and bought a new regular TV for us. It worked great for him. The biggest thing is that you need the remote it comes with for the initial setup, and after that either that remote or a phone app. Universal and programmable remotes won't work, at least for the one we had.

Reusable shopping bags would be nice, but those little drawstring backpacks would be pretty awesome too. You can carry ads, lists, chap stick, gloves after you go inside, energy bar, water, candy canes...

I started with prime day, and have been watching lightning deals. Have my 2 nieces done, and a present each for my mom, daughter, and grandson (if I don't give it to him early!). I've been collecting patterns and yarn, and when it gets below 90 here I'll start knitting, so maybe I won't be still making gifts on Christmas Eve this year!

Yes.

ell, we did get a free month sample of prescription flea med for each dog, so that was pretty deal. Thanks, they will be okay. One dog had an ear infection, and shook her head so hard she busted a blood vessel in her ear and her ear was about an inch thick.

Well, we had a $300 vet bill on black Friday instead of $300 router. Definitely on the list for later though.

So i went last night to pick up my order that I had sent to store instead of doing shipping again. And yep, something else was cancelled. 7 items total, 4 were blankets. But, they had one of the blankets from the first order that had been cancelled. And she let me purchase at BF price (I had order pulled up), AND she let me use 20% coupon. So yay, that works. Now to shop tonight with my kohls cash and rewards. I had to make myself not buy things this weekend so I'd have stuff left to buy with those.

I am a bit aggravated with Kohls. All total, I had 6 times cancelled. 3 of those were fairly important.. Worst part is, that for some of them, I didn't get the email until late last night and another tonight, AFTER the sale ended and I couldn't substitute another color for same sale price. That's really inexcusable that 6 days after an order is placed they are just figuring out that an item is out of stock. Sad thing is, some of the times I saw Thursday evening while I was in the store and "thought" I already had them coming to me. Oh well, kids will just get different colored blankets than what they wanted. They will be okay. Or I will steal them. Everything else seems to have shipped now. And I stacked the home code, and 20% off, and then got the $15 KC tonight, so that brings it close to what it had been before. Especially if you consider that the items that were cancelled were about $50, so that's $15 in KC that I got but didn't ultimately pay for. <did you see me put on my positive face? >

Yeah, unfortunately we will require the AC5300, we are hard. I am hesitant to send thatch $$ though. But, I know it will be great and we will love it. The Nighthawks are really good routers.

Oh yay! It was weird, it showed stock in my store, but wouldn't let me order for in store pickup. But, yeah, guess it sold out online. Oh well. I didn't check soon enough. I ended up getting it at Gamestop, so at least I got one.

Got a Surface 3 case, Nintendo eShop card, and another cheap USB drive (got several last week at Amazon for same or cheaper). Still on the fence about the Nighthawk router...

Have fun, good luck!!

Yes, that worked perfectly! The only real trouble I had was the GC with iTunes, and that was partly my fault, partly cashier. I warned her it was hard, but she jus tweet right through with transaction. Key is: Bring the WHITE walgreens gift card to the register with you. They scan it in for $10, then it comes off. Maybe next year I'll remember!!

Ack! Looks like the Wii U bundle is in store only. Did not expect that! That makes things more difficult...