I'm gettin' nuttin' for Christmas

I ain't been nuttin' but bad, I totally forgot that yesterday started the Jingle-Bell-Blogathon I'm having with my cousin Jennifer this week. Realizing it was Sunday as I sat down this morning I clicked on Jen's blog to see if by some miracle she may have forgotten and no dice, there's a freshly written post, Christmas title and all, so I'm the slacker. 2 posts today it is!!

Yesterday was our marathon shopping day. Let me tell you kids, for the past 2 years I've pretty much been the one to do all the Christmas shopping around here and yesterday it was AWESOME to have some help. Friday night Drew and Kaeleigh were not so thrilled with the thought of leaving the house at 8am to do Christmas shopping, but they were troopers and by 9 am we were at the Tanger Outlets in Lancaster. List in hand we skipped any store that would not be for Christmas shopping with the exception of stores carrying clothes deemed "cool" by our teenager. I decided that this year she can pick out most of her own clothes as long as she understood that she wouldn't be wearing them until Christmas. She LOVED the idea, and was especially thrilled that there was a Zumiez in the center (skater clothes, oh the joy).

Store to store we went looking for bargains, which are not always present at the outlet stores. I managed to talk Drew into geting 4 new shirts for himself, not for Christmas, at one store. It's pretty rare for him to spend money on clothes for himself, so it took a little encouragement, but 2 new ringer t-shirts and 2 polos later he was walking out the door with a smile. We had 2 major accomplishments yesterday... First, we got OshKosh kids clothes for 60-70% off every piece we got. Luckily this year in Drew's family the kids are doing a gift swap so we only have to buy for one of the McLain kids, but on my side there are 6 other kids that need gifts. We got something for the gift swap, and a piece or two for the littlest kids. Older kids (and probably Nico too) get a toy because I don't want to be that aunt that gives them clothes for Christmas. Once they are old enough to understand it's toys all the way.

Our second accomplishment of the day was we FINALLY got a knife set. YESSSSSSS! Le Gourmet Chef is my second favorite store (Williams-Sonoma is still the best). We call it "that store you eat your way through". When we lived in NJ Kae and I would frequent the one in the Deptford Mall when we were there. There's something about those pretzel sticks that makes any kind of dippy sauce delicious. I walk out of there every time with at least one kind of dip and some crunchy snack to dunk into it. Yesterday it was Onion Blossom Horseradish dip and flat pretzel chips... anyway... I digress... knife set. The knife set that we have been using has been Drew's for a long time, but sets are so expensive we just decided to make do. Yesterday my dear husband found us a block with 13 knives (random cutting and 6 steak) for $69.99. O.M.G!! It now proudly sits atop our counter, can't wait to use them tonight for dinner.

By about noon we had hit almost every store and the center was packed. We walked into and then right out of several stores because the lines and just general shopping areas were too crowded for us. Drew and Kae both acknowledged what a great idea it was getting there early (see, I'm not just crazy, sometimes I know these things). We had some lunch, made a brief stop at Target and were home by 4. All 3 of us conked out until around 7 when we awoke to fresh snow covering the ground, quite a pretty site.

Ok, that's my Saturday post (bad Liz), back with more later :)

*Title line from the song I'm Gettin' Nuttin' for Christmas