It's that time of year again

Are you ready for the holidays? I'm not. I totally thought I had all this time to prepare. I've been thinking about presents and cards and baking for weeks now. I just haven't made any concrete plans. I kept telling myself that I have tons of time and that I can do it all later. I don't know why. For some reason I just didn't want to be eager beaver about Christmas this year. Now I'm rushing to get things done. I just really didn't realize that Christmas is next week already. I think part of me just doesn't want to deal with the holidays this year. I was already pretty disappointed about the holidays this year since a lot of my extended family won't be around this year and then Max passed away which makes it even worse. Anyways, I'm almost done making my cards and I'm doing most of my baking next week. I had wanted to bake lots of stuff this year, but now I'm scaling back on my baking plans. Partly because I don't have time and partly to save money. :(

I am done with my present buying! It helped that I'm not giving out as many presents this year. A lot of my friends and I have decided to just do Secret Santa or White Elephant gift exchanges this year. We are all feeling the crunch of the economy this year. I did get some great deals on the presents I did buy. December is a great time for sample sales. This weekend I went to a bunch of them and scored big time. The best sale of them all was the Stila Warehouse sale.

Most of what I bought were presents. I only got a few items for myself. I regret that now though. Everything was such a good deal that I should have gotten more for myself. Oh well. There is always next time! Here is what I got:

Blanc Palette

Retail $32, Sale Price $10

Red Carpet Look

Retail $40, Sale $15

Chocolate Palette

Retail $40, Sale $15

Two Lip Glazes 

Retail Price $22, Sale Price $5

The Perfect Face Kit

Retail $45, Sale $20

The Stila Stars

Retail $55, Sale $25

Bronzer

Retail $28, Sale $7

Total retail price of all items comes out to $284. Actual price paid was $102. Plus there was no tax so that's even more savings! Woo hoo! I wish all shopping was like this.

Very late Christmas update

Awhile back I had promised an update of my Christmas festivities. Due to my recent sickness, I have yet to blog about it. Here it goes. I got a bunch of great presents. I got a couple of dvds, gift cards to sephora and coffee bean, Kiehls products, ca$h, and the following:

Speakers for my ipod


Dolce & Gabbana Parfum - The One



8 inch Digital Frame



Christmas Eve with the fam was great. All my aunts, uncles and cousins were there and let me tell you there are A LOT of us. There was lots of good food such as lobster, prime rib, mashed potatoes, cheesecake, and more. Christmas songs were sung. Family board games were played. Good conversation was had. Ever since we were kids, one of our dads would dress up as Santa Claus and pass out the presents. Now that we are older and there are a new set of young kids around the dad's have passed on the tradtion to our male cousins. This year, the boy got roped into playing Santa. He was such a good sport about it, made me fall in love with him all over again (I know, I know, cheesey). Christmas Day my family gathered at my aunt's house for more food and family time. Overall, it was a wonderful holiday season and I'm sad it's gone. Only 11 more months until the next one!

Quick present buying vent, er, I mean update

Remember my friend, H? The one that constantly makes me buy and return her presents. As I said before, this year she asked for a really good hair dryer for Christmas. I had no intention of buying it for her. I just planned on giving her the cash for it so that she could go buy it herself. I did not want a repeat of Christmases past. The past two Christmases I have purchased and then had to return her present because she changed her mind. This year I knew better and boy was I right. Two days after she told me she wanted a hair dryer she texted me and told me she changed her mind and didn't want it anymore. She no longer knew what she wanted. Annoying as all hell, isnt' it?

Christmas bells are ringing

I did some more Christmas shopping today. I was out for four hours today - whew! AND I only got presents for 2 people. AND I'm not even done shopping for these two people. Here's what I got:

Carry on luggage for the boy, except in black. We're going to Vegas this weekend so I'll be giving it to him tomorrow. He's been wanting a new carry-on luggage with the spinner wheels for awhile now. I was in Macy's and saw it on sale so I scooped it up for him.



I bought a bunch of orange ginger products at the Bath and Body Works outlet for my friend H, the same friend that I blogged about before (asks for a specific item and then makes me return it later). I got hand lotion, body wash, shampoo and conditioner. I'm going to put it all in a little basket and give her money. She said she wanted a nice hair dryer, but I'm just going to give her the money and she can buy it herself. Last year she asked for a hair straightener. I bought her one, she tried it and she didn't like it so she asked me to return it and just give her the cash. This year I don't want to have to deal with the hassle if she wants to return the hair dryer.

There were A LOT of people at the mall today. Even at 10 am it was crowded, which surprised me. The next chance I have to go shopping is Thursday. Wish me luck!

Argh!!!!!!

I just went got back from Bed Bath and Beyond. The charging station I was planning on buying the boy is nowhere to be found. I wanted to buy it in store so that I could use the 20% off one item coupon (yes, I'm that cheap - a couple of dollars here and there makes a difference). Since I couldn't find it in the store I figured I'd buy it online, but its out of stock! Now what do I do?

Santa Claus is coming to town.

With the holidays coming up, I've been trying to come up with good gift ideas with the people on my list. I think I have just about the hardest people there are in the world to shop for. The boy buys everything he wants, so it's not like there's anything out there that he really wants, but hasn't bought for himself yet. My friends and family are sooooo super picky and particular about things, so its hard to shop for them. One friend will ask for something specific. I will go out and buy it and then a few days later she'll say she no longer wants it and to just give her a gift card to Nordstrom. Grrrr....annoying, isn't it? Everyone on my list pretty much just gets cash. It's so boring though. I love shopping for presents and then wrapping them up so nice and pretty. I think I need new friends. I'll probably just buy everyone something small and then give them cash as well. So far I'm getting a charging station for the boy from Bed Bath and Beyond that I saw Just Jenn talk about on her blog.



I also need gifts for a White Elephant gift exchange. I don't know what to get. Any ideas? The gift needs to good for both sexes and between $50-60.