wittenlover

Wow Kash... You've been through it this season, it sounds like. Hope both you and your daughter come through your surgeries well and heal up quickly! I will be praying all goes smoothly and that you are able to have a wonderful Christmas.

Unfortunate in one way, but fortunate that you have willing elves you could call in. The accountants will be able to have their bamboo nog back soon!

Slowly getting my mojo back. Baking all those cookies did help. So did a fun time at my work party. Been pumping my favorite Christmas tunes in my car since Thanksgiving afternoon and that's helping too. I've placed a stash of my spare change in the car so, if I'm going into a store with a bell-ringer out front, I'll always have a little something to drop in that kettle. revecca: You may feel like you're failing miserably right now but I'm sure your kids are appreciating (or will appreciate) the effort, even if it doesn't seem that way. Hang in there. My parents divorced when I was in college and my brother was just barely in high school. Mom tried her best to still give us a great Christmas and worried she wasn't making it, but brother and I both look back on those first few simple Christmases with fondness, as they were still filled with love.

So excited to see all the packages coming in! Such fun! Unfortunate the elves are needed this year, but it is my hope that situations will improve for those who were unable to uphold their end of things. (I prefer to hope that they had good reason but didn't communicate properly versus thinking they're dirt.) Thank you, pogiporkchop for doing a great job as host! Already looking forward to next year even though this year's not over yet! As for me - for those who caught my post about baking that monstrous pile of cookies, I am FINISHED!!! Turned my oven off at 1:45 this morning! Ha! Whew!!! It's always a labor of love and this year it was definitely a lot of LABOR!!! lol

Walmart - 55" Samsung LED TV for dad - $598 PetSmart - Sky Riser cat tree, 4 pails of Tidy Cats litter, three cat toy stockings (two large, one medium), 2 packages of large dog toys (for dad's labs), 2 packages of dog treats (60+ treats per bag), 2 crinkle ball cat toys, 2 Naughty/Nice dog biscuit treats, 24 cans of Friskies wet cat food, one bag of "all natural" cat treats, one 16# bag of Cat Chow, one $5 donation to "help homeless pets" (and I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple small items) - $198

haha I'm sending most of them to my Joe Gibbs Racing friends at the shop in NC. Smaller shipments are going all over - California, Idaho, elsewhere in NC, and Ohio, among other places.

I'm already in process of baking approximately 100 dozen cookies for shipping by early next week. I will be BAKED OUT. lol

Pogi has a PM! Ha! Dropping SS box off tonight.

Now wrapping and packing! Will have shipping info pm'ed this afternoon.

I've determined I'll need to bring all my SS's stuff into work tomorrow and wrap/pack it on my lunch break! I *will* ship on time, even if it kills me! Ha!

Picked up the last of what I needed for my SS over the weekend. Now just have to wrap, pack, and ship. Anybody know where I can buy some more time? Seems in VERY short supply for me this week! *baking like a maniac* *wrapping gifts* *going crazy* lol

I think Pogi wins SS this year, only the not-so-secret-Santa is Brad, since Chief Elf has won the iPad Mini contest! Congrats!!!

Wooohoooooo!!! Somehow fitting that the Chief Elf for our SS/OE/Christmas card exchanges wins this one! Merry Christmas to you and the "accountants", Pogiporkchop! Don't let 'em hit the eggnog too hard celebrating this one... Oh and thanks for another great BF season this year, Brad. Great work by you and all the helpers.

I'm so sorry, HansieDZ... My heart goes out to you and your whole family. Cancer sucks.

Just scored a great pair of boots on 6pm.com at the top of the hour (new $24 hourly deal) for $20.40 after the 15% off. Now I'm done for the day. lol

Nope, but you may well be in the minority, riven3d... lol

Made it to PetSmart and B&BW this morning, proudly wearing my GottaDeal BF shirt... PetSmart - 1 Whisker City Sky Riser cat tree 4 pails of Tidy Cats litter 1 bag of Purina Cat Chow 24 cans of Friskies wet food 2 bags of dog treats (for dad's dogs) 2 small bags of cat treats 2 large cat toy stockings 1 medium cat toy stocking 1 pair of large squeaky dog toys 1 4-pk of large tennis ball-type dog toys 2 crinkle ball cat toys A few other small things B&BW - 3 Twisted Peppermint body creams 1 Twisted Peppermint Sparkling Snowflake Scrub 2 Twisted Peppermint hand soaps 2 Twisted Peppermint Nourishing Hand Creams 1 VIP Tote All in all, I got what I wanted and went only slightly over budget.

I go solo and make friends as needed in the stores. Met a great gal by the Pyrex at Walmart today. We worked together to get a couple things while her hubby was grabbing some other things. Impromptu teamwork. Love it.

So far, I grabbed $19 Pyrex, $15 art set, $598 55" Samsung TV (dad's request) at Walmart. Headed to PetSmart & BBW in the morning.

The one I'm picking up is regularly $179.99, will be on sale in store for $89.99. It's about 5' tall with approx. 19"x22" footprint.

The "cheap" multi-level cat trees in their BF ads are often only in-store, so I was prepared for that. Just hoped I might get lucky. lol Last year (and in years past), the crowd at my PetSmart was relatively light, but we were pretty much all after Tidy Cats. It went fast, since there's no limit. Hope you get what you need! (Glad you got your tank!)

I'll be right near a B&BW when I do my PetSmart run in the morning. Gonna just go in and see what I can get. Should be able to stack tote deal with other coupons/deals in store. Seems like this is the only time all year we can do that.

The cat tree that's in the ad is NOT online. I repeat. NOT online. I suspected this would be the case but I was hoping I might get lucky. Gonna be a tight squeeze in the car tomorrow when I cram that thing in with all the Tidy Cats pails... lol

Guess the early birds got the worms. I wasn't about to stay up for mixing bowls and Pyrex, so I guess I now have to brave the insanity tonight since they both are saying check local store. Oh well. lol

Got an email from them today. Sale will start 9 p.m. PST tomorrow (Thursday) night (so midnight for us east coasters). Preview link here: http://www.6pm.com/black-friday?utm_source=et&utm_medium=email&utm_term=6pm_141126_massmail_nonpacific_A_row1-1col1image-image1_BlackFridayDeals&utm_campaign=6pm_141126_massmail_nonpacific_A