Last minute Christmas shopping: The pain! The paaiiiiin!

I don't really like Christmas shopping much, so I try to spread it out across the year (helps with balancing things financially, too).

I'd already got most of the kids' stuff by last week, which was predominantly books and clothes, with one bigger item apiece - an ebook reader for Miss 7 and an iPod for Miss 9. Miss 3's bigger item, which was to be a scooter, I had not yet procured, and I needed to get my mother, brother and father their gifts, which I planned to be a book or calendar and a gift card apiece.

So I nipped into the local shopping centre after school and creche drop off, intending to be there 20 minutes max and expecting to spend around $300, give or take, on the scooter, books / calendars and gift cards. I'd seen the scooter I wanted for $70 in a catalogue, and I do buy sizeable gift vouchers for the 'rents and brother - they are always very generous to my kids and I like to reciprocate.

Well.

The shops were busy but not ridiculously so, but Christmas marketing is in full, aggressive swing all right. Someone has put a damn lot of thought into product placement, because, as well as the items I intended to buy, I also got:
- nail polish manicure kits for the big girls (come on, $8 a pop! a good stocking stuffer)
- DVDs for the kids and hubs (perfectly placed to catch my eye)
- a pair of crocs for me
- MOAR BOOKS for the kids and me both. So many, so many
- a pair of earrings for the big girl
- a soap gift pack for a friend

So the $300-ish I was expecting to spend turned into (cough cough mumble) around $450 by the end, and the time expended blew out from 20 minutes to 50.

Ahem.

Then I get home, do a bitta work, and lay out all the presents to be wrapped on my bed - that's this afternoon's job - only to discover that I have unaccountably failed to get anything for my MIL. Whoooooops ... Glad I picked that up today!

Given my lack of impulse control, I think I'll task hubs with choosing something for his mum when he and the 9 year old go out Saturday morning to do the Christmas Day food shopping. It's best if I don't go near the shops again before the day, really. Looking at the teetering book mountains on my bed, waiting to be wrapped for three eager readers, I don't need any further opportunities to go OTT with the gift buying...