Christmas shopping...or the lack thereof

I really hope other people are as behind on Christmas shopping as I am this year.  I know it's tacky of me to wish that on others but it really would make me feel better about myself if others could be as far behind as I am.  I so sluggish this year!
I've been browsing through some blogs and found some really great deals and giveaways.  I'd never heard of ShopAtHome.com before but it's a neat concept.  Check out their home site for a twitter giveaway and also check out Mrs. Moneysaver for another giveaway.
Will update post more later hear dogs whining outside.  It is 20-something degrees guess I should let them in.

Sick Angel Baby

Angel Baby has had a cold off and on for a couple of weeks now.  She's been so stopped up this week that she couldn't sleep.  When she'd lay down to try to sleep the coughing and hacking would start.  She needed to get some sleep.  I needed to get some sleep. 

Our oldest always has loved Johnson's Baby Soothing Vapor Cream.  I can slather it all over her chest and back and she will sleep like a baby.  Well of course Angel Baby can't stand the cream.  She says it makes her sticky and just pitches a fit when I try to put it on her.  I was at Walgreens buying some more refills for the Vicks vapor plug-ins (LOVE those!  I think I have 8--one for every room!) and I happened upon these TheraFlu vapor patches.

They stick to your clothes and last about 6 hrs (it claims 8hrs but I haven't noticed it working that long.) It works long enough to allow her to fall good and asleep at night before it wears off. She's worn one the past 3 nights and it's really helped. She asked for her patch before bed tonight!  (Hubby told me it sounds like I'm putting one of those stop-smoking patches on her.)  I think the packaging technically says for ages 6 and up and Angel Baby is 4 but when dealing with a sick child you have to improvise and try anything.  She may not be their target demographic but all I know is it works.  It helps her breathe so she can sleep and as a by product I get sleep too! yea!  I saw online that they make Puffs Plus with Vicks in them too but I haven't found them in any stores yet. 

IRL? huh?

Have I walked into an alternate universe in the blog world?  I know I'm brand new at all this but I really don't understand what a "Mommy Blogger" or "Mom Blog" means?  Is that some sort of official title you get by joining some club or group or does it just mean any mom with a blog?  I'm beginning to see that there are cliques/sororities/associations online that are well organized and (in some cases) very controlling.  Isn't the point of having a blog being able to have your OWN say about things?  I just don't get it, but I never was the sorority type of girl.  I sure as hell wasn't going to have someone bossing me around just so I could be allowed (dripping with sarcasm) to be their friend.  And I LOVE (note the saracasm here too) when people write "IRL" such as "I've met her IRL" as though there is a seperation between the blog world and in real life.  I thought that's what blogs were supposed to be--an extension of our thoughts and ideas and just whatever we want to write about--isn't that real life?  Shouldn't everything that you put on your blog be IRL if it's the truth?

The Black Friday letdown

Hubby and I tried to do a little shopping yesterday.  Crowds don't bother me as I'm from a much bigger city than the town we currently live in but I had not expected the level of hoarding that we witnessed yesterday.  From toys at Toy R Us to little things like grabbing 20 of the $.99 poinsettas at Home Depot (even though there was a limit of 10) people were just grabbing everything and keeping it in their buggies whether they intended to get it or not.  Why would you want to prevent others from getting them?  Makes no sense to me. 

The things we were looking for were not any of the doorbusters but were still "gone."  Although one of the stock boys at Toys R Us said it's probable that they still had them somewhere in the store but that people were taking buggies full of items such as Barbies and then leaving them in other sections of the store.  I hate greed.  It makes people so ugly.  So I'm still on the look out for Barbie Candy Glam Styling Head and any Harumika kits for the oldest.  I still have hope that I might win one of the Harumika sets from Santa's Picks but I'm running out of hope on the Barbie head.  I found the last Bath Magic Ariel at Walmart last night for the youngest.  Unfortunately she was with me at the time but there was no way I was going to risk not getting it.  I tried to hide it under some stuff and upside down in the buggy but of course she eventually saw it.  Darn it!  So since she's seen it and it can no longer be a Santa gift, we're using it to bribe her for good behavior from now until Christmas.  Hey you gotta do, what you gotta do this time of year! :)

I have nothing for the husband yet and I have no clue what to get him.  I've always worked up until our move last year so I've never had to worry about spending money for presents for him until now.  It's difficult to surprise him with a gift without him already knowing what it is and how much it cost because I've either had to take cash out or used the debit card.  I found this awesome Timex Compass watch giveaway on Energizer Bunny's Mommy Reports site and it would be great to give him something totally unexpected for a change.  Any other ideas???

...and while I'm at it...I want these too please...they will be perfect for the over indulgence needed to get through the holidays and dealing with my mother-in-law.  Can't you just picture me finally having a relaxing holiday with not a care in the world as I'm drinking from my new Lenox wine glasses thanks to EBMR... shameless I know!  :)

Dear Lord please send me patience, and lots of it...

My mother-in-law is coming tomorrow. 
That is all.  That is more than enough.

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.

God grant me the control
to bite my tongue until it bleeds if necessary...

Here turkey turkey

I am not a fan of turkey.  It's just not my favorite.  In the interest of full disclosure, I shot and killed my first turkey when I was 9yrs old and quickly decided thereafter that being in the woods at 3am to hunt turkeys was not at all appealing. 

I'm a red meat kind of girl and I love ham.  My hubby and oldest truly love turkey though.  So while they have turkey on Thanksgiving, I always cook a brown sugar glazed ham as well (mainly for me.)  Our youngest doesn't eat much of anything so it really doesn't matter to her if we have McDonald's for Thanksgiving.  In fact she'd probably be much happier with McD's.

So while I'm not a fan of turkey, I am a fan of good deals and saving money and was thrilled to score a 16lb turkey for a little over $6 at Wal-mart a couple of weeks ago when they announced their $.40/lb turkey deal.  That's pretty darn good.  If we had an extra freezer I'd be tempted to buy 5 or 6 birds and stock pile them.  Now that I have the turkey taken care of I'm on the look out for a good deal on a ham.  I sure hope hams go on sale at Christmas because they are just not marked down very much right now.  So until Wal-mart announces $.40/lb for hams I'm going to hope I win Mommy Mandy's giveaway so that I can use the gift card to Wal-mart to buy myself a ham.

Now I have to share a cute personal story.  I had a sack of turkey feathers that I took to use as quills at my oldest's class today for her Thanksgiving party.  After sending all the kids in the class home with a feather, I had about 8 left over.  When we got home I left the sack on the kitchen floor and let the dogs in because it was so cold.  The beagle went straight for the sack and started attacking it.  She got about half her body into the sack before emerging with a mouth full of turkey feathers.  She carried those feathers around in her mouth and paraded through the kitchen like "Look what I got!"  She was so cute.  She was so proud of herself for killing an already dead turkey!  (And while we were distracted watching the Beagle, our opportunistic big dog snuck half a loaf of homemade sour dough bread off the counter!)

New Year's Eve

My husband and I have the unique (for us!) opportunity to pretty much go or do anything we want for New Years this year. The only limits are financial. My parents want to take the kids back to their house for a few days after Christmas leaving us with no children on NYE. Who wouldn't jump on the opportunity to go somewhere fun for a few days? But of course this has led to a major dilemma: where to go and what to do?

The first word out of his mouth was: Vegas. I say yuck even though we've never been. I would probably love the shopping and shows but I hate casinos. I don't have anything against them morally or religiously but I just HATE the idea of throwing money away or literally handing it over to the casino. I am the worst person in the world to take to the casino because I sit there and every hand that hubby plays I'm telling him things like "you just lost a week's worth of diapers" or "that would have been a new pair of shoes for the kids." He tried to convince me to give to Vegas by saying we could get married again. I told him once was enough for me. Been there, done that, and don’t tempt me because I might not make the same choice over again. :)

So his next great idea was Lake Tahoe to go skiing. Guess who's never skied before in their life? Yep, me. And do I think being sore and black and blue sounds like a relaxing fun way to spend time without the kids and to start off the New Year? Ha!

If you can't tell hubby craves excitement. I crave a spa, room service, a nice bed, and going to an adult dinner sans children. A cabin in the Smokey mountains sounds like a great trip to me but somehow I don't think he's going to go for it.

SO here's my latest greatest idea. I'm going to try to get a trip I would like by cunning him into thinking it's a trip he would like. Here are the two most feasible options: 1) Washington DC. I've never been before and would like to go once. Hubby is huge Redskins fan and they play the Cowboys that Sunday night. Perfect timing. OR 2) Orlando. Looks like Ole Miss might get the Capital One bowl and if they do then we could go to the game and go to Disney World. Or would that make us really bad parents to go to Disney World without the children? I could reason that it would be best for us to go first so we could scope it out and see if we think our youngest is ready for it yet. Or we could just not tell them where we’re going…ooh so bad I know.