Life on the Spot! Life and Leisure in Doha, Qatar

It's almost Christmas and my bank account is bleeding. I've started buying stuff for Christmas in the middle of November and hopefully would have to end this week. It didn't help that there were so many online deals in the US last month (Black Friday and Cyber Monday). Along with that, Amazon has kept me busy with all the discounts they're placing on their toys this last few days. Add an Amazon Prime membership which gives you 2 day free shipping to the US and that would sure make you a lot poorer than 3 months ago. But hey, it's Christmas right? Most of the stuff I've ordered online but the 3 of us also went to Toys R Us last weekend to do some toy shopping for some of the kids of our friends.

Xianelle asked us for a Glee Barbie doll for Christmas but upon seeing how it looked like in Toys R Us (TRU), I decided to look for a better toy worth giving to somebody who has been a good girl throughout the year (except when she's sitting on the naughty chair because of being too loud and talkative in school). Everytime we go to TRU, she'd see one of the monitors that plays a video of Baby Born. She actually memorized the lyrics and melody and would often sing it while inside TRU. There weren't any Baby Born dolls available in store but I was sure that it would be very expensive. Anyway, I looked and found a Hasbro Baby Alive doll in Amazon for about US$38/QR140 and showed her a video clip of the doll. I asked her to decide if she still wanted Glee or the Baby Alive doll and watching the clip convinced her that it would be a better choice. She would now sing "Baby Alive, Baby so real" around the house when she feels like it. So that would hopefully arrive in Qatar before Christmas. As for her gift from Santa, she would have the Little Pony Baby Skywishes as per her request (better remind Mavs and Xiane to do the letter for Santa this weekend!). Her grandparents back in the Philippines are also sending some Littlest Pets through a friend (Mel) who's coming back from his vacation on the 14th.

For Mavis, we went on a shoe shopping spree online. Designer shoes which were being sold for US$85-125 (like this, this, this, this and this)were being sold for a reasonable price. I think she got some Bandolino's and a Sperry the first time we ordered. Then last night, a big box of shoes were delivered to our flat (thanks to Ibrahim) containing 5 more pairs of shoes. Xiane helped her open each box. I'm just glad that she liked them and they fit her well. Still, 3 more pairs would be arriving early next week. That takes us to about 11 shoes. Hopefully, these would last her at least 2 years. I personally only buy a shoe or two every year to think that I use them to work everyday.

Anyway, I also bought her a perfume last weekend and would be waiting for the Estee Lauder Blockbuster set to be made available in Qatar next week. She was also able to buy some bags in Mango at the Mall today. I would rather buy her a gift that she knows and she likes instead of surprising her with stuff that put the phrase "it's the thought that counts" into use.

Now for my gifts. As my previous post would suggest, I'm really planning to buy an Xbox 360. I already bought myself a Legendary Edition of Halo 3, Limited edition of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas, Gears of War and Call of Duty 4. What convinced me the most in deciding was Call of Duty 4 and not Halo 3. If all goes well, I'll be buying the box on the 16th or 17th of the month.

So that's basically a rundown of our gifts for Christmas. It's a lot more that what we spent the last 2 years I think but it is all worth it.