In past years we have had a blast drinking wine after our yummy turkey dinner and wearing our PJ’s while scouring the web and buying all of our holiday gifts online. Personally I am able to shop around for the best prices online and I feel like I get the best deals that way.

We have a few big ticket items we are shopping around for. N really wants a 42 inch LCD TV and we have been looking at them for months. I am not totally pleased with the “holiday specials” on these though. It seems the retailers aren’t really discounting them at all and well we don’t have $1000 to spend on a TV right now.

N also wants a few big hardware store gifts, you know “man-ish gifts”. A lawnmower (preferably an electric one, not gas) and a wet dry shop vac. I am working hard over on gather.com to earn a home depot gift card for these things. Anything to save money and have a cheaper holiday is fine by me!

This is going to be our last holiday season as a twosome. It is crazy to think about. Next year we’ll have a child, we will have stared a family of our own… Everything is about to change and we are excited!

Do you have any big ticket items you are shopping around for this holiday? Any big items you would love to get?

The post Black friday here we come! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Turns out most people had to send in their precious Mac’s to have the casing replaced. I am certain I can’t do without my mac for that long.

Now my bad dream was that in the lower left corner, just to the left of the track pad the plastic casing caved in revealing all my Mac’s guts. I believe someone put their thumb through the plastic or something. What an awful dream huh?

I guess I am just paranoid that the hairline cracks in my Mac’s case are going to grow and become a much bigger problem. I don’t know what I’ll do without my Mac…

In other news, yesterday we tackled some freaking holiday shopping here in town. This is odd for us because we try to avoid holiday shopping in actual stores.

We find that in general we hate being crammed in a ravaged store with a bunch of deal hunting, self centered crazies. People sometimes annoy us. So we resort to holiday shopping online and it makes life much simpler.

Yesterday we finally returned our crappy mattress topper and we got a microwave and some holiday gifts instead. Oh, and it did not snow but it was cold enough to dig out the fluffy jacket, scarf and gloves.

And… I had much more energy and stamina yesterday. We stayed out shopping and poking around stores for a whole 6 hours. Usually I can only stay out for like 2 or 3 hours at a time before I would get all achy and tired again.

When we got home we settled in for some reheated pizza and a movie. We watched Disturbia and a Lifetime movie about The Kissell Murders. What did you do yesterday? Have you started the holiday shopping yet?

The post Oh no! Keep the mac safe! (and other musings) appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Amazon.com is a great holiday gift retailer I have used this year. Amazon is still offering their two day shipping Today, December 20th 2007. Buy.com, a popular online electronics retailer will be offering their free shipping specials till Sunday December 16th 2007 and lastly The United States postal service has also posted their 2007 holiday shipping guidelines for your convenience. Shipping deadlines are definitely fast approaching so you need to get your holiday online orders placed soon!

Do not despair if you miss the shipping deadline for your favorite retailer there are several solutions! You could consider wrapping up a creative “IOU” or a “your gift is on the way” certificate for your gift recipient that way your package can arrive after Christmas and still please the receiver. Another great idea is giving a gift card or a gift certificate! Many retailers are offering creative gift card solutions that allow your recipient to shop for what they really want as a gift from you. This makes many recipients elated because then they can get what they really want!

The post Still trying to finish your holiday shopping? appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

I also am a big fan of doing the holiday shopping online.. It’s so easy and the stuff just arrives at your house for you to wrap and make pretty. So, mail order or online shopping needs to be done a bit more in advance then say running to the mall on Christmas eve or whatever. That is why I am starting to do my shopping now… Are you?

I love to find stores that will give you free shipping or a discount for shopping online.. I just love a discount! I wanted to share this website I found that is sort of a collection of many stores and the many discounts they offer.

For example, I am a big fan of old navy and so is my boyfriend but we don’t have one here in our town. The online shopping coupons site (couponchief.com) has old navy as one of their participating stores so thanks to them I now know that I can get an old navy discount on the shipping of my order!

I am also interested in ordering stuff from home depot and learned that I can get a 20%-50% discount off my home depot order. Knowing I am able to pick the discounts I like really does entice me to buy from the particular store and I like to shop online anyway so this site is a big help for me!

There are so many stores listed on this site and it is nice to finally be told about the available discounts you can cash in on all in one place. This makes doing my holiday shopping online and in advance so easy and I am saving money too!

Well, now you know about how I do my holiday shopping. How do you handle your holiday shopping? Do you love to shop online and hunt for the deals or are you a “brave the holiday crowds” kind of shopper?

The post Have you started you holiday shopping for this year? appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.