Christmas shopping

Wednesday:

Today I did a moderately epic Christmas shopping excursion. A lot of catalogues arrived in the mailbox on the weekend and I went through them carefully and made a suggestion list for myself. Things don't always look as good in the shop as they do in the catalogue - or in some cases are not age appropriate for the little kids - but today I did very well. A couple of things each for my children and husband, and completely finished the purchases for the five small children of the extended family (2 are four years old, 3 are one year old, or will be by Christmas). A very satisfying pile of presents. And after showing the non-husband ones to my husband I can wrap them. I love love love wrapping presents!

I haven't got "main" presents for my children yet but I know what I'm getting them, one item goes on sale tomorrow! I didn't note the date on the catalogue and went to buy it today but the salesman mentioned that the price will be significantly reduced tomorrow, which was nice of him. I would have realised once he rung up the price, but he didn't know that, so he didn't have to tell me.

I'm sure Christmas shopping would be horrible if it was a last minute desperate search for something vaguely appropriate, but I have plenty of time and I love it! We are pretty big on presents in our family, we buy things the receiver will actually want and put a lot of love and care into the process. I've heard people complain it's just a waste of money buying junk no-one needs, that is not the case in our family. But then we don't go out and buy whatever we want in between times, not if Christmas or a birthday is coming up! It will be a mix of things people have actually asked for, and surprises they didn't mention - maybe they didn't know it existed - but we think they will love. And a couple of cheap fun things in their stocking along with chocolates and lollies from Santa.

Big family gathering, special food, presents. I love Christmas!