leefamily23

Can I be the naysayer here......when traveling I HATE trying to travel with food I've made or running out to buy things such as bread/crackers/ect and bringing it along. Though, I would be houseguest that would just straight up offer to buy pizza and subs for everyone one night or get bagels and donuts from your local bakery a morning or two for everyone for breakfast. If it were a smaller group I would be offering jus to take everyone out but either way I couldn't imagine not paying for some ordered out meals to repay someone for their hospitality. So I guess I would make up for it in another way.

Ahhhh,.....I wish we could do it the way we had did it for so long. Used to be dinner at my mom's, then my sister and I would make our lists (mom always had to work Friday so she'd add a few items for us to pick up for her). Then we'd leave the kids w/ my dad for the night. Get home for a few hours sleep and head about about 2-3am to get in line. We almost always started at Walmart (though back in the day I can remember starting at Ames for their scratch off's or KB Toys). We'd shop everything not at the mall first and usually get to the mall around 7-8am and get Arby's from the food court for breakfast (the roast beef and fries). Make our way through the mall and around noon. We'd always end by stopping at Fashion Bug on our way home to treat ourselves to a few of their sale items since their sale always ran later. If dh was feeling it (most years he was) he'd tag along and drop us at the doors then make his way in to look for a cart. He'd go hang out in an area without sale items (someplace we predetermined as best as possible) and my sister and I would run and grab items and bring them back to the cart. Amazing how so many of the stores we used to go to don't exist anymore along with the tradition of going out Friday morning.

I "could" be just about done. However, I "know" me and I will shop right up until the holiday. So other than 2 things (a Keurig and an Amazon gift card), everything else is just bonus gifts at this point.

Hmmm....gotta keep looking but my parents said they'd like a Keurig for Christmas. The $20 gift card might make this add to my list. The wrapping paper on Saturday might draw me back out.

Growing up we didn't "do stockings". Don't get me wrong my parents were great but my mom was one of those Christmas Eve shoppers (it just wasn't her thing). Still to this day she puts the grandkids gifts in those rubbermaid totes instead of wrapping anything. When I had ds I started doing a stocking for him. Then a few years later I woke up one Christmas to find dh had gotten me one and filled it. So, we do them every year. I guess after reading this thread I'm lucky he gets into it somewhat. Anyhow for ds (20) and dh the last few years they've gotten: cologne small value gift cards (if they are larger amounts then they get wrapped and put under the tree) DVD's Beef Jerky (been putting this in my son's stocking every year since he was about 4 and him and whatever dog we had at the time always share it while we open presents) Puzzle books and nice pens for dh wallet gloves razor blade refills (the gillette ones) In mine there are a few staples that have a recurring theme: Perfume Hair Accessories Socks Chap Stick Hallmark Ornament

I am about half done with my holiday shopping this year (thanks to some extra work) than I have ever been. Usually I only have 1 or 2 random things possibly picked up before Black Friday. I am sitting here looking at all the stuff in a pile in our spare room and hesitant to wrap it already. I am worried the bows/ribbons will lose their poof and the paper will look wrinkled. I know lots of people on this board are already done with their shopping. So my question is, do you wrap the gifts this early and how do you keep them looking nice?

I want to join the "Take Back Black Friday" movement. I was just talking with my sister today, for us it was ruined even with the midnight openings (too tiring to stay up all night shopping) and has only gotten worse with the Thanksgiving DAY openings. Like someone else said it wasn't just about the shopping but 20 yrs of that being "our day". I didn't make all the rounds last year for the openings and I won't be again this year. I will still probably go out Friday early morning but it's not the same.

The dog collars might make it worth a trip.

We always go for the weekend before Thanksgiving no matter the date. I like to have it up for Thanksgiving.

5pm was a bit of a shock I was still expecting 8pm. Glad I only have 1 person to buy toys for and I already got hers.

I too think this will be virtually impossible. However, in the past I was able to order direct from Dell a new computer with a windows version back from the current.

A couple years ago we stopped buying for everyone in my immediate family. We each still buy for my parents and the kids under 18 (there's only 3) but we no longer buy each of the adults gifts. We've moved to doing an exchange, pretty much white elephant style. We throw a theme (w/ a dollar limit in) each year. The first year was just anything went, the second year the gifts had to be "As Seen On TV" items. Then last year we filled stockings. My sister and I are brainstorming but coming up empty on a new theme for this year. There isn't many of us (just 7) and the themed exchange is the highlight of our evening. So, I'm looking for a creative theme idea and need help.

I am still preparing for Plan B but he was here for dinner the other night and he gave me an opening when he made a comment about him already knowing what he was getting dh and I for Christmas this year. That led me to be able to tell him that while I know he is on his own now but that I still want to make sure we are going to set up sometime over the holiday to see one another. He acted shocked that I have any doubt that he's sleeping here Christmas Eve so he's here Christmas morning.

I say this every year...but my best deal was my hubby . Was kinda shoved with the crowd into him in the middle of the madness at Walmart in 1997. (I will have to say we knew each other in jr high, but he moved out of state in high school and we had not seen each other for roughly 7-8 yrs.) I went to go say I'm sorry and was ready to move on to my doorbusters. Instead, I stopped to chat for a few minutes as best as possible. We had a connection in the middle of the opening mayhem and I looked him up in the phone book that night and called him. We've been together ever since.

He moved out the week of Easter and still spent that with us (but it was all so new then, he was still calling every night then). We don't normally spend 4th of July together so that wasn't out of the ordinary. We've always spent Thanksgiving at my mom's house but this year he has a cousin (on his dad's side) that is getting married that weekend in Key West, so this will be the 1st Thanksgiving we don't spend together either. I'm just not sure what he'll do. Thing is I want him to have a happy holiday too so I will ask him but I won't guilt him. I am thinking there is a good chance he'll still come because he will want to spend Christmas Eve at at our large family party and it will be quite the hike for him to go back home that late. Plus, I'll have presents for the morning :-)!!! I actually have an "empty nest" dog now that has become my and dh's little universe. I was looking for Christmas gifts for her today at PetCo :-).

This has been on my mind a lot lately. DS (almost 21) moved out this past spring and this will might be the first Christmas morning with just dh and I. Right up through last year, I still made a big deal out of getting DH & DS up on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought while we just spent time as a family. Even typing this, I'm starting to tear up (ugh). Anyhow, I don't want to push but there is a small part of me that is hoping he will still come stay the night Christmas Eve. I need to prepare a Plan B though so that I have something to look forward to. He's growing up and I still want to enjoy the holidays and not just be depressed through them. Anyhow, for those who have traveled down this road already was there anything you did to make the morning extra special instead of feeling sad?

2 yrs ago I tried the all night shopping binge and found that BF lost it's appeal. I was too tired to have fun like I used to. So last year, I did go to Walmart about 8:30pm, which didn't cut into our dinner time because we arrive about 1pm anyway and always left my mom's by 7pm-ish. Then I went home, got a few good hours sleep and made my way to the other stores about 4am. It was great. There were no crowds and most of the sales were still going on. I got almost everything I had been hoping for. When I say no crowds, I mean there were stores like Sears and Macy's, that I didn't see another soul aside from workers. I will be sticking with this plan again I believe.

Curious what you got and how it went?? My MIL really topped herself this year. She openly said that she'd be re-gifting what we got her. I told dh on the way home, I was done. No money from our family budget will ever go towards buying her a gift again!

I got a $5 certificate.

I have to agree w/ the posters who said you get them NOTHING. This is my MIL too a "T". She and I are barely civil to each other and we do that because we only see each other on Christmas Day (at a larger gathering for dh's family otherwise I probably wouldn't see her at all). The rest of the year dh visits with her on his own. My son is from a previous relationship and we have no children together, so we don't have to deal with that issue. Anyhow, no matter what I'd try to get her she would open it grimace and literall dump it to the side. Dh will have asked her very specifically what she wanted, I will get it, then she has complained that is what everyone got her she doesn't need anymore. Then why did you tell him to get that? I stopped about 4 years ago getting her anything at all. Told dh if he wanted to he could, but he hasn't. Flip side....she has made sure I also know what she thinks of me via her Christmas gift giving. Money is not an issue, she will give decent appropriate gifts to others. However, I have gotten a used bathroom complete with stains and her cigarette burn holes as my Christmas gift--- wrapped up nicely though . I have also gotten socks that she removed the matching sock to each pair so I got only 1 sock.....not sure what that was about. Another year she gave me a perfume gift set and I am not joking when I tell you the bottle (it was clear glass) was half empty. Then I got some glass reindeer thing that had the antlers broke off. Anyhow, I've learned she doesn't like me, I don't like her. Because of that no matter how much thought went into a gift (which I used to do--not so much for her but for dh) she'd never be happy. So I made myself happy and stopped.

Cabelas and Bass Pro Shops will put Underarmour stuff on sale and clearance on their websites as well

Our Walmart did lines for nearly everything. It's the first time I seen them do this method. Some things like the rubbermaid dishes and picture frames were open to grab. But things like some of the toys, video games, movies, ect were all roped off and you had to line up. 5 people allowed in to look at a time. At first it seemed annoying, but in all honesty it really kept order. People didn't linger too long because they wanted to go get in the next line.

We headed back to ours around 8am for a second go around and it was dead then. If there were 25 people, aside from workers, in there total that was a lot. Tons of the doorbusters still left, including those darn phones that msn has the video of the mayhem that broke out over them.

That really sucks. Having worked in payroll for a lot of years, for the few holidays that fall mid-week all payroll has to be transferred for processing 1 day earlier than normal to account for the mid-week holiday. Ours usually has to be transferred by noon on Wednesday (our bank rules probably) to get our direct deposits done Friday morning. This week it had to be done by noon on Tuesday.

Went back out to be at Penney's opening for 6am. Got in and got 2 pairs of jeans and 2 pairs of pajama pants. They didn't have the $5 scarfs. There was a lady yelling at the associate. I guess they waited until 6am to open the exterior doors but opened the mall entrance at about 5:45am and the associate said people were running to those and grabbed them by the handful. They weren't make or break, but I do wish stores would honor opening and sale times. Went through the rest of the mall, and it was deserted. I was through the entire mall within an hour. I walked up to registers in every store and felt like I was alone in most places. Headed to Office Max- got the Logitech wireless keyboard $14.99 and the d-link router $17.99 for my dad (his place is small). Went and did another walk through Walmart- got the 5 pc candle set for $4 something I missed the night before. Back home within 3 hours, enough time left to order hoodies from Cabelas for $24.99 and now I'm off to bed to catch some more sleep.