Christmas Shopping

I have almost completed my Christmas shopping, and I think that this year went rather well. I didn't go and hit people with carts and curse out other mothers at Black Friday sales. I didn't fight with anyone because they were taking the last "Baby Alive" doll. I haven't tossed the Christmas tree out of the front door even though whenever I look at it, all I see is my light bill getting bigger and bigger.

While I haven't always been cheery, I have been able to smile and remind myself that all children ask for expensive toys that they will only use for a few weeks before they toss it aside even though it cost $100. I also haven't spent $100 on ANY toy. I hit a total of $100 of spending on Daizia's items a few days ago, and that was counting ALL gifts. I have been taking advantage of coupon deals that I get by checking out http://www.mojosavings.com/ and http://www.chitowncheapskate.com/. There are lots of items that I got for FREE! We are talking about Pictureka the card game, Hungry Hungry Hippos travel game, 3 Zhu Zhu pets (I paid for 1 and got 3 free). And then there were LOTS of things that I didn't spend more than $5 on, like Cuponk ($7 before $5 coupon), Crayola PopArt Pixies (crafts that were $9.99, minus the WalGreens coupon of $4 plus another $4 coupon), and lots of other stuff.

While I am super excited about the deals that I got, I am more excited about Christmas being OVER. All this cheer that only comes during the holidays makes me tired. Why can't people be nicce year round? Why does it take a holiday or tragedy to get people to be cordial? What does is hurt to smile at someone? It makes a huge difference in someone's day.