Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like....

Well, Christmas.

Now I know that over the past few years it seems as if the stores have sort of started to skip over Thanksgiving completely and are going straight from 4th of July Halloween to Christmas, but I think there's a reason for this.

People are shopping for gifts earlier. The economy has created a situation where very many people simply cannot afford to do all their shopping during the four-week period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Add to that the expense of holiday travel and it makes even more sense that we want to start shopping earlier and spreading out the hurt a little bit.

With that being said, I personally think its incredibly hard to get in the mood to Christmas shop without Christmas decor splashed all over the stores. I mean, nothing says "Happy Holidays!" like eating a pound of leftover Halloween candy and then hitting the big box stores, now does it?

But seriously, I am finding myself shopping for Christmas gifts online more than I ever have. Partly because we live far away from family and will be flying to see them, and partly because there is really nothing worse than trying to execute an all-day shopping marathon with a whiny toddler repeatedly asking if she can "walk" through the aisles of Tarjay. {No, you may not walk AJ, because then I'll spend the next 17 hours cleaning up all the things you pull off the shelves.}

Not to mention the fact that when shopping online one can still take advantage of not just Black Friday sales, but Cyber Monday sales as well! Talk about convenient. I can sit on my couch, in my jammies and use "one-click ordering" (Thank you, Amazon!) and its done. I never even need to think about throwing 'bows to get to the hot item of the season!

With that being said, AJ's first Christmas gift was delivered to our house yesterday, thanks to my little brother!

Can you guess what it is?

I'm so excited to put it together and have it waiting for her under the tree on Christmas morning!

P.S. I really like Christmas, so the longer the season, the better, I say! D used to get mad because when asked what my favorite holiday was I'd always answer "Thanksgiving. Because it starts the Christmas season." :P

P.S. Again- I may or may not have attempted to start decorating our house for Christmas this week, only to discover that my hubby is one-step ahead of me and hid all our decorations in the attic. He ruins everything. ;)

My Mother's Day Gifts

Mother's Day is on Sunday and I have already gotten a gift from D and my parents. The gift from D came early because I was at the mall and I finally figured out what I wanted so I bought it!


I got the Reebok RunTones! They're the shoes that are supposed to work your legs and butt out just by walking around. These specific shoes can also be used for running! I have been wearing them for a few days now and they're super comfy!

My gift from my parents was delivered by FedEx this afternoon at about 4 pm. I got a dozen chocolate dipped strawberries from Sherri's Berries! I didn't have time to take a before picture of the whole dozen before D and I tore into them, but to give you an idea of the size of these strawberries, here are two of them. Here's the white chocolate:


And this one is milk chocolate:


Here's the aftermath:

We justified eating all 12 of them in one sitting because the strawberries were super ripe and we didn't want them to go bad before we had a chance to enjoy them. D swore that they would be rotten by tomorrow! ;) Needless to say, they were delicious and no, I did not eat all 12 myself. I will admit to eating at least 2 (okay 4). YUM!