mcapel4444

My oldest son & I made two of the Christmas Trees, several years ago. We painted them, Glued on ornaments & snowflakes, and hot glued fake presents to the base, and added the mini christmas lights. We gave my mom one, and I kept the other. They are really cute & easy to make!

Are you looking for family gifts? Or friends? You could make up cookbooks. Start with cheap 3 ring binders, and print up fave recipes. Or if you handwriting is really good, then you can go that route. For family, you can add family favorites- ask everyone for one or two recipes that they love, and compile them. Baskets are always good too. Cooking baskets- Dollar store spatulas, cookie cutters, cake mix, cupcake pans, sprinkles, etc. Or coffee baskets. Hot chocolate ones. Can you see a theme in my madness? lol

yep. I was halfway toying with making them this year. Then my sense came back. I send them to my family, dh's family, friends, and lots of friends I've made online. It is so much fun to get the different cards from all over the country. We hang them on the back of the garage door- in the kitchen.

Since we all go spend the night at my parent's house on Christmas eve, we used to play Tripoley. We would play with pennies, and everyone had to bring 13 wrapped "presents", that you could put out in play at anytime. It was so much fun to play with the whole family, and at the end of the game, we got to open the gifts we had won. Everything from candy, to money, to dollar store stuff. I miss doing that. We usually snack on lots of food, open one present, and watch some Holiday movies. Depending on how old your kids are, you could start a tradition of singing Chistmas carols, or asking them each what they hoped the next day would bring. Write them down, then ask them the next day what their fave present was, or food, etc. Those will be cute to look at when they get older. You could do hot chocolate with them & roast marshmallows too.

My oldest (13) doesn't and hasn't for a few years now. But the 3 little ones do. The older kids in the family, know to be quiet and play along, or else "santa" won't leave them anything. lol

I usually end up buying way too much for the kids. Or one of the kids. I usually have to balance it out.

Thanksgiving- I make Turkey, stuffing, pots & gravy, rolls, cranberry sauce, & corn. Probably will have veggies & dip, cheese & olives for snacking on. And pumpkin roll & apple pie for dessert. Christmas- We are at my moms- Turkey, Ham, Stuffing, pots & gravy, cranberry sauce, rolls, asparagus & corn. She also has tons of stuff to snack on- 2 big shrimp rings, veggies & dip, Rice Krispy Treats, Brownies, cookies, eggnog, etc. There is so much food. lol

My mom always lets the kids all open one present. And she makes sure it is something good, not clothing. lol The rest we open at the crack of dawn.

All over the house. lol I have some on top of my bookcases in my room. Some in the garage. And some stored out in the van that we don't use. In the next week or so, I plan on pulling them all together in the garage. Just so I can see what I have so far. Oh, and I have a bike stashed at my parent's house. :)

I always have to make tons of pumpkin rolls. I found the recipe several years ago, on a Libby's advertisement. It is sooo good! My mom has already started asking how many I am making this year. lol

We usually leave cookies & milk. This year I think we will leave carrots for the reindeer too.

Well my ritual now starts in October, to start checking on here everyday. Thanksgiving, I will cook dinner here for our family. As soon as the Turkey get in the oven at 7am, I will sit with my paper and start looking thru ads in case I missed anything. ( Will have a master list made up way in advance of things to get at each store). Will talk to my brother a few times that day to find out our plan of attack. Depending on where we go this year, I will gather my supplies, and possible go camp out early at Best Buy. Usually we are up and gone by 2-3am, stopping for coffee & hot chocolate. We kind of stick together in stores, but have our cell phones in case we split up from each other. We usually hit most of our stores, then go grab breakfast/lunch, and then hit a few more stores. We usually are done about 3pm. Somewhere in all this, we end up dumping stuff at their house 2 or 3 times, depending on what we buy. I can't wait til next month! :)

Usually my ads, a notebook with my list, my purse, and some kind of warm drink. :) Depending if we camp outside of Best Buy this year, I might add some warm blankets, a chair, and leftover Turkey sandwiches.

I've been going out for about 6 or 7 years on BF. A friend lnked me to this site last Oct/Nov, and I think I checked the ads every single day. lol This year I decided to check out the forums.

I cleaned up on movies last year. I think we ended up with 17 or 18 new ones. lol Alot were from Target. Although Circuit City had some great deals too.

Hmmmm. It really depends on who has what on sale. On different years, we have hit up Frye's- game boy ds package for a great price, Walmart- 27 inch tv, Kmart- for I can't remember what. lol Last year we were at Best Buy.

I always go with my brother & sil. It is our tradition. We shop all day, drag our tired butts for breakfast/lunch, then all go home and crash.