Pain in the ass

Holiday time sucks. What sucks is the shopping involved with the holidays. In addition to my 3 girls, my husband has a daughter, so I guess I technically have 4 kids. I will post a separate blog about how many kids "I" have later. To make matters worse. #1's b day is right around Thanksgiving. #3's b-day is the first part of the month. Step-Daughter's b-day is just before Christmas, as is my husband's. So in a 1 month time frame, I have to shop for 3 kids b-day, then 4 kids Christmas. THAT sucks. I had finished #1 and #3's b-day shopping (duh, it's already come and gone) and had most of SD's taken care of. So I went to Wal-Mart and just dropped $288. Did I walk out with loads of stuff? NO. I got the baby 2 things (which totalled $75), I got #1 like 5 things, #3 like 4 things, and SD 5 things, but part of that went with her b-day. Holy cow. I was *hoping* to have a limit of $400. HAHAHAHAHAHA that's NOT going to happen. As far as I am concerned, #3 has enough. I have her another gift at work that I purchased for a children's Christmas party that I didn't attend. She really had no clue about presents, so, she's done. As far as I am concerned, I am pretty much finished with #1's. 5 presents doesn't sound like a lot, but she really got the most expensive stuff. I *may* pick her up a few small things, but I think I am done. She will appreciate what she has. As for #2, she needs more stuff. Things I picked up for her ended up going to #1 because they were more suited for her. In fact, I am thinking about taking another gift from her to give to #1 because it's more her style, although it's something they will have to share with each other. (It's a text messaging contraption...works kind of like a Walkie Talkie. #1 is 8 and wants a cell phone, so that would be more her speed than #2's) I definitely need to get SD some more things because as of now, she has 2 Christmas gifts. She's almost 5 and there wasn't much that was there that was suited for her. There was much of a middle ground--there was baby stuff or bigger girl things. I would say SD is above average, but she's really not up to speed for some of the things I found that were age appropriate. Example: #1 has a Barbie laptop. I picked on up for her. It was marked $21. It rang up $39. Oh hell no. The cashier offered to have someone check out the price but I wasn't up for waiting. Once I thought about it, she really wouldn't have gotten the concept anyway. She can push buttons on it, but as far as REALLY playing the games, she can't do it. So, I don't know what to get her. Spend money on things she can't grasp in spite of it being for her age range, or dumb it down and get her toddler toys???? The only other option is to buy her every kind of Barbie out there, but what fun is that?