Christmas Blessings

I can't describe to you the excitement that I feel over my kiddos Christmas gifts this year but I will try. Here it goes:

First of all J Bear has been asking since last Christmas for a Spike the Dinosaur. Looks like this:

It is currently selling for $130 at Target. Well, I couldn't afford that last year and certainly couldn't afford it this year either. However, shortly after Christmas last year a friend of my brother's had bought 2 of them; one for each of their children. However, when they started to play with them they realized that both dinosaurs were on the same radio frequency and so the kids were constantly fighting about who was controlling it. Anyway, they decided they were just going to get rid of one and my brother asked if he could have it. He took it home FOR FREE!!! and has saved it all these months to give J Bear for Christmas this year from Santa.

J Bear also uses my Ipod almost every day and we had talked about getting him a small Ipod Shuffle for Christmas as well (seems as how we didn't have to buy the dinosaur). On Matt's first day at work a few months ago he opened up his new desk drawer and sitting inside was just that... an Ipod Shuffle. He took it to his new boss who said, "Just keep it!" Another Christmas gift FOR FREE!!!

Peanut on the other hand has not been able to make up his mind for the last couple of months about what he wanted. I always like to ask early in case I might see it at a garage sale or thrift store. Well, he finally decided that he wanted Lego Road Trip. It is on a commercial on TV. Upon further investigation it was discovered that a kit for the RV on the commercial doesn't exist. Lego has an online instruction book to build it yourself but you have to have all of the pieces. Luckily we have millions of lego's and besides a few custom pieces that I had to order online... it was almost FREE!!! ($8.00 in shipping and $5.00 in parts to complete the RV) Seems as how it was almost free I thought I would see if there was another kit that could go along with it. I saw a Camper and thought I would see if I could find that one also.

Well, I couldn't find it anywhere. Not at Wal-Mart or Target or KMart. Only online!!! So I happened to stop at the Lego store in Peoria over by my Mom's and they had it. The online price was $18 and this one had a tag on it for $9.99. I took it up to the register and it rang up $18. I pointed out the pricing error on the tag and they gave it to me for $9.99. NICE!!!

We also thought that we would get Peanut and Ipod Shuffle just like J Bear. However, Apple re-vamped their Ipods again and the kind that I wanted was no longer available to buy new. Bummed as I was, I knew I could find a used one SOMEWHERE!!! I looked and looked but to no avail. Every craigslist post that I responded to had already been sold. We are now 2 weeks from Christmas and still nothing when Matt calls me and says he just won an Ipod Shuffle at the gas station by his work for $1. Yes... $1!!!!

I spent $15 at a garage sale a few months ago on some more Lego's. So... if you are still with me, the total amount spent for my kids Christmas is:

$38.99!!!
And they are getting EVERYTHING that they want!!!
Those are the blessing that I love!!!