the joy of giving.

I have a tendency to give gifts to everyone.  I give gifts to my family, my boyfriend, and my friends.  All my friends.  Not one or two close ones, but all of them.  One year, I believe I gave out 10 "friend" gifts, but this year I've knocked it down to six.  I think.  Instead of spending a ton on each of them, I spent less than $5 on each of the gifts and customized a cute and creative card to go with it (I'll post after I give them all out - I'd hate to spoil the surprise).  For the friends that I remain close with, but wouldn't necessarily give a gift to, I've decided to send handwritten cards to each of them, as they are still parts of my life and I want to do something cute and unique.  There won't be any posed pictures, or updates on what my last year has been like, but it will just be a little holiday cheer that will hopefully bring a smile to the stress of the end of the semester.

For my family, I like to give them each a little something individually.  Now that I'm on my own, I tend to be the one who picks up all the gifts, since my sisters usually are shopping with my parents around.  The three of us all go in on something for each parent (Little Brother is still too little to help with Dad's gifts).  We usually find a store-bought gift for them, something small, but then spend the day doing something of their choice, that they want to do (one year we spent the day helping my mom sort through hundreds of pictures for scrapbooking!).

Once my sisters and I started babysitting and getting money of our own, we were able to buy each other gifts with minimal help from our parents, and we didn't just have our names written in the "From" section of the tag on something Mom picked out.  Last year, I got my siblings all University of Minnesota apparel, and this year...well this year they both got some input on what they wanted for part of their gifts!  The other part I picked up at an outlet mall earlier this fall - it's been SUCH a relief knowing that my presents are done way ahead of time.

Loverman is the hardest to shop for.  There are plenty of great gift guides out there for shopping for men, and the range from a little pricey, to something more on the college budget that I happen to be living on.  (check out this one from College Prepster, for him & her, the one from Design Darling, Cupcake & Cashmere, Real Simple - they have a foosball table for $49! Love them!)  Last year I got him a DIY monogrammed flask and a blu-ray player.  One nice thing about buying for your man, is that they will (should/better) love you whether or not they loved the gift!

I hope this gives you all some ideas for future gifts!  The holidays are officially upon us - let me know if you have any other gift questions in the comments!

Black Friday

One of Loverman's favorite activities is Black Friday shopping.  It's more important to him than his birthday, a Friday off of work, his morning cup of coffee, and probably our anniversary (justkindakidding).  As part of his birthday present, I agreed that even though I would be in my hometown for the actual holiday that we actually celebrate, I would make it back up in time to shop with him late Thursday night/early Friday morning.

Well, lo and behold, the Black Friday gods have changed the laws of Black Friday and starts at 6pm, 8pm, 10pm, and midnight.  In the words of Loverman, "I mean, I had an issue with midnight, and 10pm, but now 8pm and 6pm?  It's sacreligious".  As a compromise with his Black Friday morals, we went out around 10:30.  AND DID I SCORE OR WHAT?

Loverman hardly got anything.  A blu-ray that he later discovered he could already stream, and "Home Alone," which was actually pretty good $3 deal.  But I got the best gift for Little Brother.  He is going to love his remote controlled mud-covered Ford F-150.  Does this not make me the best sister to a 5 year-old?!  I grabbed some last things for my mom, a couple of friends and got myself one of my favorite movies, "Silver Linings Playbook".  I scored.  I got spritzed with some awful perfume by a woman with poor aim in an overcrowded Macy's cosmetics department, but it was worth it.  Online shopping was delightful as well; however, online shopping was limited to must-haves, so I didn't find much.  Loverman lucked out there, picking up some gifts for his mom and himself.

Did you find any good deals?  Tell me!  I love shopping stories!

OH! Did you have a good Thanksgiving?  It was a joy to be back home with my family this year.  It's been three years since I've made it back for the holiday, due to being out of state and staying at school with Loverman's family because of a scheduling conflict, so it was wonderful.  With divorced parents, it came with a fair amount of stress, but a fair amount of stress that was worth it.  I was woken up by Little Brother in the wee hours to watch "Planes" before the parade and the Thanksgiving breakfast Dad made everyone.  It's always good to spend time there, to hang out with him and Little Brother.  At 5, Little Brother is at the age where it is an absolute hoot to be around him.  Some really good ones:
"I'm not going to college.  Where do you go after college?"
"Well, you get a job.  Kaitie is going to college soon."
"But she already has a job, so she shouldn't go to college and leave like you did."  (Hence having to get the best present ever.)

"Did you bring home Hiccup Spike?"  (Referring to my hedgehog.)
"No, I left Hiccup in my apartment at college."
"Taylor, her name is Hiccup Spike."

Then he called my Dad a knucklehead and tried to get out of playing a game by telling a family friend he was 3, then deadpanning he was actually 4.  What a turkey.

Off to Great-Grandma's it was after that, and then straight into the car to drive to Loverman.  Long day, but worth it, even if the Black Friday gods smited (smote? had the gall to smite?) Loverman.