I love Christmas – the decorations, the songs, the parties, the gift giving, and, especially, the food – I love it all! Tall Dad thinks I have a problem 🙂 Well, combine the snow the other day with the fact that we played A Christmas Festival during my Rhode Island Wind Ensemble rehearsal, it finally felt like the Christmas season. But despite my infinite love of Christmas, Tall Mom still hadn’t started any of the requisite shopping. I was overwhelmed. I knew I had too much to buy, and too little of an idea on where to start. So, just to get the juices flowing, with Itty Bitty in tow, I went to the local Wal-Mart to have a looksie. Oddly enough, it worked and, now, most of my shopping is done. Want to know how my season finally got jumpstarted by something as unlikely as M&M’s and something called Forza 5? Keep reading 🙂

The first thing I passed on my maiden shopping voyage were Christmas trees. Wonderful, glorious, beautiful, Christmas trees – bundled and ready to go home with happy families. It immediately put me in the spirit, and I marched myself right on in.


I wandered the store a bit, soaking it all in, before heading over to the video game section. Like many guys his age, Tall Dad is a huge gamer, and will be receiving an Xbox One for Christmas, so I knew I needed to get him a new game for his shiny new system.

I don’t know a thing about games, or what is good about them, but I do know that I may or may not have done a few bad things to Tall Dad’s car recently and it wound up in the shop. So, unfortunately for him, hubby has been subjected to my poor little Jetta over the past week. (A Jetta that is complete with a “baby on board” sticker to boot.), 

I felt bad, so I chose Forza 5, a racing game that has “Unprecedented Visual Realism” and allows the players to choose over 200 cars. And none of them Jettas. It’s my own little way of making up for my mistakes, and I think he will welcome driving a cool racing car – even if it is a video game!

I was proud of my decision, and because I know Christmas is time for sweets – I picked up a a bag of M&M’s as my reward for a job well done. But as I looked at my soon to be sugar fix, I noticed a massive bag of milk chocolate M&M’s sitting on the shelf in front of my face. Hubby loves chocolate more than I do and I realized that, not only are they awesome, but they would make an EPIC stocking stuffer.

The one problem is that the bag is so huge, now I have to figure out how to actually make it fit in his stocking!

If you have a gamer in your life, and also someone who loves M&M’s – then read on my dear friend, because do I have a deal for you!
If you purchase Forza 5 Motorsport for Xbox One and $8.00 worth of M&M’s (on the same receipt!) you can receive a $10 WalMart gift card!

All you need to do is take a photo of your receipt with the two items circled. Text that photo to 811811 with the words M&M. After it’s validated (mine took 12 hours) you’ll receive a text back with a code for a $10 WalMart gift card!  See official rules here. It is INCREDIBLY easy to do! 

Also, if you’re a bit of an artist, or if you just like candy, you should enter the M&M Pixel Art Contest. Make some art with your M&M’s, post it on instagram or twitter with the hashtags #FueledByMM AND #Contest – Whoever wins gets an Xbox One® gaming console, a Forza Motorsport 5® game, and a 14oz bag of M&Ms® Candy!

Below is my entry – as you can see, I’m totally in the Christmas spirit!

How did you jump start your holiday shopping?