buy Christmas presents early

I have been her babysitter for a year when she was 3 and I fell in love with her deeply. She lives far away and I haven’t seen her for half a year, so I don’t know what to buy. Since I don’t want to send anything too heavy, I am thinking about a special shirt or something like that.. She loves pink. :D I am thinking about this one on the photo, what do you say?

(text: perfect child)

Might seem a bit late to attempt buying stuff ‘early’ but I have a head start, I have bought my daughter’s main present and my son’s was ordered last night and will arrive on Tuesday most likely.
Not buying stuff for my hubby cos we just had a lot of expensive treats we paid out for so we’ve decided those were our presents.

Just need to think about the relatives. Two died earlier this year sadly, my hubby’s aunt and uncle within 3 days of eachother. The cousins are easy enough to buy for though and we can post their stuff off in good time.

My family (5 people)
My Italian family (4 people)
My German grandmother & husband (2 people)
Some friends (? people)

That’s lots of money for a student, so I need good ideas. But I know for my princess I have to buy something special, like last year (on photo).

... but also SEND them early. If I’m ever going to learn this?

I won’t mark this as done yet, but I feel I have completed my ‘challenge’ on this. I made Bramley Apple and Sloe Gin Jelly, 3 jars of the stuff, and two are for presents, the third I have opened to make sure it didn’t set too firm, and tasted ok which it did. I was thinking it would only be good for eating with savoury foods or for meat eaters with their turkey or whatever, but it tastes nice enough to eat on toast as well :)

Still need to scan in that photo but have decided it’s for Yule for the pair of them, and they can have some chutney too. I think the Sloe Jelly would be wasted on them, knowing them they would not be partial to that kind of thing.

Just need to get a pressie for a friends we are seeing tonight, probably a big tin of sweets for their family. That’s an easy enough gift to pick up!

he wanted, and have strained the Sloe Gin :) After bottling there was enough for hubby and I to each have a small shot of it! It was really nice and a very nice reward for all my hard work. I’ve been cooking a special Italian Nut Pastry thingy for tea tonight. I’ve also made a Veggie Leek Casserole with Dumplings. Not that these have anything to do with Yule, but everything is coming together for me and I feel really on top of things.
I just have to make labels for the Gin and then I can wrap those two as well.
Still not done anything about the wedding photograph idea I had for the step-mum-in-law. It’s her birthday on the 17th so maybe it can be for that. I’m hoping it will scan well and then I can take it on disk to be professionally printed.

who I’ve been nagging to tell me what he’d like. I got his wife something already. The relatives kids are just about sorted now.
The main thing for me to do now is strain my Sloe Gin and bottle it, and make some Sloe Gin Jam with the leftover fruit.
The Jam is going to make presents too if it tastes nice.

... have sent all my overseas and interstate gifts earlier in the week. Now there are only a few small purchases to make, so this can be ticked off…...

I just have the step-in-laws to buy kiddies presents for, as we agreed years ago to only buy for the kids, then there’s just the father-in-law’s framed photo – if that’s what I end up doing, plus my brother and his wife who are meant to be telling me what they’d like.

Otherwise I have been wrapping the presents as they arrive/are bought and feel really on top of things for a change! I still need to get a couple more things but I am not sure what yet.

I found myself saying the other day that I hope there’ll still be something small to shop for last minute. I think I just enjoy the feeling that you get a day or so before the big day. We celebrate the main stuff at the Solstice, but I always do the big dinner on the 25th because then I get some peace and quiet and there are no interruptions. The majority of the presents are opened then too, especially since most people give them on Christmas Eve.

Today I got the last presents and now everything is done! There are still a few things that I haven’t wrapped yet, but the main thing is that I’ve bought/made everything. Now I don’t have to stress about it. I love this!