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| Dancer Checking Out the Gifts |
On Sunday, daughter and I stayed home. In the morning, I cooked a cashew curry to take to my cousin's house on Christmas day. In the afternoon, I wrapped (or rather bagged) gifts. I needed to have 15 gifts ready for giving on Christmas day. I reused bags I had in my stash and the new tissue paper I had bought. Later in the evening, I took gifts over to my neighbor T and her daughter and, still later in the evening, I watched midnight mass from the Vatican, on TV. In between, I stressed because I hadn't made my usual gifts of jam and other homemade decorations, etc.
Christmas day was spent with good friends who invited us to lunch and with family who invited us to dinner. One of my cousins stopped by in the morning and we exchanged gifts then, although we would be seeing each other again, in the evening, at our other cousin's house. Then, daughter and I visited my friend A and her family. We spent the afternoon there and then, went to my cousin's house for the family dinner and white elephant gift exchange with the extended family. Later, my aunt, cousins, and I exchanged our family gifts. My daughter and I received clothes for the most part, which is a blessing because we both needed new clothes.
This year, because I didn't make any of my homemade jams and decorations, I decided to supplement my usual holiday gifts budget with some of the money leftover in my prayer gathering and almsgiving budgets. As a result, I went over my usual holiday gifts budget, but still stayed within my overall annual budget. Nothing was put on credit cards and no debts were incurred on holiday gifts.
Today, I wrapped up a few more gifts, since I have another 18 or so people to whom gifts will be given. I will see some of them later, this week, some at the monthly prayer gathering to be held next Saturday, and the rest will be New Year's gifts.
Another thing I didn't do this year was decorate the house. Usually, I enjoy decorating for the holidays, but this year, I didn't feel like doing it and neither did daughter. She did observe that it didn't look very festive, though.
I am grateful for:
- Family and friends who include daughter and me in their Christmas celebrations
- My daughter being home to celebrate with me
- Being able to supplement the gifts budget with funds leftover in other budget categories
- Not having the work involved in decorating and undecorating
- The gift of new clothes.
On Tuesday, one of daughter's friends came over to watch a movie with her, in the morning. In the afternoon, we went shopping - first to the fabric store to buy some fabric that she liked to make two cushion covers for her. Then, we went to one of our favorite discount clothing stores. Daughter found lots of bargains, including an anime character T-shirt for $2 that is selling for $35 at another store in the mall. She bought 15 items of clothing for $84 total and that included a long quilted jacket with a detachable hood for $20.00. I, too, found a couple of items for myself - a blouse ($6) and a dress ($15).
Plans for tomorrow (Wednesday) include going to the book store for a planner for daughter and maybe the dollar store for a couple of items, including more gift bags! I ran short of small gift bags.
What are your plans for tomorrow?
Glad you had a lovely Christmas Day!
ReplyDeleteNext year the granddaughter will not be here for Christmas so I have decided to put up our Christmas Trees with lights only (no ornaments) with little to no other decorating. Festive but no real work!
Just the lights on the trees would be quite lovely, too, I think. My tree is one of those prelit trees, so the only work involved will be set it up!
DeleteWow! You got a lot of great deals on clothes. I'm glad. I had thought about going to hit the sales, but thinking is as far as I've gotten so far:) Rob did get a few rolls of reduced wrapping paper as I had used up a lot this year. Go Rob!
ReplyDeleteBecky, there are a couple of stores in my area where clothes are deeply discounted. Daughter and I always shop there to get good deals.
DeleteI used up all my holiday themed gift wrap and most of my gift bags, as well!
Well done, Rob, for getting the gift wrap supplies for next year!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Bless! For once this year I've felt relatively on top of things as far as gifts go -- usually I'm making all kinds of last minute preparations and adjustments. I'm impressed with your ability to coordinate so many gifts and I can completely understand not having the time or energy to do the handmade gifts you normally give -- that was my reality this year, too.
ReplyDeleteI've been catching up a bit on your blog and loved reading about your almsgiving. I'm so glad it was a success and that you were able to hold it this year.
Thank you, Laura and blessings of the season to you, too. That's great that you were on top of things, this year! Good planning on your part, I'm sure.
DeleteThank you, I am very glad that I was able to hold the almsgiving this year and everything went off well.
Well, your house looked very festive with the gift bags and I can see Dancer was impressed! I never did hang up the Christmas cards we received. Food preparation took precedence over that, but otherwise I had most of the usual stuff out. I did wonder as I decorated the tree, whether the next Christmas would be the same.
ReplyDeleteSo we had a lovely time with DS, DDIL and DGD visiting. DS had to shovel snow before they could even think of setting off, and they were later than usual but had warned us of this, so I didn't have to make them lunch. I didn't get to church but I did watch a lovely mass with my favourite Archbishop/Cardinal celebrating. The turkey was done just before the family arrived and all veggies prepped ready to cook, so there was just time for them to have a warm cup of tea and then we got the meal under way and for the first year ever we ate quite early. I am very thankful that it all turned out well and that although tired I managed everything. We had fun opening gifts afterwards. On Tuesday they were able to stay till after supper and didn't rush off at all.
Well, Wednesday has been downtime for me. The internet and phone went off overnight so DH went in to town to see if he could find out why and when he phoned me from a friend's, the phone rang here and the internet had come back on as well. End of withdrawal for him! It was probably because of the extreme cold that we lost phone and internet. It was -25°C (-13°F) overnight and not much warmer in the day. More to come apparently. (I woke up in the night and stoked up the wood furnace !)
Bushlady, I am so happy to read that you had a lovely visit with your family. It sounds like you had everything well under control. Ooh, but those are some cold temperatures!
DeleteOne never knows what might happen during the year and what next year might be like, does one? I've had years when I decorate and years when I don't do anything, at all. At first, I decorated because I enjoyed doing it. Then, I did it because I didn't want daughter to feel left out. But now, she's an adult and we might not do too much decorating from now on.
Sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. That's what I really appreciate at this time of year.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow daughter and I are taking MIL out to some craft shops. She doesn't drive anymore so the only time she goes out is with FIL. As daughter is still home we'll spend the day with her. Friday is time for daughter and I before she leaves on Saturday. Time has certainly flown by!
I am sure your MIL will enjoy her outing with you and daughter. Enjoy this time with your daughter and your special day together on Friday. Mine goes back next weekend, so I have another week to enjoy with her. :)
DeleteWhat with shoveling 3 full days of snow and cooking for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner for friends and family, I had no time to even read blogs over the Christmas weekend. We had our 3rd and biggest snow storm during the night on Christmas Eve, so before I could leave for my brother's place for Christmas Day celebrations, my son and I spent hours outside removing snow. I had a very lovely Christmas weekend, and then on Boxing Day and since then, I have pretty much crashed. I have not left the house except to take the dog out. It has become bitterly cold (it was -25 degrees Celsius this morning when I woke up) and I have not felt any guilt at all about staying inside and just eating up leftovers. I have not needed to cook at all.
ReplyDeleteI also did not make up as many homemade gifts this year as I would have liked, but I think I still remained creative in my choice of gifts, in order to keep costs down. I have also been choosing to watch Christmas movies on Netflix these last few days. I have been reflecting on the past year and thinking about the New Year. I am anxious to hear from others in that regard.
Brr! That's cold! I loved the snow when I lived in Wisconsin for 6 winters, but I certainly don't miss the cold now that I am here!
DeleteI'm glad you had a lovely Christmas with your family, Susan. And you weren't snow-bound!
Yes, this is the time of the year to look back and reflect and to look forward and plan. I'll be doing a post or two about New Year goals and resolutions. I know I will be making some career changes as I am planning to retire next year. Not quite sure what follows after that - a lot will depend on my health and my daughter's plans, as well. The future is an adventure! :)
Sounds like a very good, albeit very busy, Christmas, Bless! I laughed at the picture of Dancer with the presents because I have the same pictures but with two of my cats :)
ReplyDeleteI had very few decorations out, which made it a cinch to take them down. I think I shall be doing the same thing again next year! I didn't use my Christmas dishes either and no one missed them. Honestly, I'm quite happy that I saved myself the trouble. We had a couple of light strands in the house only, and the 2 miniature trees with lights on the mantle and that was enough to help us feel festive.
It has been a very busy Christmas, hasn't it? I think I am going to need a vacation to recover from my vacation!
DeleteDecorating for any holiday is a lot of work, isn't it? I think I will start decluttering my decorations, next year.