$$: Christmas Shipping & Shopping

I had the car today and had to take The Son into the city for a school activity so I took the opportunity to get some Christmas errands done.  It was a very productive day.

Apple -- $48.42
During my last One-to-One session, I mentioned my database woes (currently using Access but want to move everything to my Mac so need a Mac alternative).  The Apple rep gave me a trial disc of a program called Bento.  I played around with it and initially dismissed it as a glorified spreadsheet program and not a true database program.  I was wrong.  I tried again the next day and got things figured out and ended up completely falling in love with the program.  So today I bought a boxed Bento program (technically, my business bought the program).

Sur La Table -- $59.25

A true indulgence.  Earlier this year my mom gave me her old iSi cream whipper but it turned out that the whipper doesn't work properly.  I've always wanted one of these things so today I decided to splurge -- after all, the holidays coming up and I have a whole box of Nitro cartridges in my kitchen drawer.

Claire's -- $1.35
A Joe Jonas pin [don't ask] for The Daughter's stocking

Day by Day Calendar Company -- $19.38
Jonas Brothers calendar [don't ask] -- a Christmas present for The Daughter.

Cost Plus World Market -- $9.38

• 2 tree ornaments -- $2.50/ea. [one each for The Daughter and The Son -- Santa always leaves the children new ornaments in the tree complete with the year written on a tag so they'll always know which year they got which ornament]
• bag of mint chocolate cookies for The Daughter's stocking -- $2.50

Office Depot -- $9.68

• 3-pack of flesh toned drawing pencils -- $3.00
• 5-pack of sketch pencils plus eraser & pencil sharpener -- $5.99

Both will be stockings stuffers for The Son.

Postmaster -- $18.62
The line looked horrendous but the wait wasn't too bad.  And don't you just love those flat-rate Priority Mail boxes?

I shipped 13 pounds of American Girl world books (7 in total) plus the custom hardbound photo book I made and had printed through Apple for my mom this summer -- all for $9.80.  That box shipped out to my brother and niece #1.  I'm not technically doing Christmas presents for any of my siblings/nieces/nephews but ....  Technically the AG books are a birthday gift -- an August event for which I never sent anything (bad Auntie).  And why not send the Grannie photo book as a Christmas gift because 1) my brother really can't afford to pay me his share of the printing cost and 2) even if he could afford it he'd never get around to actually sending a check.

I also mailed out the birthday card and accompanying gift card to Nephew #2 -- $0.42 (I was afraid it would need extra postage).

And I shipped back the Emu Australia boots I bought The Daughter for Christmas but was pretty sure she wouldn't like.  No charge on the return shipping, of course, because free return shipping was an important criteria when making my purchase -- no charge.

I also bought a book of Nutcracker holiday stamps -- $8.40.  I should get The Son's school photos tomorrow and I've had The Daughter's for a couple of weeks.  It will probably take me weeks to get around to it, but I'd like to send out some Christmas cards to family including the kids' school photos.  The kids will also use the stamps when they send out their Thank You letters.  Maybe the Nutcracker theme will inspire The Son to work on his Thank Yous but I'm not going to count on it.  The exercise will probably be as difficult and drawn-out as always.

~ o o o O o o o ~

I'm too tired to do it tonight but tomorrow I need to take a look at what all I've found for each child's stocking and get a sense of what else I'll need to fill them out.

I also need to send The Husband in search of $1 coins for our unwrapping game.  On that subject, I need to get to a TJ Maxx or Ross and pick up half a dozen dish towels -- I use them in the game too.

And I need to sit down and plan out the party menu and figure out where I need to go shopping and on which days I can start buying the ingredients I need.  The shrimp trays from Costco are always very popular but can't get them too early and a trip to Costco that close to Christmas is a real time-killer.  The logistics of party shopping and party preparations is a complicated dance and one that I'm not at all good at.

I still have to get gift suggestions from both of The Husband's sons or daughters-in-law for their respective children (Niece #2 & #3 and Nephew #2).  It's coming down the wire and I have to get that shopping done.  The stress levels starting to rise a little.

Luckily tomorrow is the last day of class for both children and I intend to put them to work right away with holiday and holiday party prep.

Related posts:

1. More Christmas Shopping
2. $$: Dec 3 — Bargain Christmas Shopping for The Daughter
3. Day 108: Dishtowels, a Scarf, and a Burger
4. $$: Dec 8 — Medical Expenses and Christmas Gifts
5. Day 111: Christmas is Coming, The Goose is Fat, My Wallet’s Thin