Vacation Time

Finally the kids are on school break!!!  I love this time of year: no bed time, waking up late, movie nights every night, no schedules, no homework, no tests, no studying!!!  It's AWESOME!

And it's the final days counting down to CHRISTMAS!  I am so super excited this year for the holidays, I can't contain myself.  We've been full swing in the holiday spirit around here, baking cookies, starting our advent, decorating!  It just makes the season so much more merry.  And the kids are in super high spirits because of course, they expect a few gifts under the tree.  I must admit, I can't blame them.  I love getting my kids gifts for the holidays and Christmas being the biggest holiday of all, of course I got them a few little bits.

Now, I am not totally done shopping for Christmas but I am getting there and it feels good to be making so much progress especially with the year we've had.  Our budget is tighter this year than last and smaller too, so I had to get creative.  But that made it all the more fun and to be honest, it feels the same to me as the kids are getting some awesome gifts and about the same amount as per our tradition.  So they won't be missing out at all because I was smart and shopped a lot of sales and got some pretty sweet deals and discounts on most everything I bought.

Black Friday has gotten so much bigger and better in Costa Rica and this year was by far the biggest and best, in my opinion.  I managed to score big that day as well as on a few discount and sales weekends when the stores were offering some mega price breaks on most of their merchandise... and lucky for me most of what my kids had on their wish lists for Christmas this year was on sale.  So score!!!

I had so much fun shopping for my kids... more fun than I should probably have but I just love getting people stuff.  I am a gift giver and to extend that I am also buying presents for my little nephews for the very first time ever for Christmas because they will be spending the holiday with us this year (along with my sisters and my mom and stepdad.)  I am over the moon about that!!!

So I am putting on my walking shoes again this weekend because I will be shopping 'till I drop until I am done with every single person on my list.

Merry Christmas shopping everyone!