There's a chill in the air...

...which means we all start thinking about Christmas. My cousin Kelli was talking about her plans for Christmas on her blog and in the comments I started talking about my plans. But then I remembered I was planning on doing a post similar to hers and my comment was getting too long anyway. So, even though we haven't even said good-bye to Halloween yet (and thank goodness that's over this weekend!), I thought I'd lay out what we're planning on doing this year for Christmas.

For years, I've been trying to stick to "Jesus got three presents for Christmas, that's good enough for you, too", but it never works. I usually end up getting 3 "real" things, and then a bunch of little filler stuff. I think this year will be the same, too. AND I've budgeted well enough this year, that I'll be able to have most of my Christmas money the day after Thanksgiving, when we might be able to get some good deals. We tend not to go overboard anyway, so I don't think money will be an issue. Here's what we're thinking for the kids (and this is subject to change based on any new ideas they might have):

Stephen will be getting a Razor Scooter (and forgive all my Wal*mart links...that's where we'll doing most if not all of our shopping for the kids). He's been asking for a "cool" scooter for a while, and he's well out grown his other scooter and bike. So he needs a new set of wheels. He'll also be getting an Elmer's Science Kit, although, not necessarily that one in the link. I think he'll be really excited about that. And we're also looking at one of these Star Wars games, although I might get him the new Guess Who game instead. And we might fill in with some books from Half Price Books.

Zachary's hard to buy for. He's not really "in" to much. And most of the stuff we get for Stephen would be a gift to Zachary, too. But we're definitely getting this Batman set for him. It's really cute and I can just see the look on his face when he sees it. I was also thinking about a work bench and tool set, but I don't know. I don't think he would be really excited for it. But it might being one of those toys that don't garner a whole lot of excitement when it gets opened, but ends up being one of the most played with. It would definitely help on fine motor skills, which he could always use help on. He might get a game instead, I don't know yet. And because we're lousy, cheap parents, I was thinking that we would take the bike that Stephen got for Christmas last year that he was probably too big for back then, and paint it to look different (it still looks new because Stephen wasn't able to do much damage to it since he could barely ride it). I was thinking maybe painting it green and calling it a Hulk bike. I don't know. I'm afraid he'd be on to me. He wants his own bike, and I want to surprise him with one, but there's no sense in getting a brand new one when we have a perfectly good one in the garage. And of course some books and coloring books/workbooks.

And Marc-Adam. He's hard to buy for, too, because there's not much out there for his age that doesn't take batteries and that we don't already have or had at some point and then sold or given away. I've been wanting to get one of the kids a set of these blocks for a long time. I think I just might do it for him. I was also thinking about the classic bubble mower or maybe the grocery cart. I thought this was cute, but I read a review that it was smaller in real life than it looks in the picture, so I might go have a look at the store before making a decision. He'll probably be getting some coloring books and maybe a couple new Matchbox cars.

After adding all that up, we still have quite a bit of the money left from what we budgeted for them, so we thought we might get something big that would be a gift to all of them. I was thinking the Smart Cycle, but it's just so large and it hasn't gotten totally great reviews (too many people complained it quit working after a few uses and lots of people said it was a battery sucker). Plus, it might be a little too close to a video game for my taste. So, I'll have to think on that. We might just end up saving the leftover money or maybe get them something else they can all enjoy.

As for me, I've been hoping for a while that this would make it on to Sweet Hubby's idea list for our anniversary or Christmas. And since there's no money for our anniversary next week, I think I might have dropped enough hints for him to get it for Christmas. I seriously watch the infomercial everytime I see that it's on. I read some reviews and most were great but some weren't so good, but I'm still excited to see what I can do with it. Other than that, there's nothing else I really want, so that should be easy for him.

And I have no idea what Sweet Hubby'll be getting for Christmas this year. He'll probably do what he always does and just buy himself some stuff off of eBay or Amazon and then I'll wrap it and he'll act surprised. That's the only that he gets stuff that he's excited about. If left up to me, he would get jammie pants, a cap or a watch. All of which he likes, but all year long he looks at and watches stuff that he really wants...and none of those things are things that he can wear.

We have stockings, but they're not really a big deal to us. We rarely spend more than $10 on them. We'll probably just fill them with fruit and nuts and maybe a small thing of candy (when the kids get older, we'll do Lifesaver books since that's a tradition in our family....they're just entirely too young now for hard candy).

So there you go. That's a lot of links (and I haven't gone back to double check all the links...if you find one that's weird or wrong, let me know so I can fix it). I'll be posting more of our plans (food, decorations, etc) later, since we're doing something new this year and just staying at home both Christmas Eve and Christmas day instead of visiting family. That's totally new for us, and will take a bit more planning on my part.