Christmas means so much more to me than the material items, but I can’t lie that those are still fun too. I mean, who doesn’t like presents? I got some nice ones too.

We do Secret Santa with both my immediate family and Peter’s family. My sister had me this year and picked out a couple of gifts perfect for me.

Catch Phrase because I LOVE game nights with friends and family.

Also, a gorgeous new camera strap cover for my DSLR. I can’t wait until it comes in the mail sometime in the next week. Isn’t it pretty?

I also received a special item from my cousins – a new study Bible directed to mothers. I see this getting a lot of use.

Peter’s side of the family knew what I would love too. Gear to make my time in the kitchen more fun. My little brother in law got me a waffle maker and my great sister in law picked out an immersion blender with extra attachments for me. We used both for breakfast yesterday morning. Homemade waffles with strawberry compote topping!

For the waffles, we just used the basic recipe provided with the maker.

For the strawberry topping, I took about 1.5 cups of frozen strawberries and microwaved them until they got soft and oozy. Then, I took the immersion blender to them until I had a puree.

It made for the perfect waffle topping when garnished with a smidge of powdered sugar. I love my new toys!

I also may purchase a few extra gifts for myself with my Christmas money. Like these…

…because I seriously need new shoes. (Brooks Adrenaline GTS 10)

And perhaps this??? It certainly looks very appealing!

Question of the Evening – What do you do with Christmas money you receive? Spend or save? Peter & I are normally big savers, but I do like to use a bit of it for something fun. And what could be more fun than workout gear? 😀

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?