Pink Deer

December 4: I had plans with my mom to go shoe shopping. I loved these:

But I can't do a heel, especially those tiny ones, plus the pointy toes didn't help. I ended up settling on somewhat of a snow boot. They have these little spikes that you can put down:

They just flip out of the bottom:

And in Iowa winters, you need something for our ice. I wanted to get another pair to wear around indoors. It was in the 40's that day, so it was hard to tell if things were too hot to wear indoors or not.
I found a private swap when I got home:

We had agreed to send stockings full of stuff.

As you can see, she didn't send a stocking. I was a bit annoyed about that. She sent a lot of great stuff, but I asked if anyone wanted to swap stockings full of things.

A Hello Kitty bag, some banana macadamia nut pancake mix, coconut pudding mix, a cute Maui coin purse, some hula girl sticky notes, some Mauna Loa macadamia nuts, erasers in the shape of flip flops, a Hawaii magnet and some pens. I had told her I went to Hawaii back in 2010 (so long ago) and missed it so much, it was one of the best vacations I've ever been. I wish she'd sent more food that was already made, I'm not sure I'll use either of the mixes. 
Also found a few Christmas cards:

This one is really cute, it's got foil accents in the trees.

This is a postcard RAK.

And a cute snowman card.
I repopulated my chocolate drawer from my purchases the day before:

Most of this will go in goody bags for friends.
My Advent calendars:

Mine was the gnome and watermelon washi, the cactus keychain, what looks like a purple Peppa Pig squishy and a couple mini folders from the swap.
December 5: I had to work in the afternoon. The Advent calendars:

Mine is the gnome and the washi, the dinosaur keychain, a snowman head squishy and some foam Christmas tree stickers from the swap.
I got a Christmas card in the mail:

I like this bear.
December 6: I had to work again. Found these cute leather bookmarks in my mailbox:

someone had dropped them off at the library in January, I had said if we didn't put them out, could I have them, it only took a year to get them to me.
The Advent calendars:

Mine is the gnome and washi duo, a not McDonald's box of fries, a fox? squishy and some eyelash yarn. I was wondering what I did with this gnome ornament.
When I got home from work, I found a box from Amazon:

It was for a Send Me Something unique. I agree they are unique, but I'm not a fan of Star Wars and I don't use chopsticks. So, I passed them on to a friend who assured me they will love them as they are meant to be loved.
I made a Christmas pocket letter:

I totally just used the doors from my 12 Days of Christmas calendar and added some ephemera to cover the numbers.
I also got a Christmas pen ready to be mailed:

And some Santa/elf happy mail:

And some Christmas craft destash:

And a Christmas Dollar Tree item:

And a wish for something Christmas sloth:

And a wish for a surprise:

And a Christmas ornament:

My boss assured me we'd be nonstop busy at work, I was kinda bummed we weren't. I did have a couple new accounts who showed up 20 minutes after requesting stuff and expected it to be ready. Also had about 4 people show up 2 minutes until we closed, though that's a normal Sunday thing.
December 7: Got up and read The Haunting of Ashburn House, it was really good, I couldn't put it down. Had 3 things in the mail.
A wish for Happy mail:

Not that exciting, I like the Princess stickers.
A letter B:

I didn't realize we could just send stickers, I might go more flat next time.
And another wish for Happy mail:

Also, not too exciting, my favorite thing is that bow piece.
The Advent calendars:

Mine is the gnome and the gummy bear washi, another dinosaur keychain, a duck squishy and some Christmas stickers. I also wondered what I did with this washi. I like this dinosaur much better than the last one.
I got a present ready to mail to a friend:

She likes birds, everyone's using hand wipes, she also likes dinosaurs, and who doesn't like candy?
I also finished up a swap. We had to make a 4x6 loaded envelope:

We had to include at least 10 things, half of which had to be handmade:

I included some foam Christmas stickers, paper poinsettias, a penguin pen and a bunch of handmade stuff. A bookmark, a Christmas cluster, a tag, a couple altered paperclips, an altered ornament, a snowflake ornament and a small tassel.
The front:

December 8: Got a wish for a surprise ready to be mailed:

A wish for heart stickers:

a wish for stickers:

And some Christmas stickers:

The Advent calendars:

Mine is the stuffed nerd heart and floral washi, a snowman keychain, a starfish squishy, and some labels.
My coworker made me the cutest gnome:

My mail arrived about 5, so I didn't get it before work. Work was slow, I got a lot of interlibrary loan stuff done, I would say the majority of my 5 hour shift was spent on interlibrary loan stuff.

I found a couple things when I got home. A Christmas pocket letter:

This came all the way from Ireland, and it was stuffed full of goodies:

Here's the actual pocket letter:

Not a lot there, but the goodies:

There were some ribbon samples, some mini clothespins holding foam shapes, some chocolate, a couple tea lights, a couple rolls of washi, some wooden tags, some cardstock tags, and some tea.
I also received a Santa tag:

Very cute, but I'll be taking it to work.
December 9: I took the day off because I have a ton of vacation. I went shopping, I believe it will be the last shopping trip until the 28th for after Christmas shopping. First up was the Dollar Tree:

a couple sheets of glittery stickers, some foil stickers, pom poms, loofahs, cozy socks and a hat. I needed the loofahs, and hat. I picked up the pom poms for a project. I picked up these kind of socks last time. I really like them.

An eraser, panty liners, gummies, gift bags.
I needed the panty liners. The gummies look interesting cause they have gummy pineapples. The gift bags I picked up for my Christmas gifts for friends.

Bug repeller bands, tape, deodorant, bag tag, gift bags, sucker, pen, glue sticks, chocolate.
Thought it'd be good to try the bug bands, and then if they worked I'd want more than one. The tape has dogs on it. I needed the deodorant. I picked up the bag tag cause I want to put googly eyes on it. I decided the Dollar Tree glue sticks are actually better (for me) than the Elmer's. I picked up the chocolate for my dad.
I also bought 5 other things for Christmas.
Next up was Target, I found this really cute lighted hedgehog:

What I did buy:

charger, antacids, stickers.
I've been needing a multi charger, and if it's cute, why not? I needed the antacids, and I couldn't pass up the gnome stickers.
I also bought 11 of the $3 ornaments, and 5 other things for Christmas.
This was me being extra lazy with wrapping:

I should really do this, I didn't buy wrapping paper this year, and I have a ton of plastic bags, these are just my presents for myself. I ended up putting them in boxes for more coverage. I haven't gotten much for my family, normally I'm totally done with Christmas shopping. I have a couple things for my brother that are pretty breakable, so I kinda don't want to mail them, I don't have anything for his girlfriend. I have one maybe two things for my mother and one thing for my dad. I just haven't shopped as much this year, plus we're probably not getting together and I would pick things up at garage sales.
I did get my gift bags for my friends done:

I still want to add something customized for all of them, but I'm done shopping. I spent a little over $80 at Target and a little over $30 at the Dollar Tree.
I got a Christmas card in the mail.

And my Secret Santa swap:

The box these came in was huge. I'm going to *try* to open a gift a day until I run out. I feel like some days start out nice and then end not so nice. I've been opening two Advent calendars in the morning and then the other two once I get home from work, but then if something puts me in a bad mood after that I have nothing to brighten my mood. A bunch of the things I bought, I'm using for another sort of Advent calendar. UGH!! This year has just been so stressful.
I put together a wish of something Snoopy:

A wish for Easter and Valentine's Day stickers:

A 3 winter items tag:

I kinda missed that they were winter items not Christmas, so I put in some snowman sticky notes to make up for it.
A wish for something off their Amazon wishlist:

I saw this on someone's wishlist, but it was no longer available, but I have one from a llama tag.
A Christmas tree tag:

The Advent calendars:

Mine is the deer ornament and the school supplies washi tape, a watermelon keychain and a hedgehog squishy, and some wood embellishments for the swap. I cheated and looked ahead in the swap, it doesn't look like this person followed the rules again. I only see a few handmade items. Again, we were supposed to have at least half handmade. When I stress out so much over this rule to just have my partner not follow the rule is very annoying, I had this same issue last year.