What have you bought lately?

Cookie season is on us. I tend to stick with almond flavouring, though it is rather moreish.

Done my gift shopping with a little spree at the dollar stores for small, practical items the boys will enjoy. And all that's left is food shopping before the holiday.

We have pound shops here for the same. They were great when my kids were little. You could get felt pens, drawing materials, and lots of rainy weather entertainment for their xmas. It really bulked up their xmas bags when times were tight.

I miss the kids being little at xmas. 

Ive just bought next years Christmas tree !

Well we used to have a house with a huge sitting room and 12ft ceilings now we are in a dolls house with normal height ceilings and the old tree took up half the room and would have needed a hole in the ceiling to stand upright ! .. For this year I managed to arrange just the top two segments and it looks ok but its temporary..

So I earmarked a couple of nice trees and one is now on sale at 50% discount. Its the same brand as my old tree that has survived nearly 15years so hopefully it will last us a good long while.

Fudge.

£30 worth of chocolate, bars, biscuits and sweets for my sil's xmas.

It is tiring, but I so enjoy buying all that confectionary. It makes me feel like a child again. He is early thirties and has a very responsible job in banking as a projects manager, but he becomes a child at xmas. lol

Chocolate.

We are thinking of upgrading our air conditioner to something more efficient. the one we have is now 14 years old and outdated and probably at the end of its life.

My oldest made me cry. She was 3, and she came through to our bedroom with her stocking, and tipped it onto the bed. It was the usual stuff. An apple, an orange, chocolates, sweets and a little teddy bear.

Her eyes went really wide and she looked up and said "Wow. I am the luckiest girl ever."

Vicarious living is at it's best on xmas day.

I've ordered a birthday gift for the youngest. We need it for the start of February, so that means I'm giving lots of time for it to arrive. He's getting a cat encyclopedia, since that's his favourite animal. I also found a cartoonish cat-shaped light he'll love.

On the boring side of things, new toothbrushes ordered for the kiddos. Not very exciting...

I also added a few things to the grocery shopping list for this week - I'm going to my parents' place for Christmas dinner (kinda last-minute arrangements there since the oldest sister is sick and can't host). Mum wanted things Dad didn't pick up in his regular shopping, so I'm helping make sure Mum and I get what we'll enjoy! (Dad goes by himself to shop now, so she can put something on the list, but who knows if she'll get it... Oy!)

And... I'm debating whether I want to get digital-only copies of a movie or two. Never seen Scrooged and it looked cheaper that way from Amazon, plus it reminded me that I really want to get Groundhog Day! This year, there are a lot more Christmas movies I want to see - could be that I was focused on building my Christmas music collection in previous years and it can now be the beginning of expanding the holiday movie collection!

Next time, maybe try a chair?  

Likewise.

We did it. We bought a new air conditioning system today. it will be installed the 4th of January.About a 10 hour job so John will be staying home that day.

We've had problems with desk lamps and their power cords breaking right at the base of the lamp, so I'm ordering electrical tape along with a new lamp - we're going to cover the problem spot right away and hope that makes the lamp last longer. I have lent my own lamp to the kiddos in the meantime (oldest and youngest sharing a room) and since that wasn't my favourite model, I'm getting a different one eventually. Have it all picked out!