Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Christmas Shopping...

It is that time of year again. The Christmas decorations are out in full force in all of the stores. The pressure is on. The pressure to buy Christmas gifts for everyone in my family and my husband's family. Deciding who do I buy for? How much do I spend? If I get the kids a gift do I also buy for the adults? Is my husband going to kill me when he sees the Discover bill?

I'm already starting to get stressed. My husband sets the budget then it is my responsibility to select all of the gifts and wrap them and decorate the house. That includes the gifts for people like his father whom I have NO CLUE what to buy. I purchased my first three Christmas presents today from Speaking through me purses. These will be for my mom, my grandma, and my husband's stepmom.

I also stress after the gifts are bought. I look and look and look, second guessing everything I pick out until I talk myself out of everything I picked out. It would be so much easier if everyone just came with an updated Target wish list. Except Target charges an arm and a leg for shipping plus you have to pay tax....I take that back. Everyone should come with an Amazon wishlist. And there are so many people to buy for and so little budget to do it in. I have to get really creative so I don't look cheap. And my sister and her twin boys have December birthdays, my dad, my husband's nephew and my son all have January birthdays. So all those people need Christmas gifts and birthday gifts.

I love Christmas. Hands down, it is my all time favorite holiday. But the gift buying stresses me out. And the travel to see everyone stresses my husband out. And the Discover bill stresses us both out. I want to just enjoy the twinkling lights, carols, crisp weather, my tree and not think about all the materialism. Don't get me wrong, I love a great gift as much as the next girl. But every year the Christmas shopping list gets longer but the budget isn't any bigger. It is hard. It is times like this that I really wish I was creative and could make presents for everyone but that is just not happening.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A winner has been chosen in my Nest Baby Sling giveaway. Congrats to Jenna!

For the rest of you- I've lost my mind and am offering 25% off all orders placed by November 30 and 15% of all orders placed by December 31, 2007!!!

Just enter the following code at check out:
FallYall25 (valid now through 11.30.07)
FallYall15 (valid 12.01.07 through 12.31.07)

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and enter!

xoxo,
Ashlee Allen

Kristine said...

If I wasn't stressed out before, I am now. I do things like buy a Christmas present in September for someone, only to find something "perfect" in November when it's too late to return September's gift and then I have to decide if I get "perfect" thing do I have to spend more money on that person's sibling to be fair...UGH.