I feel pretty good this year. I THINK I ordered everything for my relatives in another state on time so I can ship a package off to them in time for Xmas. Except my dad, who is so hard to buy for, and no one has any ideas this year… sigh. And he hates gift cards and gift certificates, and I always give him books I think he will like, but I’m not sure he reads them. If things get desperate I’ll buy him the new book on the Halifax explosion, but hoping something else occurs to me before then.
In okay shape for the kids, although need to focus in on stocking stuffers. One kid is great about sending a list, and the other was just here for a week so I could suss out ideas then.
Please don’t hate me, but I’m done. Yes, done. My office mates give gifts, and mine have been sitting in our conference room for at least a week. My gift box to the kids got sent today. I actually feel sad. I got 2 gifts at craft shows, which I enjoyed attending. I even have my gift to contribute to gifts for tots. 3 weeks go, the Gap had all the PJ sets in sizes, now they have to order, cuz the best have been sold.
Done, except for two pre-teens who are just getting gift cards. I’m waiting for a few more things to get arrive, then I’ll wrap and tag all of them and ship the whole lot to cousin who is hosting our family Hanukkah party, in case bad weather prevents us from driving down.
S will get his AAA renewed and a nice boost.
H and I don’t exchange gifts, but I got two completely renovated bathrooms and a new car this year, so it’s all good.
I’m close to done with the easy people - my husband and kids, and some relatives. However, we have some “family gifts” to get and I am at a loss this year. We’ve asked for lists but have not received any. ARGHH!
This year will be exciting. I haven’t bought a thing yet and no one has any ideas, lives far away, and doesn’t want extra “stuff”, which is good but will make it challenging to have things under the tree.
When the kids were young I was always done shopping by now. It’s so much harder having adult kids!
We’re doing a secret santa, $50 limit. Not a big family but the kids are short on money and they liked this last year (plus a dinner out to somewhere fancy.) Problem is I have zero idea what I want and neither does the kiddo whose name I picked. Darn.
I’ve barely started. But I don’t have a lot of people on my list, so I’m not stressed. Yet.
I’m having trouble with ideas for my almost-16 son this year. He really just wants money… but I know he also still loves the fun of waking up to whatever “Santa” delivered overnight. I think maybe this year Santa will bring him cash, wrapped in multiple boxes. Maybe one box with his favorite cookies and a $20 bill, another box with his favorite chips and a $20 bill, a box of socks with a $20 bill, etc.
We bought a pretty balled/burlapped Turkish fir. It is sitting outside, waiting for its time to go inside (live trees should not be kept indoors longer than 10-14 days). Mr. B promised that he would put the lights up next week.
Gifts… got some requests. Have not even started shopping.
Bought a few stocking stuffers for the kids, but mostly give them money. Bought my mom’s gift.I still need to get gift cards for my teen nieces. Just need to figure out what to get for H…
I have completely finished shopping for all of my 8 of my kids (plus my youngest dd’s birthday which is right before Christmas) and 4 grandkids with the exception of buying luggage for our college sr. He has a really nice overnight bag already, but it is fairly small and it is all he has.
If anyone has suggestions on good luggage, I’d love some ideas.
(We are actually moving today. That was my incentive to be on top of things. No way I could manage packing/unpacking, decorating for Christmas, and a birthday party for an 8 yr old, and Christmas shopping! Normally, I am not anywhere this prepared!!)
I have two (optional) gift cards to purchase for my teen. I’ll get one at lunch today; the other is across town so I have to figure out how to get there unnoticed. After 12 years of Nutcracker rehearsals filling my December days, I got into the habit of buying early.
I am basically done. I have never been this far ahead before - I think the sales were early and great this year.
Not everything has arrived yet, so as long as I’m happy with everything and don’t need to exchange, I am all set.
I have one more gift card and some cash gifts to get together, but I am out of funds for now so I will need to wait a couple weeks for those.
90 minutes at the mall last night for things I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) order online and 30 minutes to the local plaza today at lunch and I’m done. Although I only buy for my two kids and my parents, I also purchase several hostess gifts for parties I will attend and a couple secret santa gifts as well. I do a charity where I collect gifts for local foster kids and four names didn’t get picked this year (for reasons I could open another thread lol), so I had three babies and one preteen boy to buy for as well. I haven’t bought for babies in a long, long time so that was fun…I got them each an outfit, a Baby Einstein toy and a “My First Christmas” stuffie.
Honestly I have not bought much this season. Just a few things for my daughter. I did see some very nice hostess gifts at Trader Joe’s last night and would definitely recommend visiting there because they have a lot of reasonably priced things.
This is the first year we won’t be buying many gifts. My kids will be receiving 1 gift each (albeit big ticket items) and we drew names with the extended families. I may be wrapping empty boxes to place under the tree!
If things get desperate I’ll buy him the new book on the Halifax explosion, but hoping something else occurs to me before then.