It's Only Just Begun...

Last weekend, I officially started Christmas shopping. Please don't hate me...I wish I didn't have to start already either. Seriously....I'd rather wait until it actually gets cold, when I can shop while sipping a cup of hot cocoa from Starbucks and hear Christmas music playing in the background. (Wait a minute, I heard holiday music last weekend!)

I usually start shopping in October. David's family draws names amongst the kids and adults, but they didn't do the drawing until the first weekend of November. So all the kids have a cousin to shop for, I have my BIL Henry, and David has his sister Liz. So last weekend, I took Rebecca to Target and she picked out some toys for Daniel, and Joshua bought a K'nex set for Nick. I also bought birthday presents for 3 of my nephews because 2 were born in November, and one was born in December. Yes, it gets confusing sometimes, but I don't want to be known as the Aunt who stiffed her nephews because their birthdays are so close to Christmas. I also spend a couple of hours making up wish lists for all 6 of us for who ever drew our names, and emailed that out to everyone.

I try to have all the shopping done for another reason. We always go to Dallas for Thanksgiving, and David's family all converges at his sister's house. So we take all the presents, and deliver them over the holiday weekend--and then we don't have the added expense of shipping. It makes the week before Thanksgiving CRAZY for me because I'm usually doing last minute shopping, wrapping a big pile of gifts, and triple checking that list to be sure I didn't forget anyone. 'Cause then I'd be branded for life!

David is home today, thanks to a bank holiday. So I plan to take full advantage of that. I'm going to take lunch to Joshua and Rebecca at school. Then I'm going to hit a few stores to shop for Henry, my sister's 4 kids, and my nephew John (Gabriel pulled his name, and I don't think he'll mind if I buy the presents for him). Then I need to run through the pharmacy to order more of my vitamins, and drop off some NFP brochures for a friend of mine. Man...it's going to be a busy day.

I'll let you know if I survive.

3 hours later...

Okay...I'm back. I survived. It was pouring rain, but I kept my feet dry. The only thing I couldn't find was a polo shirt for Henry. He is 6 foot 4, so he has to have a "tall," and I didn't find any in that size at Kohls. Looks like I'll have to hit the mall.

The only child left to shop for is my nephew Joey. His mom hasn't send out his wish list yet. I usually wait to shop for our kids after everyone else buys their presents. Then I just buy whatever is left on their wish lists.

Now I just have to wrap a huge pile of presents on the guest bed. Seriously, you can't even see the bed...