I have a four-year-old who has been making her Christmas list since September, so I was pretty certain what I was going to get her and started shopping for her in October. I'm actually disappointed I have to cut myself off with her gifts...she is so easy to shop for, I want to get her every single thing I see that I know she would love. We are still arguing over which color cowgirl boots she is getting though; hopefully she won't be disappointed in what I pick out.
Wyatt doesn't grasp Christmas yet (though I was shocked that he knew Santa Claus when he saw him in a picture), so he hasn't asked for a single thing. I can tell shopping for a boy is always going to be harder for me, but I feel like I purchased some things he will love. I leave his big gift for Daddy to pick out....but I'm giving him a deadline to have it by so I don't stress (he's a December 23rd shopper).
One thing I did this year that I've never done in the past and didn't think I would ever do, is buy a used gift. I wanted to get Wyatt a certain farm toy, but was disappointed to find out it was $30 (it's not very big, thus I thought that price was crazy)...I happened to stop in my favorite children's consignment shop to kill time one day, and wouldn't you know...they had it for $4.85!! It even looked brand new!! They had another similar toy too, so I got both for less than half the price of the one brand new! I was pretty excited!!
In addition to the kids and James, I had 10 other people to buy for this year. Normally I really struggle with most of them, but this year it just came easy, thankfully.
I really wanted to try buying local as much as possible this year. I definitely didn't get quite as many things from local shops as I would have liked, but I did get about 20% of it. I did a lot of online shopping though and have been enjoying the daily deliveries at my house :)
I had a few motives for getting my shopping done early this year.
1. Weather.
I really dislike running errands in the cold, so I decided to take advantage of the nice fall weather to get some shopping in. I hear we may get 5-7 inches of snow this weekend....GAG!!
2. Shipping time.
I know the closer it gets to Christmas, the longer it takes for items to ship. Knowing I had quite a few things to purchase online, I figured "why wait?!"
3. Enjoy December.
I have heard people say they enjoy the Christmas season better when the shopping stress is out of the way. I decided to try that out for myself. So far, I really feel good knowing my shopping is done and I can just relax and have fun. I'm not much of a Black Friday shopper, but my new favorite local shops in my small town are having great sales that day and I can just go and leisure shop and enjoy the start of the season without long lines and fighting for parking spots :)
I'm also excited for all of the holiday things we will do with the kids --- decorate the tree, look at Christmas lights, festival of trees, wrap presents, decorate cookies, build a gingerbread house, attend Christmas events, MAYBE see Santa (Rylee has already voiced her opinion that we NOT do this...she is not a fan).
Yesterday, Rylee and I listened to Christmas music and made ornaments...we are getting in the spirit already!
This morning I started addressing Christmas cards. If I wasn't hosting Thanksgiving, I might start getting my Christmas decorations out this weekend....if we really get a sizeable amount of snow, I still might :)
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