With only days until Christmas, Katie Holmes & Little Miss Suri were spotted grabbing a few last-minute gifts at Maxfield’s & Fred Segal yesterday.

Clutching a stuffed-animal pony, Suri looked excited to be out & about amongst the holiday hustle and bustle. The “Dawson’s Creek” actress looked like a seasoned pro when it came to plunking down the big bucks. Suri just looks adorable. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of her!

How do you think we can all get on the Mrs. Cruise’s ‘nice’ list?

Katie Holmes treated a group of girlfriends to a lavish lunch at the Neiman Marcus store in Beverly Hills last week before splashing out $100,000 on Christmas gifts. The Batman Begins star insisted on paying the $300 lunch bill and then hit the aisles of the top department store to find presents.

According to In Touch Weekly magazine, Holmes, who turned 29 on Tuesday, spent more than $70,000 on her husband Tom Cruise. Some of the gifts the Lions for Lambs star will open on Christmas Day: a $30,000 rose-gold Cartier wristwatch, a black Giorgio Armani suit, Gucci snakeskin sneakers and a Prada ski coat.

About a month ago, I posted an article on Nicole Kidman saying her children don’t call her ‘mom’ anymore. Which is sad and horribly depressing. Now Katie announces that those very children are calling her mom. That’s gotta sting.

Katie Holmes gushes that husband Tom Cruise is a “great father and husband” and says his two children with ex-wife Nicole Kidman are “incredible, really smart and kind.”

“They call me ‘Mom’,” Holmes says in this week’s Parade Magazine of Cruise’s first two children, Isabella, who turns 15 this month, and Connor, 12.

The 29-year-old actress says she’s looking forward to spending the holidays cooking and skiing in Telluride, Colo., with Cruise, their baby daughter Suri, and both sides of the big family.

“Last year was Suri’s first Christmas. It was so spectacular to share the holidays with her,” she says. “It really meant the world to me. To be able to create a tradition for your children is one of the best gifts you can have.”

Her one-year marriage to Cruise, she says, is another gift.

“Oh, we have so much fun,” she says. “Tom has introduced me to so many new experiences. I have done things I never thought I would do, like climbing mountains and flying in the P-51. That’s what is so inspiring about being with him – constant thrills and joy.”

After taking a two-year hiatus from her acting career, Holmes stars in the upcoming film Mad Money with Diane Keaton and Queen Latifah. She says the three of them had a blast: “We got our morning female talk in the trailer every day.”

She tells Parade that Tom was very excited for her to do the movie, and that he loved hearing all the stories. He has a great understanding of “the female bond” because he has three sisters, she says. “He was raised by a single mother and has two daughters,” she explains.

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It really bugs me that Katie would come out and say that Nicole’s children call her mom.  I don’t know, it just seems really tacky to me.  What do you think?

Here’s Katie Holmes with Suri, yesterday, going Christmas shopping. Suri is so adorable, the outfit she has on is so cute.

I still think she looks cute here. She needs to get out from under Tom Cruise’s Scientolo-spell, though.

Update: A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Katie Holmes, who turned 29 today!

I found the rest of the pictures…here you go!  I think she looks beautiful.  I hate to admit it, but I’m starting to really like TomKat.  I know, I know.

Katie Holmes says she was swept off her feet “in an instant” by Tom Cruise, but that was just the beginning of a family life that she says grows richer by the day.

“It happened quickly, but I was certain it was what I wanted,” the actress tells In Style in its January issue. “I never felt overwhelmed. I thought, Okay, good. Here we go.”

Holmes, who will be 29 on Dec. 18, may not have been overwhelmed by Cruise, 43, but she was certainly thrown for a loop. “It happened in an instant,” she says of the first blush of love. “I still get like that, ‘Whew.’ When you fall in love, it’s as though time stops. It’s all-encompassing.”

That love only blossomed during the next two years, she says – through the birth of daughter Suri in April 2006, the lavish wedding in Italy that November, and the everyday moments of family life since then.

“I try every day to let him know how much I love him,” Holmes says of her husband. “It gets better and better. It has made my life.”

Holmes admits she’d love to have another child. “But I’m in no particular rush,” she adds – perhaps because she already has her hands full with Suri.

“She loves coloring and creating,” Holmes says. “She’s a great mimic and dancer. She came to the photo shoot yesterday and was into all the shoes. I’m mostly shocked at how quickly she grows.”

After taking a break professionally, Holmes is also returning to movie acting, starring in the upcoming Mad Money. But as befits a working wife and mother, she’s looking at life now through a wider lens.

“I want to go to sleep knowing I made my family happy, I made myself happy, and I worked hard in all aspects of life,” she says. “It’s really pretty simple.”

Cover: TomKat Crazy