It’s Cyber Monday, and I have been shopping for Christmas gifts already the past few weeks. But not spent a dime. I have been in this shopping business for years, and sharing my finds is a way of living and what I enjoy doing, but to be honest, I haven’t even started shopping for Christmas yet for my own family, but I do have a wishlist what I want to buy.
To be honest, I normally do not make wish lists for me for Christmas or for any other day. We normally buy something we/I need anyway, and it is just “my gift”, and to be honest, it’s OK. I don’t really seek for the excitement to open gifts. My best gifts have been experiences like going skiing with family, going to a concert with my husband or a trip to Europe or a car that we needed anyway and just happened to order around Mother’s Day.
But this year, when we are really tight on money, due the economy and the recent move from Colorado to New York and my ever growing medical bills among other things, there are two gifts that I really really want this Christmas (for the entire family). It’s weird, in the past years when we could have easily swung the money for these two gifts, I never really had big things in “my list”, I didn’t have a “list”. This year – I’m really upset we can not just swing these two gifts, due money. Money or things don’t make me happy, and that’s not what Christmas is about, and has never been to me or our family. Spending the time with family, making the memories and baking the cookies, seeing kids laugh and be happy… that’s much more important.
Even our kids know this. My 8 year old said she is looking forward of Christmas since it is fun family time, that it’s not really about the gifts, even though chapter books would be welcome. My 6 year old said she wanted to have a few TAG books for Christmas to improve her reading, but no toys this year. My 5 year old wants his LEGO Police Set and a HESS truck, but said he’d settle for nice pajamas to keep him cozy at nights.
Why it is that after all this… after explaining kids the meaning of Christmas, and it not being about the gifts, and my kids actually accepting it… it is me, who is dying to buy two big gifts for our family? Why do I have this nagging conscious I’m being a bad parent, because I can not buy these two gifts? Even though I know deep inside that I am being a good parent, and teaching my children the right values.
Oh.. and the gifts that are nagging me.
A puppy. We lost our Frank earlier this year, and we now all feel we are ready for another dog in our life. Nobody will ever replace Frank, but we would like to welcome another rescue dog in to our family.
Wii Fit. Everybody talks about it, it looks so much fun, and it just looks something our family would enjoy playing together. I need to get in better shape for the ski season, and this would do the trick – bringing the virtual slopes to our living room. Just in case we can’t afford many ski weekends this years either.
How do you feel about Christmas shopping this year?
PS. I’ve been attending Wii giveaways (too bad nobody is giving away puppies) online, and my best trick for you too is to attend giveaways to fill the Santa’s sack. Check out several giveaways my friends & I are hosting.
Many of my Twitter friends commented about the ELLE Sadie lunch bag in my Holiday Gift Guide, and a stylish lunch/insulated bag truly is a great gift idea for a working woman – or mom who wants to carry snacks or even milk bottles in style.
I am happy to host a giveaway for not just one, but THREE stylish lunch bags! Three winners and you can pick your favorite from two different styles, from two cool lunch bag brands.
MARIO BATALI LUNCH BAGS
Mario Batali’s stylish and eco-friendly line of reusable insulated lunch bags are slightly more earthy and casual styles. The Mario Batali Lunch Bags are high quality and the best: a portion of the Mario Batali Lunch Bags proceeds will benefit The Lunch Box Auction, a non-profit organization which splits it proceeds between The Food Bank For New York City and The Lunchbox Fund. What is better than giving back?
ELLE has several beautiful styles of thermos / lunch bags, in which beauty and style combine with functionality for every day use. ELLE bags are great for modern women, and I could totally see business women carrying lunch to work with these stylish bags.
I will randomly choose Three Winners to choose their lunch bags! The winners can choose either a ELLE Sadie Lunch Bag in print of your choice or MARIO BATALI Insulated Messenger Bag in any print. The print choice is subject to availability. NOTE: The winners need to reply back with their shipping address within 24 hours after the notice or I will pick another winner.
On Cyber Monday, December 1st 2008, I would like to welcome you at Twitter around 7-9 EST to talk about Holiday Gifts, share your Holiday Gift Guide and the most talked products at your blog.
Make sure to follow me, @KatjaPresnal and @YoungMommy and our co-hosts @DealSeekingMom sharing deal finding tips and @ClassyMommy sharing best gift finds and @RoleMommy who is our giveaway expert and sponsoring several fabulous giveaway prizes in our party.
Join the fun & you can also copy the banner below to post it for your blog for Monday:
And please add YOUR Holiday Giveaway Link here to welcome all of the Party Goers to your giveaways.
UPDATE!!! Unfortunately the Mr Linky stopped working on Tuesday morning and giving an error message to my blog and I had to take it down. You are welcome to leave your giveaway link as a comment here.
Il Divo’s new album Promise just came out and it has taken the music lists by storm ever since. Even though almost all of the songs are sung in Spanish, the Promise songs make light opera of known songs like Amazing Grace, The Winner Takes it All and Adagio, perfect calming music even those who are not that used to listening to opera. During the busy Holiday times, I can not imagine more relaxing music than the Promise by Il Divo. Or maybe the Il Divo Christmas Collection, which includes classics like White Christmas, Ave Maria, Silent Night and O Holy Night.
You have a change to win both of these two CDs for yours to keep or maybe gift someone this Holiday season, thanks to One 2 One Network!
ENTER THE GIVEAWAY 1. Leave a comment why you would like to have these two CDs or to whom you would gift these this Holiday season. Remember to leave your link or email address or Twitter handle, so I have a way to contact you in case you win! 2. Deadline: December 8th, midnight EST.
It is finally here! My Flip Giveaway! With UNLIMITED entry possibilities!
Part of being in the Eleven Mom campaign for Walmart was getting a flipping sweet Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder to do money saving tip videos. I am a professional in telling moms what to spend money on, so the amount of my videos is zero on the money saving tip category. I’m working on it though. But my friend told me my tip to “buy your Michael Kors clothing at the outlets not Neiman Marcus” will probably not qualify for a Walmart YouTube channel money saving tip video. But I saved hundred bucks shopping at the outlets, just last week!
My plead to you is – YOU do the videos, and make me look good for sending you to post your videos.
Share your favorite money saving tip on a video and post it to Walmart’s YouTube Channel. Deadline: November 14th.
The most popular 20 videos will be featured on the channel on during November 16 to December 16 and the people will vote on the best 10 videos – the winners will get Free Groceries for a YEAR. Anyone could use that these days – and all you have to do is a post a video & have your friends voting for you
“Ten (10) Grand Prize Winners will get the equivalent of a years worth of free groceries from Walmart, in the form of a $6,000 Walmart Gift Card.”
Sweet, huh?
I can’t give you free groceries for a year – but I can give you one of these ultra sleek Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorders. I absolutely adore mine, it is so easy to use, and easy to download the videos. (I still need to work on the editing skills, and then I’ll be posting some videos…).
Technical Details - Simple to use, pocket-sized camcorder with one-touch recording and digital zoom - Holds 60 minutes of full VGA-quality video on 2GB of built-in memory; no tapes or additional memory cards required - Convenient USB arm plugs directly into your computer for easy viewing and sharing - Built-in software lets you easily e-mail videos, upload to YouTube and AOL, and capture still photos from video - Watch videos instantly on TV with included cable
Awesome, and so easy kids can use it! I recommend doing your Christmas shopping early and getting a few of these babies right now – the Flip normally runs around 149.99$ but you can get deals on them, like $116.95 at Amazon.
ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:
EACH STEP = ONE ENTRY
Yes, you can have unlimited amount of entries
1. Leave a comment which color Flip you would like to win white with lime or black. Or Tweet which color you like the best, use #WINFLIP One entry.
2. Subscribe my feed:
One entry.
3. Ask your friends to subscribe my feed. Each friend = one entry for you, one entry for your friend.
4. Follow me at Twitter, @katjapresnal – comment you followed me with a link to your twitter profile or use #WINFLIP and @ say hi to me. Sorry, only for new followers!
5. Ask your friends on Twitter to follow @katjapresnal – use #WINFLIP. Unlimited entries. But hey – only do this if you think I’m worth it. Don’t do it for the Flip – do it if you think your friends really would like to know me.
6. Tweet about the giveaway linking back here – use #WINFLIP. Unlimited entries.
7. Blog about the giveaway – comment with link to your blog post. One entry per one blog post.
DEADLINE: November 5th 12PM EST.
EXTRA EXTRA!!!
My friend The Domestic Diva is also hosting a FLIP GIVEAWAY this week. Make sure to check out her blog for another change of getting the Flip! And check out all my other Giveaways.
are high quality and the best: a portion of the Mario Batali Lunch Bags proceeds will benefit The Lunch Box Auction, a non-profit organization which splits it proceeds between 
