I spent yesterday shopping and the whole morning today wrapping. I did my Christmas cards last night..... I am feeling better. LOL I am usually done and wrapped by Thanksgiving, so this is late for me! I would say I am about 90% done shopping and everything I have is wrapped and ready to go! It took me a while to find all the things I already purchased and hid. LOL I will get my Christmas stamps soon and mail those out around the 15th or so.

By Latonya on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 12:14 pm:

I will do most of my shopping next week. I am going to buy a tree tomorrow and it will be up tomorrow night. Still got a lot to do.

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 02:58 pm:

Well, we were holding off on doing much Christmas shopping, because we didn't know what was going to happen with Gary's job. We still probably won't spend a lot of money, anyway, but we don't really splurge that much with Christmas anyway. I just realized today, that we get to pick out a baby thing, for my nephew and his wife's baby-to-be! How fun, huh? Maybe a toy, or a couple of board books, or something. It's really too soon to know the gender of the baby yet. She's only about 12-13 weeks along.

By Bellajoe on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 03:04 pm:

I will have to do most of my shopping next week sometime. I think we are putting the tree up on Sunday afternoon. I wanted to wait till the 13 or 14th but we are very busy that weekend. My ds has 2 birthday parties to go to on the 14th, so that pretty much fills up that day.

Most of the other decorations are already up, we put them up on Monday since the kids had that day off school.

I made some cookies today. The peanut butter ones with hershey kisses. Those are our favorites.

By Momofmax on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 03:53 pm:

I've got all my Christmas cards done and most of the presents purchased. No wrapping done yet. Our tree will probably go up this weekend. DH and ds worked together to put up the yard decorations and lights two nights ago(it was so sweet to watch them, ds is 9 so he can actually HELP). We'll be baking here and there for the next few weeks. I won't be hosting this year's Christmas dinner or any parties so I feel like I can really relax!

By Cat on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 04:01 pm:

The tree and all the indoor decorations went up this past weekend. The outside lights will go up this weekend. We have the kids big presents bought and just a few smaller things left to get (clothes! lol). We'll probably be done with everything except wrapping this weekend.

By Rayelle on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 04:33 pm:

We do things last minute even though it drives me crazy lol! I can't help it though, in the past Amazon has done some amazing deals on toys that don't usually start until this time of year. Dd wanted the Hannah Montana Christmas doll and it was $35 and I got it yesterday for $9.99! My sister in law loves to wrap and she comes to help with all the Santa wrapping. The lights are up and hopefully the livingroom will be done this weekend and we can put up the tree and indoor decorations. I have a birthday party to take care of too! I'm a glutton for punishment

By Yjja123 on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 04:33 pm:

All shopping/trading done. Gifts all wrapped.
Decorations are all up. Lights are up.
Cards were mailed out December 1st.
I was late this year in finishing my shopping. I hated it. I will definitely make sure that never happens again.
The baking will start soon for hubby's co-workers & neighbors. I made them all ornaments and those are done.
We will host a dinner for friends the weekend before Christmas. Also the kids annual pajama sleepover on December 23 is still on. They have 8 of their friends come over in their pajamas on December 23. They watch Christmas movies all day and make/decorate cookies. The next morning the kids get picked up and take along their goodies. It is a lot of fun

By Tarable on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 05:24 pm:

I have done absolutely NOTHING!!!! and I am not in the best place mentally to start.. hopefully by this weekend I will be able to tackle it and get the decorations up and shop some too..

By Conni on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 06:43 pm:

I'm with Tara!!! This is a wierd year for me. I want to totally skip out on Christmas. I have never in my life felt that way.

By Dana on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 06:53 pm:

I have not started either. But I'm also not sure that we will even have the money to start. All the sudden we are falling behind in making deposits. Luckily we have always taught our children about the meaning of Christmas beyond the toys. They each get one gift from mom and dad, and one from Santa. The rest are from family members who send them gifts....but that really isnt' much either. But I think we are happier without the toy store under the tree.

BTW, I *SEE* you Conni! Now I can say I *know* who you are on face book

By Tink on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 06:54 pm:

Our outside decorations went up this last weekend. Some indoor decor is up but not the tree. That will go up on DH's next day off. All the big gifts are bought but not yet wrapped. I still have a few clothing items to buy and stocking stuffers to pick up. My baking is planned but I'm always too scared to freeze my baking so I do it within 48 hours of giving it or consuming it. I ALWAYS leave too much to the last minute. Someday I want to be just like Yvonne when it comes to Christmas planning!

By Kate on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 07:35 pm:

We've been all decorated since the day before Thanksgiving. Many presents are bought, but not all. I never ever wrap or finish shopping early. To me that is NO FUN! I just like having the 'season' to prepare. If everything is already done it's boring to me. I guess we're all different!

I'll bake much closer to Christmas so it stays fresh.

By Missbookworm on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 08:15 pm:

The only thing I've done is purchase some of the little ones gifts and one for my dh. The rest still has to be done! I can't wrap because I can't find tape and I forgot to buy some today! LOL

The most I've done decorating wise is to put red and green light bulbs in the lamps downstairs...

My birthday is on Sunday and I usally start after that.

By Kaye on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 11:52 pm:

Well we are a bit behind here too. I got the tree up, but really kid done...so it looks it! ROFL. I don't have anything else done though.

I do have 110 people coming over tomorrow night to Christmas carol and I feed them cookies and hot chocolate. So by 7 pm I will have some outside lights up, my kitchen clean, formal clean and maybe a few more inside decorations.

As for shopping. We buy for quite a few people. I beleiver there are 12 first cousins, 4 grandparents, and one sibling we buy for besides my children. I have all but two of the kids bought for. The grandparents I have two left. I know what I am getting them, just have to pick it up.

As for my own children. My dd is bought for, I probably need to stop. My youngest has all but his santa gift bought. And I have nothing for the middle kid. All he asked for is video games, so I haven't made a trip there and I am stumped what else to get him. His bday was 4 weeks ago, so he is TOUGH!

And hubby...well who knows what I will do for him.

So I consider myself about half done with shopping. I will probably make and mail cards out this weekend.

By Mrs_B on Friday, December 5, 2008 - 01:06 am:

We put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving. Finished my Christmas shopping that day too. A few days ago my friend and I had a "present wrapping party" (we just locked ourselves in her room to wrap while the DH's entertained the kids) so wrapping is done. Our presents are under the tree and Santa's presents are hiding in a huge tupperware bin. The outside and inside decorations were put up on Dec. 1st and I just got my Christmas cards done and mailed out yesterday. I have two packages to send and a gift to get for a good friend of mine and I am done!

By Yjja123 on Friday, December 5, 2008 - 01:10 am:

I understand wanting to shop, wrap, etc "in season".
For me, having all the shopping done allows me to enjoy the season without worrying about the "chores" of the season. I like experiencing all the parties and activities that come our way this time of year. If I was still shopping, I would feel stressed and not get to enjoy everything.
We celebrate our first Christmas at Thanksgiving, so I am used to getting ready by then.

By Vicki on Friday, December 5, 2008 - 06:10 am:

I am the same way about enjoying the season. If I had all my shopping and wrapping and all the other "work" still to do, I would be so stressed I wouldn't enjoy any of it! But you know, the stores start the Christmas season even before the Halloween stuff is put away, so I guess we are still doing it in season. LOL

By Kaye on Friday, December 5, 2008 - 07:26 am:

To me shopping is one of the fun things not a chore I go out black friday, just because, I don't always need something.

the decorating is a chore, but I just don't want to look at it for more than a month. We leave ours up until jan 6, so before turkey day and I can't take it. I mean really, I don't want to have to dust the tree!

By Colette on Friday, December 5, 2008 - 07:29 am:

I have all my shopping left to do, but I am not stressed about that. I am taking dh's aunt out shopping this morning. I am stressed about this weekend though, we are having our annual christmas parade party (dh's mother started this tradition and now it's on me). I have absolutely no idea what I am serving aside from a spiral ham. We do a buffet type thing, so if anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate them.

By Kate on Friday, December 5, 2008 - 08:39 am:

Well different things stress different people out. For me I thrive on the pressure and enjoy the challenge of having a million things to cram into one day. I wish I WASN'T as far along on my shopping as I am....I keep looking at my list in dismay as I have so little to do!!

I get all the decorating done super early because I do a LOT of decorating and I can't justify the hours and hours of work for just a week or two. So we have it up for at least a month. But to me decorating is one of the 'chores' mentioned so I'm happy for that reason, too, to get it done quickly. I have to take photos of my rooms so I can put the house back together in January again and remember how it was!

By Mrs_B on Friday, December 5, 2008 - 11:00 am:

I love the decorating and shopping this time of year. Normally i'm one of those people that can't stand crowds and gets super grumpy if stuck in one. This year was my first year doing black friday, and I found myself to be rather calm. Maybe it's because I wasn't going out for anything special so I wasn't one of the freaks pushing people over to get to my item! LOL I love sitting around looking at the decor, lighting up my holiday candles and sipping on a cup of coffee. I could stare at my tree for hours. I also try to do a ton of Christ-based crafts with the kids (well, more so Kaitlyn) so they don't get too caught up in the Santa type. It's nice to have the spare time to do that.

By Colette on Friday, December 5, 2008 - 02:36 pm:

I was really surprised today. there was no one at the malls or any of the stores and no traffic to speak of.