Two months...

...from today is Christmas!!!

Yep. Only two months.

How many shopping days is that?

More importantly, how many PAYCHECKS is that?!?!

I can’t believe it. Has anyone started their shopping or even have any ideas about what they are going to purchase? I am having a hard time with my daughter. Preteen is a tough age. They don’t want the cheap stuff anymore and I am not talking about cheap made, I am talking about cheap cost! Her list consists of an iPod w/ case, a tv/dvd player for her room and Ugg boots. Hey! Those boots are from Australia. www.uggaustralia.com Joe? Can you get me a deal? Lol Just kidding. Even it was cheaper to buy them there directly, I am sure the cost would come at shipping them to me in the States huh? What happened to the days of buying her a Barbie and some dollar store makeup and that being good?

I always have to make a list of what it is that I am wanting / needing for Christmas so that my hubby and daughter can run out the week before and try and scrounge it up. That is why I have learned if there is something that I really want, I might as well just buy it for myself.

I am a very practical person. I bet you couldn’t have guess that huh? Lol Yeah, whatever. :-P I would MUCH rather get someone something that they needed for Christmas than just blowing my money on something just in order to ‘say’ I gave them a gift. Do you know what my favorite gift for Christmas was? It was over 10 years ago. My dad had just got remarried, my grandparents (his parents) had both been very ill and in the hospital, my grandfather had just passed just a few months prior and my dad was with out a job. My dad is an only child, so he had had to quit his job in order to care for my grandparents. Needless to say, money was tight, which is usual for any working family, but much more so that year it seemed.

I can remember we all met at my sister’s for a family get-together. My family is a “mixed” family due to divorces and remarriages. If you have never experienced a holiday with a family like that, you are lucky. Then add my husband’s mixed family and we have “family” Christmases every weekend of the month in December and sometimes even in to the New Year. But we had all got together for a dinner. When I walked in I noticed that there were platters of homemade cookies, candies, etc sitting out. My dad walked up to me, picked up a tray with all kinds of goodies on it and handed it to me and said, “Funds were limited this year, but me and (insert stepmom’s name) made you some Christmas candy and cookies.” THAT was the best Christmas I have ever got. Right now, I could not tell you for sure what I got last year for Christmas, but I can still clearly see that platter of goodies in my head.