Happy December 1!!....Let the Games Begin!........

It's herrree! Hope you're all ready.  Been doin' your exercising?  Flipping through mail order catalogs; digging out containers of Christmas decorations; marathon cooking and baking (thanks to the recently passed Thanksgiving); working those fingers with the planned knitting and spinning for those gifts; jogging through the snow, slush, rain from store to store; working and re-working the monthly budget (again and again; geeezzz, I didn't think it would cost that much) and don't forget ----- check off each day on the calendar lest you absent-mindly think you have another week before the  Christmas Day to catch up on everything!! (I say this in retrospect)

I have big plans, beginning today.  We'll just see how many of them come to fruition before I'm running around like a crazy woman, wondering what can be scratched off the list, not really needing to be done.

Well, the outside lights are up - finally.  All the decorations storage totes are now sitting in the utility room, waiting to be opened and emptied, their contents placed in every room in the house.  Today we are going shopping.  Hopefully most of the things on the gift list will be purchased.  Our local "medium box" (versus "big box") store still has the items that they advertised on sale this week.  We waited until today because today is also "Senior Discount Day" - 10% off all purchases!  WhooHoo!!!  Yeah. We'll see.  I'm not holding my breath.  They are notorious for being "out of stock".  Thank goodness I have a back-up plan.  It requires driving another 30 miles to the "big box" store.  Crap.

Tomorrow and Saturday, decorating is the order of the day.  Lights will go up on all the windows (we have no gutters outside, so lights are on the inside of the windows) and as much paraphenalia as possible will adorn tabletops, shelves, walls.

Sunday is a trip to the casino.  I'm being very sly about this.  First, I have $15.00 in FREE play on the slots. There will be no actual money going from my wallet to their coffers!! NO money!   But the main reason is I have a certificate from them  for a FREE video recorder!!! It's one of those small, digital camera-size models.  This is another planned Christmas gift.  I checked out the price of it, and it's a $90.00 value!!  Omg!!  Somebody stop me!!  If I can lay my hands on this, the rest is a breeze!

Monday starts the baking.  Not so much this year.  Thankfully, daughter-in-law and the fiance have been baking their own goodies for a couple of years now.  So I just send a couple of extras.  But for us, I'm cutting waayyyy back.  It's silly to have bags and bags of Christmas cookies in the freezer, eating them in June and July.  Although they're very delicious, seriously, do I need more Christmas cookies??? No.  My bathroom scale will thank me.

Ahh, but in lieu of tons of cookies and breads, I have Baklavah on the baking list.  I can make a couple of pans of it and everyone will be thrilled!!  It'll go a long way, taking the place of 3 or 4 more kinds of cookies.

I think we're going to buy a Christmas tree this year.  We've been putting up the little 3' tree with fiber optic lights for the past few years; I didn't see the need for a regular tree anymore.  Being that if any of the kids did make it up here during the holidays, it's just for 1 day or a few hours out of a whole week.  What was the sense?

But this year, I'm really missing a tree.  I need a tree. If for nothing else than the memories of Christmases past.  For memories of my Mom and Dad.

The store has a 4' artificial for $20.  We'll take a look.  It doesn't have lights on it, but that's fine.  I can put my own lights on.  I love tons of lights on the tree - white only.  And if the artificial tree looks too ---- artificial (for $20 -- ya think?), we will probably go with a real tree.  Of course, this will mean major re-configuring of furniture.  Our house is small; we've added a lot more stuff since our last real tree; space is at a minimum; and it can't go in the family room because of the gi-normous wood stove.  Rocking chair, endtable, lamp and coffee table may have to be moved into the storage house for the time being.

Wrapping is also on the agenda for next week.  Yep.  Wrap everything that is acquired.  Eliminating the mad rush 2 days before boxes need to be shipped out.

Then I need to get out to daughter's with her totes of Christmas decor.  And decorate her apartment for her.  That's planned for next weekend.  I stay overnight and the following day I take her Christmas shopping for gifts she will give.

There you have it.  The plan is -- the week of Christmas I'm done!!  I can relax and putter around the house.  Nothing on my mind or agenda except planning Christmas dinner.  This'll be great!  Maybe a little knitting or spinning to wile away the hours.

Yeah.  Christmas dreams!!