Christmas Thread--Random

[LPIDelta]

First, love those sausage pinwheels....I make them everytime I have to take a dish for work and everyone loves them....so easy too!!!

Second, I am waiting to get my tree until my husband gets home from a deployment (not anything war related). I decided to wait for him and because my three male dogs think their Christmas gift is that I brought a place to pee into the house for them. We can't put anything under the tree except newspaper until the night before Christmas for fear of someone marking their territory!!

I have to ship gifts to family all over, so gifts have to get bought and wrapped early. They were all sent last week, and I am done with the husband too. So now I feel completely bored and like I am forgetting to do something.

I had the WORST time with my father- and brother-in laws.....I ended up getting an indoor herb garden for the father because he likes to garden but can only do so a few months out of the year.....and the brother in law got a book.

[Phimuteach]

We just got our Christmas tree tonight! It really put me in the Christmas spirit . I have a little x-mas shopping done, but this is the first year that I've really struggled on what to get people.
I have no idea what to get my boyfriend's parents. The last couple of years I got them joint presents. This year I think I'm going to get them separate presents. My boyfriend doesn't even know what to get them himself, so he's little help.

[epchick]

oh yeah.. P.S. i want to get all my sisters a little something, but what? What's the best thing to give 40+ girls? lol.

[ufdale]

Every year it seems harder and harder to get people gifts for christmas- especially my mom and bf's mom! If they want anything, they basically just buy it for themselves. Eek and I need to make my mom's christmas extra special because her birthday gift was not so good.
What's worse is that I need to help my dad out this year especially (mom's turning 50 and 30th wedding aniversary), but he won't take the initiative. eek people need to stop buying things they want from about labor day on!

[Xylochick216]

We just put our tree up in our living room. This is our first year in this house and the first year we've used this tree (we bought it day after Christmas 2 years ago). We failed to realize that the 6.5 foot tree would look extremely teeny with our 10 foot ceilings. We bought a 9.5 foot tree today because we couldn't stand looking at the poor tiny tree!

AXO Alum, I'm PMing you

[1908Revelations]

I can not wait to watch Christmas catoons and A Christmas Story!!!

"You'll shoot your eye out, You'll shoot your eye out!!"

[AOIIalum]

What about something along the lines of "Child's" Day out? You and the boyfriend take each child out for something...maybe lunch and renting a movie, a picnic in the park, a sleepover at your place, afternoon playing basketball or hiking or whatever...WITHOUT the rest of the siblings. Yeah, it'll take up a chunk of your time but would definitely be economical. Also, each child would get some special time with both of you AND get some time away from home.

[carnation]

Aieee! It's not even Halloween and J.C. Penney had their Christmas decorations up yesterday!

[Aurora6]

Originally Posted by 1908Revelations

I can not wait to watch Christmas catoons and A Christmas Story!!!

"You'll shoot your eye out, You'll shoot your eye out!!"

Absolutely, Sister Greek.

It's not Christmas until you've watched "A Christmas Story"


"......Oooooooh, Fudge"

"Ra, ra, ra, ra, ra,.....ra, ra, ra ra" lol

[KatieKate1244]

Originally Posted by epchick

oh yeah.. P.S. i want to get all my sisters a little something, but what? What's the best thing to give 40+ girls? lol.

I love to give out ornaments! Get a box of the glass balls, and use a paint pen to write your letters on it. When the paint dries, on the other side maybe write something like "Merry Christmas 2006! Love, (Insert Name Here)"
They're always a big hit.

[AGDee]

I'm having a hard time getting into the spirit of the season this year. The house is decorated, most of the presents are bought.. about half are wrapped. There is still a lot baking to do and three dinners to provide for various family get togethers. I usually love this season and enjoy it all but for some reason, this year, it all just feels like a chore. I wish I could snap out of it.

[AOIIalum]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I'm having a hard time getting into the spirit of the season this year. The house is decorated, most of the presents are bought.. about half are wrapped. There is still a lot baking to do and three dinners to provide for various family get togethers. I usually love this season and enjoy it all but for some reason, this year, it all just feels like a chore. I wish I could snap out of it.

Agreed. Here's a little holiday comraderie for you and <<hugs>>.

I've been under the weather (nothing serious) since Turkey Day and am just getting back to semi-human. I feel like I'm two weeks behind on holiday prep, although it really isn't that bad. DH cut the tree on Saturday, brought it inside and did the lights yesterday. Most gifts but the stocking stuffers and such are already purchased, but still need to wrap and ship a few final ones in the next few days. Will wrap the guys' gifts next Monday night while they're all off at the hockey game. Hopefully can get the tree and house decorated this week. I'm all ready to bake, just don't have the energy or lack of cough to even consider starting that quite yet. Haven't even thought about Christmas Eve or Christmas dinner. It's the one year I wish we had an option to dine out instead of cooking.

PS--for those of you who need to hide gifts from prying eyes, luggage works wonders!

[AXO Alum]

Originally Posted by AOIIalum

PS--for those of you who need to hide gifts from prying eyes, luggage works wonders!

Puhlease! Unless there were locks on the luggage, that's the first place I looked as a child - yeah, I was *that* kid Glad you are starting to feel better.

I can't believe its just 2 weeks from today! I feel like there is so much to be done still -- but there's really not (except for deciding whether or not to tell hubby exactly what I want!) -- I do want to get some baking done.

epchick - make cookies & give them out. I just found the coolest thing at our Sam's Club -- sugar cookie dough SHEETS! Each sheet makes about a dozen cookies (depending on the size of your cutter) & it comes with red & green frosting. I bought it because I needed to make the apple taffy pizza from Pampered Chef - and it was much easier to put two side by side & cook it than to have to make the dough, refrigerate it, then roll out dough and all that mess.

Or, if you are crafty (and I am not, but they still looked cute), I bought the clear glass star ornaments from the craft store ($1 ea - but they were 40% off) & a pack of glitter paint (the kid kind sold in the plastic tubs that are all hooked together - a whopping 97c) -- I just made small circles in red, green, and gold all over.

[tunatartare]

Originally Posted by AOIIalum

PS--for those of you who need to hide gifts from prying eyes, luggage works wonders!

I definitely looked in there when I was younger. Eventually my mom wisened up and just started ordering all of my gifts and having them shipped to her office so I wouldn't find them no matter how hard I looked.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by AOIIalum

Agreed. Here's a little holiday comraderie for you and <<hugs>>.

PS--for those of you who need to hide gifts from prying eyes, luggage works wonders!

I don't even have an excuse of being sick! I think everything is just now catching me up to me from when my mom was sick this summer. Can that be possible? It's the only thing I can think of.

I hide the kids' gifts in the empty boxes from the Christmas decorations. After we do the decorating, the gifts go in there and back under the stairs. They've never checked there yet!