This weekend was thankfully way less expensive than last week. Friday I did do some holiday shopping but it was all with money I had already set aside for gifts. I am about 1/2 way done with shopping for my 4 kids but since we celebrate Hannukah at home (DH is Jewish) I have to hurry up. I have already started wrapping things. I find (with credits to Flylady) that I am much less stressed if I start wrapping things ahead of time and just wrap two or three things a night. I can fit this into a five to 10 minute block of time and by the time the holidays are here, everything is done. No last minute, late night wrapping session in a panic to get it done. Also, having things wrapped is a great way to thwart those who would like to sneak and peek to see what their gifts might be. I also go out of my way to wrap things in unusual ways, use unusual containers, boxes etc. to help prevent guessing. My two oldest DD's are teens and prefer to pick out many things themselves. I have no problem with this but I think it is less fun if you know what most things are before you even open them. So, I cleverly disguise things so that they are still surprised. For example, I might put books in some sort of round container and wrap that, put small things in larger boxes, stuff shirts etc. into small boxes - anything to disguise what things really are. My DD 16 picked out some boots she really wanted and I said I would put them away for a holiday gift. I am going to do my best to disguise them. I might even just wrap a piece of paper with the word boots on it and put it in a tiny box. She is expecting me to try to trick her so I will have to really use my imagination on this one. I love to see the look of surprise on their faces when they think they know what something is and then they unwrap it, only to find that it is something else entirely.