Christmas itself is not all about the gifts. Besides the special one of a savior. However, gifts do appear and I find great joy in surprising loved ones with things they wanted or needed. So today was all about the gifts. I completed a major shopping spree!

That would be the result of 3 hours of shopping. I have to brag that I now have finished my Christmas shopping with the exception of my nephew. Seriously, where in the world can you find model cars?! Moving on…

I didn’t want to brave the mall today, but I convinced myself that I wouldn’t face too much madness with it being a weekday and still the first half of December. I was right. The mall was not bad at all. Pretty empty in fact.

Inside the mall, I only needed to visit JC Penney (because I had a $10 off a $10 purchase coupon I refused to waste) and also Aeropostale (because I have a preteen niece who loves their stuff). I was in, out, done relatively quickly there. Bolstered by the ease of the mall, I ventured on to Toys R Us for the other children’s shopping.

Not quite as peaceful. I think all of us stay at home moms were out in full force. It took forever there. I had to search high and low for all sorts of crazy things (Mighty Beans????). Luckily, I covered the list, besides the danged model car, and managed to escape only slightly flustered. I rounded out my shopping with a stop into Target and Kohls. It took 3 hours of my morning and gave me some cramps, but its worth it to have some December birthdays covered as well as gifts for everyone from Makenzie to the donation present for a youth from our church’s “compassion tree”.

I get more excited shopping for other people than anticipating gifts for myself. Actually, Peter & I don’t even exchange gifts because we will purchase things we need or really, really want throughout the year. That doesn’t stop me from having a wish list though. Hey, there are always things that sound nice. Like the following…

Baby B arriving sometime in the 37-38 weeks pregnant time frame. He’ll be fully cooked at that point…and I’ll be way overdone by that point. Seems like a reasonable wish.

Insanity & TurboFire DVDs. I want. I want. I WANT!!!!

Oh how I would love to have these as part of my at home workout DVD collection to use sometime post-baby. Anyone have any sitting around dusty on their shelves they care to send my way? I’m only slightly kidding.

New tennis shoes.

My current ones are 2 years old. Yikes! I just realized that. I haven’t been motivated to buy new ones when my workouts weren’t as heavy. Clearly that is a necessity. Too bad I have no clue which I would like.

A shopping spree at Trader Joes. I haven’t been in awhile and want to go and stock up. Plus, I still have yet to try their pumpkin butter. I have pangs of jealousy every time I see it on your blogs.

Sponsorship to FitBloggin in May. A girl can dream, right?

• Do you like holiday shopping?
• What’s on your wish list?

It feels like we went through all the life stages on Saturday. We started with the pregnancy/newborn stage during our tour of the fabulous hospital. I still can’t get over how NICE it is!

After the tour, we entered the childhood years. Our little town had a Christmas parade down one of the main streets. We had the chance to act like kids again with little M.

This year blew last year’s parade out of the water. There were so many floats! From snowmen to the Grinch to Santa to holiday angels to birthday cakes for Jesus. I like seeing that. It always makes me smile when a little reminder pops up.

Makenzie started off pretty tired since she had to miss her nap for the parade…

…but she quickly got into it when she saw people passing out lollipops and Chick Fil A cows riding by. The kid loves dressed up characters. I hope that bodes well for when Santa visits her kiddie holiday party in a couple weeks.

All in all we had a great time. I sometimes think I have more fun than her!

We decided to grow up a bit for Saturday night. We had a special party to attend – our friend’s surprise 40th birthday party!

His birthday is not until the very end of the year, so he had no clue. I loved the shock on his face! And his reaction was priceless. I know I would have felt the same way seeing a group of loved ones all in one place. But I’ll share a nicer picture of him with some of the ladies instead. 😉

Over the course of the evening I had so much fun sipping my water while eyeing my friend Cory’s famous sangria. Have I mentioned I miss wine? Oh, yea. I have. I did get to munch on a few snacks…

…plus more fruit and some cake. I wish my friend Angie and I had gotten a picture of the cake’s aftereffects. Black icing = attractive teeth. And without a doubt, I spent a large chunk of the night laughing and chatting. It never fails that a gathering with our group of friends makes for a fabulous night. Even when I have to check out early at 10 with some body aches. I had fun though and that’s all that matters.

• How was your weekend? Any nice acts for others in the mix?
• Would you ever want a surprise party? I would LOVE a surprise party, but I know Peter could never manage putting one together. He admits it.