Guest Blogger – Jessica Aryan
1. Have some unlabeled, moving or liquor boxes emptied and ready to be filled.
2. Before shopping bring along some bags from OTHER stores… for example if you are planning a trip to Toys’R’Us bring along some bags from a grocery store or other store of non-interest.
3. Swap bags with other shoppers at the mall… they may look at you as if you are crazy (and well you are!) but they may love the idea and share a good laugh!
4. Before you plan on doing your shopping figure out a good hiding spot for gifts – places where the children do not readily go such as in the basement (unless it is finished) or the attic.
5. Ask a family member or close friends to host a present holding swap. Have them hold yours and you hold theirs.
6. Bring blankets with you while gift shopping to cover up bags in the back or the car or van or truck.
7. DO NOT try to bring gifts inside when kids are home… send them to a neighbor’s, friend’s house or grandma’s for present-car-to-house-transfer and offer to do the same for them.
8. Have gifts wrapped at store, if possible… do not include gift tags – bring along some paper (a small notebook) and pen and mark down paper type, gift recipient and gift… gift tags can be written in advance and put on last minute (in case of nosy children!).
9. Get a rental storage unit for the month – maybe share one with a friend or two!
10. Let Santa take care of everything!
Jessica Ryan is a List Loving Mom who is admittedly better at writing them than following them. A former freelance writer, she decided to put the professional world on hold to raise her three entertaining kids. (Jessica often wonders why the job of parenting isn’t a freelance one. Her hours are never-ending and she can’t collect overtime, or any pay at all for that matter!) Jessica was dubbed by some of her friends as the Fairy Godmother, as she seemed to have all their (child-rearing) questions answered for them – She thinks she has them all fooled! Jessica has been blogging for about a year now, about her family and her life, documenting the good, the bad, and the funny!
Visit her blog, The Entertaining House, at http://doodlebuglounge.blogspot.com/
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