Okay- this is something I rarely ever do: Go Christmas shopping early. But this year, I got too anxious and did just that.

What happened was that I went out to get a present for my baby girl's birthday. While picking out a few Dora the Explorer toys, I thought, "eh- I might as well get the rest of the shopping done since I'm out here." So I loaded up the cart with Christmas toys for all three kids plus more birthday gifts for my twins (their birthday's in late December like mine). All this was accomplished more than a month before Christmas.

The one time I stepped up and didn't wait til the last minute, I get screwed. About a week before Christmas, just about everything went on sale, including the exact same toys I had already purchased in advance. Even though I knew the Return policy grace period for those toys have long past due, I still tried to return them to get the lower price. Of course that didn't happen, so I lost some seriously significant savings in discounts just because I didn't procrastinate this year. Ugh! It's so unfair.

The fact that I know how much my kids will enjoy these gifts did soften the blow. Really, it's all worth it just to see their adorable little faces light up at the sight of their new toys.

In case you're wondering, here's some of what I got them:

Avatar Lego set, Princess Ballerina tutu and DVD, Vtech's V-Flash gaming console, Roboraptor robotic dinosaur, Easy Bake Oven...