Almost a "Date Night"......

My hubby and I got an "almost date night" last night!  We both got off work a little early, went to our local fast food joint, planned our Christmas shopping strategy while we were eating, left and then spent the next 3 hours on shopping!  Time alone with hubby (plus the hundreds of other shoppers).

I have to admit that I was surprised at how little traffic there was both on the roads and in the stores!  It seems to me that the stores were much busier in past years.  I know it was the middle of the week and there are still 10 days before Christmas, but I expected more people.  What has been your experience this year with your holiday shopping?

The other thing that I noticed was that the toy department seemed a little "slim" this year in comparison to previous years - in fact I don't think that any extra toys were brought in like the stores usually do.  What I did see was an expansion of the holiday decorations, pre-packaged gift sets and candy.  The electronics department was definitely into the holiday spirit and seemed to feature more than the usual array.

Merry Christmas!

Now for some more of my decorations!  This is the setup that I did on top of my buffet.  I am currently using the buffet as a sofa table (due to space restrictions), but I think it turned out pretty nice.  As with most of my decorations each piece has a little story!  The two Santa Claus figures were a gift from my Paternal Grandma & Grandpa.  They are both deceased so these pieces bring back some wonderful memories.  The little Green sleigh was passed down to my by my Maternal Grandma - she's now 85 and as feisty as ever!  I got the snow bear at my youngest daughter's school Harvest Festival - I won the silent auction for the basket of Christmas goodies.  The large snow globe was a Goodwill find and features the nativity.  The Nutcracker was a gift from my MIL and the reindeer plays music and was a hand me down from her also.  The really tall Santa (all you can see is his legs) was another Goodwill find!