My Christmas Mission: Operation Preowned Xmas

I've been mulling something over, and I am ready to commit.  As you all know, I'm like super green.  Neon Green, so green the Sierra Club calls me for advice on how to reduce their carbon footprint.  In all fairness though, my greenness is, in a large part, due to a lack of green backs!

What I have decided to do, as part of my green initiative, is not purchase anything new for Christmas.  Everything we give this year will be preowned/used/swapped for/crafted. I will be going to resale shops, hanging on etsy, ebay, paperback swap, thredup and so forth.   To keep me on track and on target, I am setting down some for my challenge and will post updates and picks on how it goes. 

What about the people I give gifts to this year?  How are they going to take getting someone else's treasures as a gift?  Good point.  On my side of the family, they won't mind--they are all pretty crunchy. My kids?  To be honest, let's see if they notice!  The man?  really he shouldn't get any gifts anyway as he has a well documented history of buying everything he wants and then asking me to return whatever I get him. For everyone else, I will have to make sure to put more time and effort into picking a gift than I would normally and that is why this is a challenge, right?  Can't make it too easy.

Rules:
1. Buy no new stuff for Christmas.  Would something NIB purchased off Ebay be OK?  I say yes because it isn't new from the store.  It is still preowned.
2. What about crafts?  If it is a craft that is primarily re purposed then yes it is OK.
3. What about making a craft?  Same as purchasing a complete craft.
4. What about like giving cookies?  This is a great question, I am going to say that if I am making cookies to send to school or b/cause I am going somewhere this isn't a 'gift' and doesn't count.

Am I missing anything?  Let me know!  Do you know of a great resale shop?  Brick & Mortar or Virtual?  LMK!

The hardest part will be not doing Black Friday.  Oh I am so going to miss BF this year.  :-(

Totally Distracted.

All day long I've not been able to focus. I don't know why, I'm feeling very ADD.  Too much caffiene? maybe. Too many kids talking to me at once?  maybe. Lack of Vitamin D? A very distinct possibility.

This morning, when I walked back into the house after the bus picked up Anna.  Yes that was me sporting my bathrobe at the bus stop. The sun fooled me, I thought that my bathrobe would be warm enough, however I was chilly.  Back to me walking back into the  house, the first thing I see is Anna's Illinois Packet.  The packet should be in Anna's backpack to turn in at Daisy Scouts. 

I put the packet on the kitchen counter so that I could bring it with when I pick Anna up from Scouts.  I washed dishes and saw the packet repeating to myself that I was going to bring it with to Daisy Scouts. I walked by the packet as I did laundry, made lunch, and went through the mail.

When it was time to get Anna, I grabbed my jacket and my purse and headed over to the school.  I thought, "Anna will be happy to see I brought her packet and she can get her badge." Parked the car, and opened my purse and looked for the packet.  Looked again and then dug through my purse, it wasn't there.  I forgot the darn thing. Jeez.

Note to self, should have put the packet in my purse, not left it on the counter.

***good stuff in the mail today***
Rec'd some coupons and a book from Paperback Swap.  "Fool Moon"  by Jim Butcher.  It is the second book in his series about the cases taken and solved by Harry Dresden, the only professional wizard listed in the phone book.  Making it extra juicy for me is that Harry lives in my fair city, Chicago.  Also the reader for the audio version is James Marsters aka Spike from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Perfect voice for the character.  I listened to the first book so while reading this book, I'll be hearing Spike's voice albeit w/o Spike's English accent.