Present Crisis Avoided!

3133555915_286cbd4a5c_b For the first time in years I actually went Christmas shopping before Christmas Eve. Okay, so it was the day before but that still counts, right? I even went despite the fact that it had snowed 6.5″ throughout the day, and was still falling on the ground. Not to mention that it would eventually turn into sleet and add about 1.5″ of ice to everything.

My youngest sister Nicolle wanted to tag along, and even though I had to shop for her I was definitely looking forward to her company. Seeing as though her and I are the closest, and we always seem to have fun it was a no-brainer. We ventured out to Target so we could take a look around to see what was on sale, and played it by ear. Picked out a new coffee pot for my grandma, and was a nice one at that! Got a few odds-n-ends for the kitchen as little stocking stuffers for dad. For Nicolle’s gifts I found this cute gold makeup bag with two little cases to go inside of it… So that’s when I told her to run along and go buy us some Starbucks. Ended up filling it up with about $60 worth of makeup and a few hair accessories. Hopefully she’ll like it.

After that we headed off to Best Buy to pick up a thing or two, which I refuse to mention here for Armando’s safety! It should have been a 5 minute run but it turned into 30 minutes since we both ended up playing a bit of Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2. By that time the snow was piling up even more, although it was starting to turn into sleet. We only needed to hit up a couple more stores, and I left my Paypal credit card at home, so we went back home. Spent 30 minutes shoveling our monstrosity of a driveway, and made our way back out. Went to Kohl’s and oh gosh, so many sales going on. 3133555599_894640c591_b

I’m a sucker for huge sales so I definitely spent time wondering around the entire place. Found some nice cubic zirconia earrings for her (she likes those huge ones, blech!) that were 60% off, and a Fantasy by Britney Spears perfume set that was 50% off regular price. Only person left for gifts at that point was just my dad. I was still a bit stuck on what to get him, but he was adamant upon having new sweatshirts, t-shirts, and socks so why deny the man some comfy clothes? T-shirts were $6 a piece (from $12), and some sweatpants that were 50% off. Although the one upset was that the set of Bobby Flay BBQ tools were slightly damaged. It was $75 normally, but again on sale for $30. It was almost too good to pass up, but Bed, Bath & Beyond was next door.

3134375934_ccca75f3f2_b I think my entire total at Kohl’s was just $97. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to use my 15% off coupon since it had to be with a Kohl’s charge card, which I didn’t have… 🙁 But hey, I did get $10 back, since they had a promotion for $10 for every $50 spent. I was still feeling like my dad’s presents were shortchanged compared to my mom’s new Tom Tom GPS so Bed, Bath & Beyond was next. Didn’t find much there especially since we were keeping on eye out for a Fiestware milk jug thingie but didn’t find such thing. Picked up some more wooden spoons (and ironically enough while dad was cooking some pierogi and smoked Kielbasa he asked where all the wooden spoons were!), a BBQ set, and silicone spatulas.

When we were waiting in line to check out, you can’t help but be completely focused on the items all around the endcaps of the registers. Candies, little random trinkets, those “As Seen On TV” items, and god knows what else. But my damn eye had to fall on the PedEgg. Yeah, seriously, how many other items have I seen on TV that I’ve wanted buy? The Magic Bullet, SmoothAway, ShamWOW (dad said he was buying this for mom as a gag gift but it was mainly sold out in stores! ha!), Debbie Myer GreenBag…. I could go on but you get the point!

3134219629_75df7e8043_b So I ended up picking up the PedEgg. I only did that because a month or so ago I was in her room while the infomercial came on and was just watching it in awe… Primarily due to all the shavings that they’d dump out of that damn PedEgg. Although the reaction wasn’t as classic as when we saw the infomercial for the Kinoki foot pads which looked like your feet was on it’s period… All in all I’m pretty ecstatic with the gifts picked up, so I’m hoping everyone likes it. I think I’m most looking forward to my mom’s reaction to her GPS, since she thinks she’s not getting it! K well it’s time to finishing wrapping up the presents, and then off to take a shower (so you know, I don’t look like shit when I’m forced to open presents on video camera…)

Christmas shopping is stressful

The worst part about Christmas is picking out the right gift for someone. My mom’s gift was easy. She’s horrible with directions, and always ends up calling me to help her find her way to her destination. So of course the gift I got for her (and I believe it’s safe to write about it, since she’s too busy to read my blog) is a Tom Tom GPS unit. I researched for a few weeks on pricing, and was dead set on the widescreen version which was almost $100 cheaper on Amazon.com than in stores and other retailers. But the day I went to buy it, it was sold out. FANTASTIC! So I went to Wal-Mart and spent about $130 since it was on sale there, although not the widescreen model.

The hard part now is finding Dad something comparable to the gift I got to my mom. So that means no sox, undies, shirts, sweatshirts.. I need (yes, need, as in I still have to shop for him…) to come up with something that’s going to be resourceful for him. The problem is that my constant nagging for a list from him, has done no good as I have nothing to refer to… He owns his own construction company, but any tool you can think of, he’s got. I think that’s why I’ve procrastinated shopping the past few days (and even right now) is that I have no clue what to buy. Everyone keeps suggesting to finish his company’s website, but I’ve had to put that aside since I’m at a block for it… Maybe a “Under Construction” (lol) animated GIF icon? O.o

My grandparents are quite easy. It’s always a joint gift, and usually my dad goes all out anyway. But my grandma is in dire need of a new coffee pot. She’s had her current one for god knows how many years (probably as old as I am!) so I’ll be replacing that for her.. And then it’s just my two younger sisters (14, and 17.) I’m all for stupid little gifts leading into something better.

Morgan loves horchata so when I was at Wal-Mart the other day I found this package of the stuff that requires only the liquids (milk or water I think) so I got that for her.. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out what else she needs. Or perhaps maid service to clean up the room that literally has no floor since it’s all covered in clothes..?

Nicolle was another easy one. She uses my makeup bag all the time. I get woken at 5:30am sometimes to hear her ask “Can I pleeease pleeease pleeease use your makeup?” To which I yell at her grouchily to get out my room and “No you can’t!” Though that doesn’t stop her seeing as though after the last word is out my mouth I’m fast asleep again. So I’ll be getting her a nice little makeup bag with all the makeup she’ll need, so she can stop bothering me about it.

The other person that I have to shop for is my boyfriend Armando. But he reads atourworst.org so he’s crazy if he thinks I’m gonna write about it. All I know is that I think it’s a super-dooper awesome idea, and he’ll just have to sit there and wait until either Christmas Eve or Day to get his gift. Although I’m sure it’ll be Day since I think he has family plans on the Eve.

So this just leads me back to my dad. He always seems to spoil my mom around Christmas (and us kids.) I just wish I knew the perfect gift for him so I could return the years of lame gifts he’s gotten over the years.

Is It Really December Already?

I can’t believe that it’s already been almost two months since I last blogged. I honestly don’t know why I lack the motivation to keep writing blogs here, but hopefully I can get back into the groove.

The same design has been up here at atourworst.org , and well I honestly think that was the problem. So I decided to go ahead (and against my better judgement) and put up a new theme (albeit premium, and not something I even did myself.) I’m at a bit of a time constraint and lacked motivation so it was really the only thing I could do to get the ball rolling. It’s by no means permanent but at least it’s somewhat decent?

Christmas is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I really need to get on the ball and get Christmas gifts situated. I’ve got an idea of what to get my mom and dad, so now it’s down to just picking up something for Morgan and Nicolle. Of course I’ll be getting my boyfriend Armando something too, but since I know he reads this, I’ll be damned if I just let you know about my sekrutz. All I know is that I’ve been feeling really.. family-y this season so I’ve been conspiring with my youngest sister to cook a Christmas Eve dinner. We haven’t done anything on Christmas Eve since I was maybe 10’ish? We typically celebrate on Christmas Day.

Well, I think that’s enough for a quick post. Here’s to hoping that I can try blogging semi-regularly. I’ll probably shock myself if I even open up WordPress again this week…