I hope you all have survived braving the malls, shopping centers, and stores during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. The drivers seem to forget the rules of the road to get those hard to find close parking spots. Then there are those "extreme" shoppers. I had one old lady snatch a pair of cashmier socks right out of my hands....she was a brave one...but don't worry I walked from the store proudly with socks in bag and very few cuts and scrapes.

I know a couple of us are done or have just a couple of items left on our lists (woohoo go Lil). How is everybody else fairing?
Have any of you returned victorious from the battlefield of holiday shopping with the spoils of war? If so what treasure did you acquire?

Happy Holidays ya'll (that last part was for all the texans out there)

My top three gifts... gift cards, gift cards, and -- ah-- gift cards. A godsend for the picky teenager, the "I already have every toy under the sun" kids, and the parents who already have "too much stuff."

I know they're not glamorous or exciting, but my kids love the option of using them months down the line for summer clothes and items not available in the stores this time of year. And on-line shopping -- while great -- isn't an option for me since my credit cards were cancelled by Scrooge/WH.

And I made "home made" gifts for the neighbors -- 5 lbs. of chocolate covered pretzels and peanut butter cookies.

People understand that money is tight. And the reason for the season is what the focus should be on... not the cost of the gift. But hitting the malls and dealing with the masses? Yep... been there, done that, too. Gotta love that tradition!!

Merry Christmas.

Now you've ruined my surprise.

Who said they were for you :p.

Besides even if they were you now have plenty of time to plan what to exchange them for duing the "After Christmas" sales.....yeah after what seemed like a week of christmas shopping in an insane asylum I don't want to see the mall for awhile.

HH mmm yum chocolate covered pretzles! We made some homeade christmas ornaments for all the new pets this year. I was surprised how well they came out.
Are you gonna be around next month? I will be making my way down south. Gonna visit with T2L and kids and a few others.

SIHW -- Let me know about the visit. Love to meet up with you if it's doable.

We're all done with our shopping AND wrapping. DH threw his back out the day I had farmed the kids out to a friends house and we had planned to do all of the wrapping...so I wrapped close to 80 presents by myself.

I still need to put together gifts for the neighbors but it's all done...homemade banana bread and toffee. I may still try to make some more soft molasses cookies to give to them as well, haven't decided yet. I have all the ingredients though!

Tonight we're having some friend's 3 kids over tonight to re-pay them for taking our kids when we (ahem...I mean *I*) did our wrapping. This morning another neighbor's father had a serious stroke and probably isn't going to make it, so they are at the hospital...we've invited their 3 kids over for dinner, cookie decorating and a Christmas movie as well. We'll have a crazy night here with 10 kids but it will be fun!!

(Hellllllooooo Bailey's!!!)

Aww pep don't worry I have something special just for you! *wink*

HH definatley girlie....maybe we can get you to ride the bull eh?

OMG did you say bannana bread.....if I was hungry for lunch that just tripled the level of hungriness.....

Wrapping...I unfortunatly STILL have that to do....but it's hard to wrap for santa when a little booger won't go to bed....(I not only mean the child I mean the big kid aka DH too).

He keeps oogling my rice krispie treats....I have to give him a smack to keep out of them.

Two words: Online Shopping!

It did frighten my Visa card to death, tho. A few weeks ago, I spent a whole morning doing Christmas shopping and suddenly my Visa card seized up and died. I had to call Visa and get them to do cardioversion. It's okay now.

(So, beware of suddenly shopping in a bunch of online places you don't normally go - it'll trip your credit card's fraud detector.)

I haven't been out to a mall once this season. I did just get back from the corner Wal-Mart grocery, though, getting the ham for Christmas dinner. That was about the holiday excitement I needed.
Mulan

A friend of mine at the office did a variant of the RKTs. She took cornflakes and essentially covered them with marshmallow that had been colored with green food coloring. This was arranged in the shape of a wreath. She then used red hots for the little berries, and a bowl of red hots as the centerpiece in the center of the wreath. It looked like a wreath, so much so that it "didn't sell" because it looked so real. Really cool.

(I stole it and took it home, my DS ate it because it was covered in sugar. At the walker home, we usually have NO sugar. They'd eat a candy coated turd from withdrawals.)

Ok, I forgot yams, table cloths and Christmas crackers. I have 12 people coming Friday. The walmart closest to me is out of them. I have a pretty hefty commute with no less than 4 different walmarts not-to-far-out-of-the-way, or a Dollar store that has never let me down but closes at 6:00 and is out-of-the-way enough that it's either that or the 4 other stores.

MB, what would you do????

I would tell my wife that everything will work out and I'd go back to drinking beer.

Woohoo, go Pep!!!!

I have the perfect reason to be scroogy about pressies... up coming visit to the states and all, so most of my shopping was done in one day

We got given a humungous ham with our new freezer last month so I froze it and thats dinner sorted. We're going to cut thick slabs off it and BBQ them and have a salad and some cheeses and berries and stuff out at the lake. Love Christmas in summer

It did take us 3 supermarkets to find mince pies tho and there appears to be NO CADBURY's anywhere to be found in the 'Naki. Good thing I am done

Oh for the love...I would never expect my puppy to be the one to almost ruin a christmas surprise.....but she almost did today. H best friend had asked me for gift ideas for H...so I told him to get a movie he wanted on blu e ray for him......well the dog decided to help dad unwrap that one present early.....*sigh*

So a little fast talking and creative thinking by moi and now H thinks he is just getting a Blueray player...when in fact he is getting a PS3......I hate having to do damage control for christmas.

Try sprinkling pepper on the pressies. It might stop puppy being so 'helpful'

OOOOOH good idea! Might also keep the cats from chewing on the ribbons on the presents...

No CADBURYs? Say it isn't so!