leefamily23

I have to work until 12:30pm this year. I have not worked Christmas Eve in years, though I'm grateful because I'm still out so early. Anyhow, we go to my aunt/uncles house from my father's side. We've been doing this since I can remember. It's funny that we still do this because the tradition has been going for at least 28 (ish) years. There is no formal dinner, as the gathering starts around 7pm. There are usually about 45-50 of us. My immediate family on my dad's side has 54 people (he has a lot of brothers and sisters and they all live in the same community still except one). Everyone under 18 yrs old, does a gift exchange. We eat snack foods and just visit. This year my grandfather moved to North Carolina to live w/ my aunt (the one relative who does not live here still). So we are going to use a webcam to chat w/ them from the gathering. We usually get home around 11pm. My son goes right to bed, and we go after he's asleep and we help santa out.

It's 29, but very windy and snowy. We got hit w/ a storm Friday morning/early afternoon that dropped about 6 inches of snow in a short timeframe. Then woke up this morning, and near white out conditions and snowing heavily again. I guess we have a snow warning until 7am Monday morning. We have snow in the forecast everyday this week. I'm outside Buffalo NY.

We are starting our holiday celebrations today. My immediate family always has our Christmas dinner and gift exchange at my sisters home the Saturday before Christmas. This way we get time w/ my parents, siblings, and neices and nephews away from the larger celebrations we go to over the actual holiday. I am excited, though it still doesn't feel real that the holiday is here.

I was at 2 different Walgreen's today about 2 miles apart. One had this markdown, the other did not. They had the Lil' Kinz Webkinz marked down to 2 for $6-. These were the sames one's on sale for B1G1 on Black Friday. This would be a better deal though. Considering I was at 2 different stores, and only 1 was running the special, your mileage may vary on this one.

I spent about $300 on BF, about $200 before that, and almost $650 yesterday. So, I guess a total of $1150. I still have about $500 more the spend. That is good for us because Christmas used to be about a $3000 event. Last year was a little rougher, so we cut way down. I decided it was more under control that way, so I'm upholding the cutbacks we did last year. We buy for 14 people w/ that amount. However about 60% of the budget is for my son alone.

Having worked in private medical offices the last 15 years, I'll chime in. I can tell you, and maybe it's just the places I've worked. Gifts for the whole staff are appreciated and usually we get a nice amount. I can tell you though, that homeade cookies and candies were rarely eaten. It's just that whole, we don't know how clean the kitchen, hand washing, ect is....... Food gifts are great, I'd just opt for prepackaged food, or go to the local bakery and get a nice treat. I picked up 2 dozen really cute pumpkin cookies the a few weeks ago at a local bakery for $6.00 for work. It would cost just as much to buy all the ingredients and decorating supplies.

I'm at a new place this year. No gift exchange, and I'm glad about that. Honestly at my last place it got to be ridiculous. We had to chip in $25 each for each of the 4 partners gifts. That was a total of $100 per person to chip in. Then $25 for our direct supervisor. Then $25 name draw gift. Not one single person had children in the office besides myself, so I think that is why to them it was not a big deal to fork out $150 for work gifts. I had to laugh becuase they gave us a $200 bonus (which was nice), but it all mostly went towards those gifts.......

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A different store than the one I went to for BF still had them at 11pm last night. Actually this particular WM had a lot of items left. They still had: Cabbage Patch dolls, 2 pk Batman figures, Nerf Gun, about 50 $2 DVD's (though I think they were all Miami Vice), many $6 & $9 DVD's. The coats, PJ pants, track suits, and fleece's. That is just the few items I seen. It's too bad I cannot go to this store normally for BF, the problem is there is literally no other stores to go to-- it's almost 40 minutes to any other store.

Pretty rural area where I live. I'm only 30 miles to Buffalo, NY, but where I actually live is very, very rural. My husband thinks it was because it was just before the bars closed and the road I came off of (my road) has 4 nightclubs at the end of it (on the lake). I was also the only car I seen the whole way to my sisters.

My morning started off not so good. I left my house at 3am to go get my sister and start our morning. Within 1 mile of my home I had a car pretty much riding my bumper. They had their "brights" on, or so I thought and I was getting really annoyed, as their lights were hurting my eye's and I was trying very hard to watch for deer. Anyhow, this went on for nearly 10 miles when that car turned on their "lights"-- yep a cop. He pulled me over and called for assistance.......long story short, his headlights were very bright and killing my eye's. He said I crossed the right white line 3 times and he pulled me over for suspsected DUI---ummmm... I might drink once a year at best (and never drive). After nearly 15 minutes he let me go......he never heard of black friday and was really being pissy w/ me about the fact the I was really just coming from home and heading out shopping at 3am.........I was very, very upset! Anyhow, we arrived at JCPenney's at about 3:55am, went in and got our snowglobes. My sister got some clothing and a toy. We were out of there by 4:15am. Headed to Walmart- this was a zoo. We expected it, but it was waaayyyyy worse than normal. We got in line at 4:30 am and we were more than 1/2 way around the store. There were 3 local police cars w/ 6 local cops keeping order in the line. Our Wm filled to capacity and we had to wait about 1/4 of the way to the doors for about an additional 20 minutes. My sister nor I were in the market for the TV's, but they still had plenty of them by that time. We still got everything we wanted buy expcept 1 thing. I ended up w/ 4 of the (2) DvD's, an $8 coat for me, Lightsaber (10),RC ATV (10), and Mens PJ Pants (3 prs). My sister got the nerf gun, pixos starter kit, 2 wii games for $16.88, Vtech baby item (in ad- don't remember what this was). 2pk Batman figures, and she pm'd several toys from the TRU ad. We were in line for 1hr and 20 minutes. The checkouts were terrible, the lines just did not move at all. We went to BK for breakfast and headed to TRU. When we got there we got lucky and got a parking spot right away. However, people in side were saying they'd been in line at that point for nearly an 1hr and still were not to check out.- we decided we didn't need anything there that bad. We wanted to hit so more stores and did not want to wait another 1-2 hrs in line yet. We went to Justice for Girls- I actually spent an hr in the car here doozing, because I was soooo tired. My sister got my neice 3 full outfits and 1 pr of PJs for $88.00. We then headed to the mall. There I went to Pacsun and got my son 1 l/s shirt, a fleece hoodie, and a pair of clearance DC shorts for $34.xx (probably the best actual deal I got all day). My sister went to Gamestop and dropped a nice fortune on the Wii, games, and accessories. She then went to Sears and bought 2 huges bags of clothing for her husband and her self. I dropped my sister off at TRU then, and I went across the street to Lane Bryant. They had a B1G1 sale plus I had a coupon and gift cards. I shopped for awhile and got to the register to realize I brought the wrong gift cards. The women was really nice, and she put my items on hold for me. I later went back here and got my pr of jeans, 2 sweaters and 3 shirts for $68.xx-- that was a HUGE bargain for me!!! At TRU my sister was in and out and succeded in getting 1/2 of what she wanted- and she picked up the Vtech learning laptop for $19.99 for me. We got to Target then around 11am- between the 2 of us we got- Xbox Halo 3 (30), 9 movies (various prices), Coffee maker (14.99), Griddle (15), keyboard (69), the digital camcorder (69), and a 2G memory card (8.88). We were in and out here within 45 minutes. After that I dropped her off at home, and I went home. Dh and I then unloaded the car, and went immediately back out. We went to Petsmart for some essentials we needed, then back to Lane Bryant for me to pick up my items. We then headed to our storage unit got out our Christmas items. Home for the day at 4pm- in bed by 4:15 and slept until 9:15 pm. I'm now typing this, eating left overs and catching up here........... All in all-- the crowds here were much worse at certain stores than usual. While others were much lower at stores that typically have long lines. Walmart had a nice supply this year of doorbusters on hand. There were no must-haves for us this year that were on sale. This year it was more about the tradition of going than the sales. I'm hoping the next 2 weeks bring lots of good online deals, because I'm going to need them.

My sister called me this morning, her paper only had a handful of ads. So, I was going to run about 30 minutes from home towards the mall area to get one. Thankfully, I called my mom though- she has all the ads but Circuit City. Funny thing, my mother and my sister live within 1/2 a mile of one another. They get the same paper, yet 1 had almost no ads and the other was full of them.

I didn't go buy the paper, but I called my mother and sister (whom we'll see a little later today). Between the 2 of them they got pretty much all the ads for our local stores in their papers today. The only one we seem to be missing is the Circuit City one. Which is okay, because it was not on our list anyhow.

I went to our WM Monday and Today-- the items that are in the BF are still full price, at least what is out. Lot's of shrink wrapped pallets in the garden dept though.

We went this evening to check out some of the items I wanted at Walmart. Quality and sizing and such. Anyhow, nobody in line at our Walmart or mall which has BB. I'm in a suburb of Buffalo, NY. Though it's in the 30's here and there is a lake effect snow warning for tonight and tomorrow in this area, so that might have an effect. Last year was dry and in the 40's and by 2 am BF there was 1000+ in line at BB.

No bonuses here. Okay, I guess our bonus was being told that if we continue at the current economical rate we're at right now- we will only be open another 4 months. Time for expense cut-backs and job cuts. I'll consider it a bonus to make it through that!

The 2 outlet malls that have Pac Sun's by me- are not "true outlets". They run the same prices w/ the same merchandise. It would be nice to know if there was a "TRUE" outlet somewhere for them.

WOW--- too cold here to be in line that long. I coudn't even imagine. We do not get in line until about an hr before opening. BUT we know.....we're going to get what we can get.

Pretty much the same plan as always for us: We'll get to JCPenney's about 20 minutes before opening to get the free snowglobe, though we almost never buy anything there. It's just that they open first in our area and we like to start as early as possible. Then to Walmart- should be there within 30-40 minutes prior of opening. Get in line- my sister and I both have a decent list there. Mostly Toys, clothing, and DVD's. Nothing is a make or break deal though, so no standing in line all night long for us. We'll then head to TRU, Target & Kohls (they're in the same plaza), then over to the mall. We're we'll have breakfast in the food court. It's the only day of the year we eat Arby's Roast Beef and Fries before 8am. Once at the mall our first stop is usually Disney Store, but we no longer have one in our mall. I'll be hitting up: PacSun, Gamestop, Hallmark Store (to see if they have anything), Sears, Spencers, and Macy's. I'm not sure what she's looking for there yet. Then we usualy hop across the street to Old Navy, AC Moore, and Office Max if we feel like it. Then our last stop is usually Fashion Bug on the way home. It usually depends on what time their sale goes until and what time it is when we're going by though. We're usually home between 1-3pm sometime. Then it's naptime and when I get up, my husband and I start the decorating and getting the tree up.

This is on our list too, for my husband and I. I think we're going to Walmart one night this week, and I'll check this out.

Will Penney's have the free snowglobes? That is tradition for my sister and I.......I didn't see them advertised in the ad.

I just looked again because I knew I was forgetting something. My son could really use new PJ pants, his are all too short on him- so I'd like to get several of the $4 men's PJ pants.

I too am stuck on what to get my son. He will be 16 within a month of Christmas. He has EVERYTHING......and I'm sooooo stuck. He has a TV, stereo, DVD player, Ipod (less than 1yr old), XBox 360, laptop (also only a few months old). He also barely touches his Xbox, so I've already got 4 game on my list, and do not want to buy anymore. He wanted a snowboard- I talked him out of that. I'm convinced he'll only get to use it once or twice. Which is a total waste of money for me. He wants another freestyle BMX bike. I also think another waste of money. He spent his summer work money on 1 this summer ($450 he spent), and he broke it within 2 day's of having it. Then spent another $100 to fix it and broke it again. Most likely he'll have his license by summer, and I don't think he'll have much use for a bike then. Anyhow, my idea's are: Ipod gift card Work Boots (his request) Hunting coat and pants (already have the coat, hoping to get the pants @ Dicks on BF) 4 new video games Digital Camera or cheaper digital camcorder Skateboard w/ accessories Cologne That is all I have..... I usually get him quite a bit more.......so I'm really stuck. I need to try to get the most bang for my buck. My mother will buy him a nice amount of new clothing, so he really will not need them. He's at such a hard age to buy for. I really don't want to give him only money or gift cards....so who knows. I think he'd love the small dorm style fridge for his room, but my husband would absolutely flip.....and it's not an option.

Does anyone know anything about the digital camcorder for $59.99? I'm looking for something cheap for my son. He pretty much will only take it to the skatepark, and he broke my last 2- that I paid good money for. Something he can easily upload unto his laptop would be great.

Title say's it all---- from the BF ad what are you after at Walmart. It will be our first major stop, just like it is every year. I'm not after any electronics, but I'm interested to see what the majority will be gunning for there. Here is my list I'll be looking for: DVD's $2 (wanna see which they'll have) Coffee Maker $15 Lightsaber $10 Pixo's Starter Kit $10 RC ATV $10 Ladies Coat $8 (I was just at the local thrift shop trying to find a decent casual coat to wear w/ jeans) Hannah Montana Vanity Set $10- I need 2 of these Totally 80's Trivial Pursuit $10 8pk gift boxes $3 I'd like to Pricematch the $30 Halo 3 from Target too.