The Gift of Time

So recently, we found out our principal is going to give us "the gift of time" for Christmas (instead of some notepads or whatever, that frankly, we have way too much of!). They said that sometime in December, they're going to give us all an hour and a half off to do some shopping, run errands or whatever and the principal/VP/counselor will take our kids for us. The best part is, we dont even have to leave plans for them, we can just take off and enjoy the afternoon. So nice. So we've chosen to have an hour and a half lunch where we'll do a giftcard exchange like we usually do. This works out really nice for our grade level because our conference time is the last hour of the day. So we'll come in from recess at 12:30, hand off the kids and we'll be back at 2:00...just in time to send them to P.E.! That will make for one nice afternoon!

So that got me thinking...that means Christmas is coming up sooner than I thought. Its in about 6 weeks, so I better start planning. Madison has so much stuff that she seriously doesnt need anything else. nothing. But it's Christmas, so she has to have SOMETHING to open....however, I love getting great deals and I bought so much stuff last year for pennies on the dollar at Target's after christmas toy clearance that I could buy absolutely NOTHING right now and Madison would have no less than 15 gifts to open on Christmas. Now I just have to go in the garage and dig out all of those toys and stuff taht I bought in order to give it to her for Christmas. The one new thing I bought her was this ornament because in my family, we buy a new ornament every year, which represents something from that year. My mom bought her a ballerina ornament because she is in ballet/tap classes (can't wait for her recital in May...its at UTA at Texas Hall and her costume is SUPER cute!!!) and she bought me a mommy to be one. It has a lady w/a big ol' pregnant belly.

Here's a pic of Madison's ornament from us:

It'll have her name on the heart, then on the skirt, I'll write "to be" because apparently there are no "big sister to be" ornaments.

I've also gotten her a few stocking stuffers already, like a viewfinder (remember those?!) with some Diego reels, some lipsmacker lip balms...she got a ring w/lip balm in it from her cousin's bday and she loved that thing so much!

I can't wait for Thanksgiving to come, bc then I get to start decorating the house for Christmas! Yay...my favorite time of year!!!