It’s the day after Christmas, and all through the house, the kids are still happy and so is my spouse…LOL! No, it wasn’t the Christmas to beat all Christmases, but it was a pretty nice one, even considering that the hubby and I both spent the day coughing and sniffling!

The biggest “hits” with the kids were an MP3 player and headphones for my son and this monkey speaker thing that my daughter can plug her MP3 player into that has lights that flash to the beat of the song that is playing. In my opinion, it’s the equivalent of a noisy toddler toy….LOL! But she’s been really good about using it in her room so that I don’t have to hear her music.

I think the hubby was a bit disappointed at not finding some new Ingersoll Rand air tools under the tree, but he’ll get those when/if we get the garage built so that he has a better place to store them! I’m thrilled with my new mixer! It’s TONS better than the one I’ve been using for a couple of years, and one step closer to the one I really want and WILL eventually have!

Now all we have to do is get the next 6 days over and we can say that we successfully survived another holiday season!

The one thing that I do look forward to every holiday season is making a big bowl or popcorn or other snack and getting comfy in the recliner to watch my two favorite Classic Christmas movies!  My number one favorite is It’s A Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart.  I’ve watched all of the remakes of this movie, but none compare to the class of the original!  My other favorite is White Christmas.  I’m a HUGE Blue Eyes fan, and this is one of my most treasured movies of his!

I grabbed the remote to search for my favorite movies so that I could auto tune them and not miss them.  I was TOTALLY blown away to find that only It’s a Wonderful Life is showing on any channels between now and Christmas.  TVGuide.com tells me that NBC is going to show it this Friday night at 8:00, so I’ll be sure to mark it on my calendar so I don’t miss it.  But I’m totally bummed that I’m not going to be able to watch White Christmas this year unless I go out and purchase it.  Oh well, one out of two is better than one at all, right?

I can tell already that tonight is going to be one of my sleepless nights.  We’ve spent the day going through periods of freezing rain, we currently have about 1/4″ of ice on everything outside.  But we’re very fortunate, we still have power, phone and satellite.    But schools are already delaying for tomorrow morning.  My daughters school is currently on a 2 hour delay, but my son’s school hasn’t delayed “yet”.  I dread what I’ll go through tomorrow morning if it’s not, it will be a huge argument.  It’s not that I blame him, but it’s also not something that we can do anything about and I wish he would understand that.

I spent today decorating the Christmas tree and putting some decorations up.  But the fact of the matter is I’m simply not in a holiday mood.  I dread what the next two weekends bring.  Next weekend is the surprise birthday party for my mom and step father and a gathering of all of us kids.  It’s the type of gathering that I have avoided for the past several years, the type of gathering that I dread.  I don’t like being around my step father or my step siblings, I’m sick of their “I’m better than you” attitudes.  I don’t fit in at these type of get togethers, but I’m going for my mom.

The weekend after that is Christmas with my mom, this year we’re having it at my sisters house.  As much as I like Christmas with mom, my sister is turning it into a three ring circus by inviting every other family member that wants to come.  If ANY of my step siblings show up, it will be the final straw!  They are the main reason I no longer go to Christmas at mom’s house.  I wanted to have Christmas here this year, but my sister made a big fuss about the dogs and the fact that they get so excited and jumpy when people come to the house.  I tried to explain to her that they do eventually calm down, but it didn’t matter, so I agreed to just have it at her house.

But I’m just not in the mood for Christmas this year.  Putting the decorations on the tree just felt BLAH!  I just felt grumpy and depressed all day.  I don’t know why and I don’t know what’s going on to cause this.  I guess it’s just the cold weather blues that I sometimes get this time of the year.

So I’m sitting here tonight, everyone is already in bed, but I can’t sleep.  The dogs keep freaking out, I know it’s because there is some wind going on outside.  But I also had the motion light come on at the slider door here by my desk, and although I didn’t see anything I got freaked out.  So I pulled the curtains tight and pulled the blinds on the windows in case there is someone or something out there….LOL!  Secretly, I’m hoping the kids don’t have school tomorrow, but don’t tell them I said that.

I’ll try to take pictures of my tree tomorrow.  It turned out OK.  Apparently I told my husband to throw out my artificial tree after Christmas last year.  Honestly, I don’t remember saying that, but I also don’t doubt that I said it…LOL!  We have a real tree this year, but most of my lights didn’t work, so I just decided that I was going to make do with what lights I had rather than sending my hubby out on the icy roads to buy more.  I also didn’t have any icicles or garland, so the tree just has lights and ornaments.  To me, it looks very depressing, but my daughter, who did most of the decorating, says it looks awesome, so I told her I thought it looked awesome too.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m very thankful that we have a tree this year, but I was tempted not to put one up at all.  That’s how NOT in the holiday mood I am.

Anyway, enough of this depressing rambling, I’m going to play a game.  Thanks for listening!

I’ve put this off for over a week now, I’ve given the excuse that I have other things to do and have avoided getting it done, but no more!  Today is the day I tear apart, de-clutter and clean the living room so that I can start getting the Christmas decorations out.  So wish me luck and cross your fingers.  And if you don’t hear from me for a few days, call out the National Guard…LOL!

I like putting fun things in my kids stockings, you know, the things that they never think about putting on their wish lists? This year is going to be no exception! Since the kids are older I have to get more creative since they’ve out grown many of the different types of stocking stuffers I’ve used in the past!

Since the kids are into electronics and they both recently got new cell phones, I’m thinking I’ll get them some fun cell phone accessories for their new phones! My son would love an awesome case for his phone and I heard him asking his dad about Bluetooth headsets, so since the price has really dropped on those lately, that would be a great stocking stuffer!

My daughter is into this “all things cute and pink” stage, which is weird for me because she’s always been a major tomboy! So I’m going to grab a cute pink cell phone case as well as some cute charms for her cell phone!

Yes, I’ll be the first to agree that the jolly old guy makes the Christmas holiday special as well as making kids scream with glee! But when it comes to finding great deals on my special holiday gifts, I’ve found a different source! So Santa, as much as I love you, I’ll take care of the gifts for my family and friends this year and give you a break for a change!

Other than my traditional day after Thanksgiving, wee hours of the morning shopping dash with my mom and sister, I’ve decided that I’m going to do my Christmas shopping online this year! And why wouldn’t I when CouponChief.com offers me the ability to shop at my favorite online retailers with some of the best discounts available?

For instance, one of the items that is at the top of my daughters “have to have” list is an iPod. With the help of CouponChief.com’s Apple Coupons I can get a heck of a deal on either shipping or a refurbished iPod. At the top of my son’s list is a new computer since his is currently on it’s last leg!! CouponChief.com gives me several options to save money on a new computer with coupons from HP and Dell.

So no matter what type of gift you plan on purchasing your that special person in your life, CouponChief.com is sure to have a great discount for it! I highly recommend that you check them out before you start your shopping, because as fun as it is to find that perfect gift, it’s even more fun to save some cash in the process!!!

My sister and I “strategically” planned the births of our children so that they are each a year apart. We actually didn’t plan it that way, it’s just how it worked out…LOL. My niece, who is right between my kids age wise, decided to take up golf this past year since her school has a girls golf team. When I was talking to my sister about what to get her girls for Christmas she said that my niece wants anything and everything that is golf related. After looking around online I think I’ve found a couple of really neat Nike golf items that I think she’d really like that are within the price range that I planned on spending!