Let's Share Gift Ideas

I'm almost done.
Lots of crafts for Saige, canvas paint kits, sticky mosaics (I LOVE these) and other fun stuff. The Harry Potter Series and some clothes. A couple small games.
Toys and books for the boy, a big ride on excavator that he is going to go nuts over and a reote control John Deere tractor.

And big boy toys and tools for the large child, I mean, husband. I need to get his mig welder still and shop for the rest of the families. Mom, dad(who will get ammo as always), brother, gramma, MIL, FIL, 2 nephews, 1 niece and a small teacher gift. Plus possibly a $25 gift if we do the gift exchange with hubby's extended family. The nephews will get gift cards, it's what they want. I will bake for the mail lady, the UPS man and a couple others.

I'm sure I will find more as we get closer, I always do. But I have the bulk of it done (and wrapped) there is no huge pressure. I have plenty of time to find something for the others. It's all money I have earned online. I've been doing the same 14 mystery shops each month since aug so my budget is a bit bigger this year and if there ends up being a good deal on black friday I may possibly have enough to get a bigger tv.

I am getting weapons.. The boys are getting real hunting bows, And Rayley too. Bow will get one, but not a hunting one. he is too little.

I need to get Rayley her pink .22 or a rifle for deer hunting a .223- but we might wait for her birthday.

BR and I dont do presents, we are getting a porch. (YIPEE!!) and I dont do gifts for anyone else.
Luckily our families are both poor.

I would get the SIL a fruitcake. seriously. but I am a bitch and everyone knows it. I would do it in a 'fun' way- so everyone laughed and noone could acuse me of being bitchy at that point, but it would be there...

I did put a john deere tractor on layaway for Bow, so BR wouldnt give it to him. Unfortunatly, its all plastic, but its got a front end loader. he will LOVE riding on it. of course with his birthday next weekend, he might end up getting it. I know BR he cant wait.
which is why its on layaway.

I will buy the kids their normal Christmas eve gifts of slippers and PJ's. and then fill their stockings with socks, and they will be getting ear protection and lots of shells and skeet. Plus hunting gear. They always need more camo. This year they will be hunting some on their own. and if I can find any computer games that are educational I will buy them.

But after the bows, I only plan to spend a little on each kid. Plus they all just got new computers. I just know I have to have a contigency (yes, I know thats mispelled, but I am lazy and to reach my phone for spell check would make me move.. LOL) plan, cause BR will give the boys those bows on Bows birthday if he gets the chance.

I'm so far behind this year, but with everything that's gone on here in the past month I'm not surprised. The boys love anything Pokemon so I'm going to head over to the bigger city up the road and see what Toys R Us has because I haven't seen much here in town! Other than that I'm pretty clueless.

We are going to do a creative, make something "as close to free as you can" gift exchange amongst adults on my side of the family. We draw names so you don't have to make a ton of things. We're gonna get the kids/cousins to draw names and do the same thing. No boundaries on what you can make, it can be edible, useful, decorative, silly, whatever, as long as it's thoughtful.
My own kids....Lacrosse stuff for one, guitar stuff for the other as the most expensive part. Plus little things as I find sales or whatever, like I found a cool guitar ring for my DD. Probably a few video games if I can find them cheap enough. My kids don't care if they are used, they know they get more that way, plus they really just don't care as long as it works. DH, well he's deployed so we'll make up for it when he gets back. He still has all his stuff from last Christmas unused since he left shortly after.
I love item of the month stuff! It's just fun to get something cool each month. Chocolate of the month club would be awesome to receive!

A few years back, DH and I decided to do Dollar Store Christmas for each other (being that if there's something we want throughout the year, we just go by it. So we challeneged each other to spend no more than $25 each and it was only to be spent at the Dollar store... It was so much fun... we still continue to do it... and take our extra money and spend on others or donate to the Salvation Army.

For the first few years after my parents were married..they couldn't afford to buy each other anything for Christmas..so they bought each other a Pepsi and a Moon Pie..then it just stuck with them and they did it because they wanted to..not because they couldnt afford something else...

I like Kelly, and is with Chuck and I, we didn't do it because we couldn't afford... just that we didn't need anything and it became stressful to figure out what to buy for one another!

But it makes us feel good to drop lots of $1's in the SA buckets, and give them a special check, and to give our grandkids and special neighbor kids something extra (not that any of they need anything either... but again makes us fell happy)

I just bought these
http://www.amazon.com/Riedel-Ouverture-Magnum-Glass-Glasses/dp/B001EWE8W4/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1288492930&sr=1-1
for myself, my aunt, and a good friend. The price is unbeatable, considering I paid $149 4 months ago for basically the same set of glasses.

why are they 60 dollars for glass glasses?(not crystal)

I don't know, the one I have are crystal, and I ordered the exact same set. I think it just says glass, almost positive it said glass before/

aaaaaaaaaaa I see

Ok, I had an idea.
I ordered some Agave Syrup from amazon a while back, and we fell in love with it. It comes in flavors like Blueberry, maple, strawberry etc, it's organic too. I was thinking about putting homemade pancake mix in jars, adding a bottle of the syrup( it's like $10 a bottle in the stores, but a case of 6 is $33) and calling it a gift.......sound good? Opinions? Be honest please.

http://www.amazon.com/Wholesome-Sweeteners-Strawberry-Flavored-11-75-Ounce/dp/B003120Y4Q/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&qid=1288840726&sr=8-23


It also comes in vanilla and it is to die for.

I think it's a great gift..sounds delicious too

it sounds great Erin! I would love it

I would love to get that as a gift Erin!

would you please add me to your Christmas list, Erin.... would much rather get that then a GC to Walmart (which is what my sister gives to us every year! and I haven't even used since last year.)

For the geek in your life:

I just ordered a 3-year subscription to Wired for DS#1. Used Discount Code 3800 and got the 3 years for $10.77 total.

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2342999

I'm scanning the Deals at Mypoints, and I found this:

Crocs.com drops the price of Kids' Glow-in-the-Dark Crocs from $29.99 to $14.99. Even better, use code CROSSURVEY to drop your price to $11.99. They are available in Dragon, Unicorn, Hawk, and Butterfly. Shipping adds $2.99 and there is no sales tax (except in CA).

Enter code: CROCSSURVEY (20% off)
http://www.crocs.com/glow-in-the-dark/glow-in-the-dark,default,sc.html?siteID=RvEiSnI7NyY-sEUq5cqJ8Tr1XuBl5uQNRA

Unfortunately, they only have the Unicorn (pink) style in stock now. Very cute, though.

I also see this girls' plain style for $14.99, which ends up being $11.99 after discount code CROCSSURVEY:
http://www.crocs.com/crocs-girls-tully/10695,default,pd.html

I just put the links so you could see the styles...Go through MyPoints to gain points.

O.k for SIL (Kumari) that I never see who lives in Canada (apparently shes coming for hubby's family Christmas Dec 15-18th). Her husband is not coming, it's a weird situation there..they never got divorced, but they are seperated but living together. After her jaunts all over the globe from her paranoid schizophrenia, she finally ended up back with him..even though she doesn't want to be with him..atleast for the time being, until she takes off again. Even though she's delusional half of the time..he's still sticking by her and paying these exhorbitant bills she's making by charging plane tickets, bus tickets, etc...
So..for her for x-mas..she loves coffee/capuccino.. I got her this..and some Starbucks cinnamon coffee instant packets..and I'll get her something else to go with.
http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Planet-EC-7LG-16-Ounce-Ceramic/dp/B00422MGKE/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1VPWB3F6DZDU9&colid=D4XDADG9AIZH

For her husband..(who Rani told me likes loose leaf Darjeeling tea, I ordered him this, and will get a small tin of looseleaf Darjeeling..
http://www.amazon.com/Teas-Etc-12-85-Ounce-3-Piece-Travel/dp/B003FGW720/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2XB3M2IWQGZOY&colid=D4XDADG9AIZH

Can you buy Lithium Cappucino OTC? LOL

It's a great gift!

The way some things have been going lately, I'd probably be drinking it.. ..
Yeah I don't know how that's going to work out. She'll probably stay here during that time. A few years ago she stayed with us for a couple days, but it's hard. She won't go to the bathroom if the shower curtain is closed...she thinks everything is bugged and people are listening, all of the curtains, blinds, etc have to be closed because people are watching. She won't eat any food anyone prepares, she has to prepare it herself (I think she's probably worried about someone slipping something into her food. Sometimes she stands in the corner facing the wall (doesn't want people looking at her, or the people that are "watching" watching her. The list goes on..making all kinds of phone calls all over the world, literally.. calls to London, India, Spain calling random people she met on her paranoid excursions and racking up the phone bills. Then if you tell her she cant use the phone to make those types of calls, she thinks you are imprisoning her somehow and don't want her to contact anyone.. I know it's a sickness, so we deal with it the best way we can while she's here...makes life interesting..atleast she's not malicious on purpose..

tell her the phones are probably tapped...sounds like you'll be having a interesting few days with lots of stories to tell afterward.

If she stays on her meds, it should be uneventful..but she never stays on them for long. lol, I'd tell her about the phone, but I wouldn't want her being even more paranoid..lol We DO have cordless phones this time, so if we have both of the handsets, she'll need to come find one to make a call. So that way we'd know she was making a call. Calls to India are big $$$. We'll see, maybe it will turn out to be a good visit

KellyM wrote:Even though she's delusional half of the time..he's still sticking by her and paying these exhorbitant bills she's making by charging plane tickets, bus tickets, etc...
So..for her for x-mas..she loves coffee/capuccino.. I got her this..and some Starbucks cinnamon coffee instant packets..and I'll get her something else to go with.

Oh, man, Kelly...all that globe-trotting....good move on the instant packets! And get her a fabulous To Go mug!

lol Lori, if you look at my post on the previous page at the link to the gift I got her I did get her a mug..though not quite a travel mug as you see by the link, she can take it on the go..lol