It was the day after Thanksgiving and our tree was up and our wreath was out on the front door and I was feeling fantastic. (Jason gave me the prize for biggest wreath in the neighborhood) I put on a Christmas CD that Saturday and decided I would spend all day decorating for Christmas! Then I remembered....I do not have any Christmas decorations! I dug out some really old stuff and decided that this year I would look around and actually buy some festive decorations. I do not even have a Nativity Scene. It just feels more like Christmas this year because I am not working full time and stressing out about Christmas shopping. (only have 2 more people to buy for!) So for anyone that may be in the same position that I am, I have found some pretty cool stores out there with some great Christmas decor. 1) STAR - it is right off the 101 and Shea Blvd. in Scottsdale, in the Fry's shopping center. Apparently they are going out of business at the end of January so everything must go type thing. But they have more ornaments, ribbon, candles, nutcrackers, trees, than you could imagine. 2) Kirkland's. I now prefer to go to the one in the Mesa Riverview. 202 and Dobson. It is a much bigger store than the one in Chandler or the one off Val Vista. They were having 10% off all their Christmas items, but I think that may be over. 3) Razmataz. I usually go to the one in Scottsdale because it is by my mom's house. They have the cutest stuff, for really cheap prices. I have bought more than a few things there.
So is it bad to spend more money on Christmas decor than on actual Christmas presents? (Don't tell my husband!) :)
So it is Quinn's first Christmas and the question of whether he needed a picture with Santa was bothering me ever since Thanksgiving. I imagine that the pictures are more for the mom's out there than for the kids. At such a young age, aren't the kids mostly scared of Santa anyway? Most pictures I see of little kids on Santas lap are of crying, screaming, scared to death kids. (and some of those make the best pictures!) But we gave in and went to the mall and had a picture taken. I headed off with 4 girlfriends and there little ones to my first Santa picture taking experience. All was going well until we were about 2 people ahead of us and I smelled the awful smell of Quinn doing a #2. Yes, the boy had saturated his pants right before we were to sit on santa's lap. Being ignorant to anyone around me or their sense of smell, I changed him right there in his stroller and threw the diaper away by the cash register. Quinn actually did fairly well and was more interested in Santa's beard than trying to get a cute picture for mom.... 
