Christmas Shopping Done--well almost!!

Tonight, King Jibbit and I went to Knoxville and wiped out our Christmas shopping. We had only gotten the few things we had found (by surprise) while we were in Pigeon Forge. I had ordered some things for the grandparents online. Other than this little bit, we had not done any shopping. So, I mentioned to the King that I might go shopping tonight when he got home from work and being the sweet husband that he is --he arranged a babysitter and had me come by work and pick him up and he went with me!! ( I know----"awwwwww"). It was nice to not have to go alone and we tag teamed and wiped it OUT!! We have a very few items to pick up--a couple of stocking stuffers and a couple of items that we could not find and stores were closing. So, we got to Knoxville about 6:30 and left at 9:15 (and we got to eat supper) and we we were able to wipe out the "List." Usually, I am wanting Christmas shopping done around the first of December, but for some reason (probably because I didn't have my "list" made out) I was not too worked up over it (I KNOW---SHOCK!!) and it paid off. I had heard on the news that retailers have 2 dates they look at to see how their holiday business is going: #1 you guessed it --Black Friday ( and the weekend following) #2 Dec 15. So, if business isn't so great then they start slashing prices and apparently business is down, because prices were DOWN!! There was 1 item we had looked at earlier (not on sale) $47.99 when we came back tonight it was on sale for $24.99. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!?! This is one of MANY big price markdowns we found. LOVE IT!! This was such a great thing for me being the tightwad that I am. PLUS....this was a stress-free shopping experience, being a Tuesday night (while school is still in session) there were hardly any crowds. This is a biggie for me, because I think one of the big reasons I HATE shopping is because of the crowds. It is really not worth it to me to fight my way through stores and wait in big, long lines. AND, we came home and HAD to wrap the ones that were for our kids. So, not only are we very, very, very near done, but it is wrapped!! WAHOOO!!! We wrapped til we had no more paper.