Only 4 days left...

until the craziness begins. So, yeah. I'm the person who goes out Black Friday shopping. At 3:00AM. Yup. That's me. And 5 of my closest friends. I haven't always been this person. My good friend... "Darla" (as always, name has been changed to protect the guilty)... has had great influence over this madness. And one of my sister-in-laws. (The crazy one.) We'll call her... um... there is no good name that sneakily rhymes with "Amanda," so we'll just call her... "Amanda." Anyhow, one year Amanda wanted to purchase the mother of all Black Friday items... a flat screen. And so I, being the most wonderful of all sister-in-laws, of course, offered to go to Fry's (which would be the mega electronics store of the South) with her and my friend, Darla. Now, Darla is the most hard-core BF shopper I have ever witnessed. We're talking diagrams, people. Of how to approach a single store. Was it successful? you ask. Oh, I can assure you, it was successful. Did I mention we had diagrams? And so, I have been a die-hard-3AM-coffee-drinking-raincoat-wearing-no-holds-barred-Black-Friday-shopper ever since. But it's not for everyone. And there's some things that I will simply never be able to get on sale on Black Friday no matter how hard I try. So, I've already been shopping my little heart out. Wanna see? Now, this one was not actually for Christmas, but a recent birthday gift for my mom. I got her a custom camera strap from The Personalized Touch on Etsy. This is a different one than what I got for Mom, but this one is yellow, so, of course, I had to show it. This would be a sweet gift for anyone who takes a lot of pictures. I had her add in a bit of an extra lining so that it would be super comfy.

And this one... well... it decided to come home with me during the giant Old Navy sale a few weeks ago. I'm not really an impulse shopper, and this is definitely not what I was there for... but I love it. I've worn it way too many times since I bought it, so I think it was worth it. The picture doesn't do it justice... it is definitely made to be oversized (more of a sweater coat, less of a cardigan) and is a light dove gray with just a few metallic gold threads woven throughout. I kid you not, it goes with *everything.* I love that the sleeves are 3/4 length because I can still do everything I need to do without pushing my sleeves up.

This next one is one of my all-time favorite gifts for kids. The Kidz Biblestick is an MP3 player that is pre-loaded with a dramatic reading of the New Testament, including lots of extra songs, etc. I bought one last year for my then-4-year-old and it is, hands down, his favorite item (other than his beloved Blue Blankie). There is no way to load anything else to it or delete anything from it (yeah... that part's important to me!) - it just has an on/off button, volume buttons, and forward/back buttons. Could not be easier to operate. We don't do a ton of electronic toys, but this one reinforces what we teach at home and has helped Eli learn lots of Scripture. Love it. Bought one for someone in the fam...

Ah, the Bilibo Play Shell. I have the fabulous Kim Kesti to thank for this one. She did a review of this new-to-me little toy and bam! One gift for my little 2 year old - check. We happened across one in person the other day and I let the kids test it out to see how it would go over on Christmas morning... winner! We tend to stick to the more creative, learning-type toys and I think this one will fit in with all the kids for quite a while.

And finally, a gift for Little Miss. Now. I am the first to admit that the whole having-a-girl-thing is way new to me. As in, even the laundry is different. (Dude... how can one be expected to keep up with all those bloomers and matching parts of every outfit?! That took/is taking some serious adjustment.) So, I've been a little bit lost on what to get her. First of all, she's 7 months old, so let's get real - she's going to be more interested in the wrapping paper than whatever we get her. And, we've already got most of the tiny kid toys covered around here seeing as how we've had two tiny kids already. So, I'm kind of thinking I'd like to get her something a little more heirloom-ish. Not heirloom as in big and fancy and expensive, but heirloom as in just something that has a bit more meaning and will last for quite a while. I'm thinking... charm bracelet? Maybe? I thought this one could be the first one as sort of an explanation of why we named her Noelle (yes, I realize the spelling is different; I'm ok with that).

Any other ideas? I'm open to any and all suggestions! I'd love to hear of any other heirloom-ish ideas for girls And how about the rest of you...? How's the holiday shopping going? Any fellow Black Friday fiends out there?