My holiday plans!

[all4jt]

Yay! I'm so excited another holiday season is almost here. Time to break out my shopping shoes! More importantly, it is such a great time in my family as we all get to spend time together, cooking, laughing, playing games and sharing stories.

This year my husband Johnny and I will be hosting Christmas at our house. We did it last year and had so much fun. It also makes it easier on us being that we have three daughters who get loads of gifts from us not to mention they are spoiled by everyone else as well. So, transporting gifts from here to there won't be an issue. Last year we had my family over and Johnny's dad and one of his brothers, then my parents, 2 brothers, my sister and her son, my grandma, uncles, and a few cousins. Then we went to Johnny's oldest brother's house with his wife and their 3 boys, his mom came in from Tennessee, his other brother and his sister with 3 of her boys. This year due to people moving around and such we will most likely have who was over last year and the rest of Johnny's family. Luckily everyone gets along.

Now, on to the fun stuff, SHOPPING! Who doesn't love to shop?! I usually start my holiday shopping on Black Friday. Yes, I am one of those crazy people up at 4:30am the day after Thanksgiving to get to all of my favorite stores as each of them open. Target being a hot spot, oh how I do love my Target! If I was a smarter shopper I would begin making my purchases in August, but nope, I have to make things difficult on myself running around from Black Friday usually until Christmas Eve morning. I love it though! :) The people on my list to shop for are my daughters and husband of course, and because in our family we can't come up with a white elephant type of deal, we will be shopping for everyone that comes over, that's right...EVERYONE! This year will be a little different than last year. We totally went all out buying an Xbox 360 for my brothers, iPods for my dad and Johnny's mom, and so on and so forth. We just did way too much. This year I have already set smaller budgets for each person and grouped them so I only shop for 2-3 people at a time according to interests. For example, I will shop for my nephews at once since they all have similar interests. It wouldn't make much sense to shop for a few nephews, my grandma and my sister because they all are different ages with different interests. I'm getting so excited about shopping for the holidays just thinking about it!

Like everyone I'm sure, I have a holiday-to-do list. This year on my to-do list is to begin shopping on Black Friday as I talked about before, go with Johnny and the girls to pick out a huge, lush, and fragrant Christmas tree (he wants one of the trees sprayed with faux snow this year), and break out all of my holiday decorations. Decorating usually takes place Dec 1st. I do g a bit nuts when it comes to decorating for anything, and the holidays is definitely no exception! Also on my to-do list is getting all of the ingredients for my homemade desserts that I make every year, my mom calls me Suzy Homemaker, lol. Make all of the preparations for having people over, getting drinks, food, cleaning the house from top to bottom, making sure there is plenty of paper products, plates, napkins, plastic ware (I have enough pots and pans to wash, I will not add dishes to the mix) and lots of toilet paper. lol, yeah I said it, you all know how men are after a meal! Wrapping gifts is also a big deal for me, I take my time wrapping and every gift gets a hand tied bow and or curling ribbon. That's about it, just spending tons of quality time with the kids and doing fun holiday activities with them.

So, those are my holiday plans. I can't wait to get started, I love Love LOVE the holidays, oh and did I mention I LOVE THE HOLIDAYS?!

I hope you all have an awesome holiday season!

[Mommyofthree101]

Nov. 21, 2008 at 1:08 PM

Lol, we sound a lot alike! I was ready this and it sounds just like me.I am the suzy homemaker of the family. I love cooking and entertaining the crowds at my house. Big families, lots of food and drinks!

I so can not wait until Black Friday! I swear I think it might be one of my favorite days of the year. lol