Did I meet them? Did I do well? How do I feel about December? In a nutshell and no particular order...

1. De-clutter basement.

We started off strong on this one. Very strong. Very good. We worked on putting like things together (ie. Camping stuff, Andrew's old clothes, tools, crap) and we sent 2 big bags of stuff to Andrew's daycare to donate to them and we sent 2 big boxes of stuff to Value Village to re-circulate. We were going through boxes and boxes of stuff that have been in boxes since before Andrew was born (so about 4 years).
We were doing a little every night and then it all kind of fell apart.
I became obsessed with preparing for CEDFH and making the rest of the house look nice and unclutterred. Much stuff was just taken downstairs (including my 4 large tubs of craft stuff, Andrew's wagon, all the boxes that held our Christmas Decorations and lots of laundry). So unless we pull together and work real hard in the next 2 days I don't think the basement will be 100% de-cluttered...but it is a good start!

2. Not buy any more Craft Stuff.

Success on this one! I was quite busy finishing up all my presents and thinking about what to make with my stash that I haven't even thought about purchasing anything new. Which is good, because I realized I have way too much stash. 4 bins and countless bags of stuff is TOO MUCH.

3. Christmas with a smile.

Well, I did smile and my house was clean. I feel very conflicted about how the evening went, but I need to realize that my family is bizarre and they are not going to change. But with good planning and a zillion lists I did not feel like a madwoman and I had a welcoming house.

4. Enjoy Christmas.

I do have to say that I enjoyed Christmas this year. Me and Steve and Andrew were able to spend quite a bit of time together just the 3 of us.
We spent just the right amount of time with extended family. I didn't get all wrapped up in the silly gift giving paranoia beforehand. We gave what we could afford and I don't think we charged a single Christmas related item to our credit cards. Instead, we enjoyed the simplicity of the season. I am quite proud of my son. He is a wonderful child that is so kind and gracious when receiving gifts. He was even excited to open the presents with clothes in them. "Yay pants!" was exclaimed quite a few times. We are truly blessed as a family.

5. Mini Holiday Spending to $300.

Success on this one. The account is sitting at about 320 dollars.

My plan was to have 800 dollars in our account by the time we go on our mini holiday (which the timeline is still TBA--we're thinking the last weekend in February now). If we had 800 bucks we could have a smashing good time! We could also 'get by' with $500. I want to aim for saving the $800. Mostly to prove that we can save for a trip and that we don't need to do it in the reverse (charge it, then pay interest, and pay it off years later).

Right now the account is sitting at $320 (I should clarify that it is not all in one spot. Most of it is in a savings account at our Credit Union, but some of it is also in payroll savings bonds--that's where the money from my yearly increment raise is going so I don't even see the money to miss it). That is 42% of our goal! Quite a bit of that money came from my crafty endeavors which were quite busy (for me anyways) before Christmas. That should be dying down now that the gift giving season is over (unless I get organized and open an etsy store). So we will be back to the $72 a month (20*2 = 40, 8*4=32 for a total of 72) for saving. If we take January and February then that equals $144 dollars which would bring out total to $464ish dollars which is way short of the $800 goal.

I have cashed in $60 dollars worth of our Air Miles for gas vouchers.
That should take care of our gas there and back. Based on that I have revised our final goal to $740 dollars. This amount is of course still short...but not as much! I was also thinking that perhaps we could purchase some items needed for the trip with our PC Points (ie. stuff for lunches, snacks).

I've been thinking of some solutions to our being short.

1. Take the Mini Holiday later. Maybe in March or April? I really don't want to wait that long, but it is a possibility.
2. Revise $740 goal to something more reasonable like $600. Figure out ways to 'cut costs' for mini holiday. Have sandwiches for lunch on one day. I had budgeted quite a bit of money for 'misc. costs' on the Mini Holiday. In my mind that included any clothes/knick knacks that we saw that we wanted to buy, any booze we bought for the evenings, or taxi cabs or whatever. This amount could be made smaller.
4. Stay one less night. I wanted to get away Friday Night and come back Monday. But we could go out Saturday instead. That would save 1 nights hotel costs.
5. Realize that we do have more room in our household budget to put away for savings for this trip if we are willing to make sacrifices.

I am going to think about our options and decide what we should do. We still have not even booked a hotel anywhere...so who knows everything could be booked up by the time we get around to deciding. :P

I updated my sidebars this evening. Our mini holiday fund is looking quite healthy. I'm quite pleased with that. We have achieved the December goal easily! Our emergency fund is smaller by 100 dollars. We bought a fridge boxing day because our current fridge is at least 20 years old and does not operate well. It freezes all the produce to the point where I have everything in the fridge covered by tea towels to help with the freezing. I'm so done with that fridge. In the end with taxes and delivery and disposal of the old fridge it was $622. We got 320 for Christmas, took 100 out of the EF and will get the rest from my Part Time Jobs pay. It is worth it.

Is it bad that any time I want to update my side bars I have to use an online percentage calculator and that I can't figure out a) how to do percents in my head or b) use a calculator to figure percents?

I seriously sat one afternoon trying to figure out how to do percents and I got so frustrated I nearly cried.

My name is Dinah, and although I have a Bachelor of Arts I cannot calculate percents on my own or with a calculator.

*sigh*

Here's how it all went down this Christmas.

It was all over in less then 3 hours. 3 weeks of preparing, cleaning, shopping, and more cleaning...for 3 hours.

Nobody hardly ate anything, so now I have a fridge full of food that needs to be eaten STAT. My uncle sat in his car and took a work call for about 45 minutes. My aunt didn't come because she was sick. My one cousin didn't show because he had 'other' plans. My husband ended up stuck at work until 7 PM and as soon as he got home we opened presents and they all left.

All in all quite typical for my family. I don't think I would want to host every year as the cost is astronomical, so I'm already working on one of my other cousins to host next year. If they decline, then we're going to his wife's family's house for Christmas I've decided. & I've got a good memory.

PS. The perishky's were a popular item (& there is still about 2 dozen safely stored in my freezer) and so were the sausage rolls. They are the only items mostly eaten.

The portfolio course that I had been attending finished last month. I really enjoyed it and was sad that it ended. It was a wonderful feeling knowing that every two weeks there was a day set aside for reflection. We worked on Mission Statements in the last class and this is what I wrote.

I'm quite pleased with my Mission Statement and I think that it is definitely something I will strive to achieve and Live.

Here it is. First the shorter version and then the longer version...both essentially saying the same thing.

To be a faith-filled servant of the Lord,

Living humbly in His presence,

Supporting all people in their endeavors,
Remaining a compassionate, loyal, hard working and honest individual,

Remembering to live joyfully, creatively, and ethically,

While always making a Joyful Noise unto the Lord

Longer Version

I will live humbly in the presence of God, I will live with respect in creation, and I will proclaim the Good News.

I will provide unconditional support and enduring love to my beloved husband, my wonderful son, my encouraging family, and my loyal friends to make certain these relationships remain strong throughout our lives and to provide them with any assistance in their endeavors.

I will always remain compassionate, loyal, hard working, and honest in all my actions while living joyfully, creatively and ethically.

Make A Joyful Noise To Unto The LORD

I'm preparing for the dinner tonight. I'm pretty on track, I think. I've got the veggies cut up, the dips made, the cheese on the platter. house is (mostly) cleaned.

This is what I have left to do:

put chips out
put bread out
put cold cuts out
put everything out actually
cook the perogies, perishky, and chicken fingers
finish last cross stitch (i'm afraid to cut this one)
vacuum back room
make coffee (which i don't think i'm going to do as i have no idea what i'm doing)
put ice bucket out
maybe do some more laundry...

get dressed! i need to get dressed. i still have my pj's on. lol

A big Merry Christmas Eve to everyone. May the peace and love of Christ be with you all tonight and tomorrow and forever.

I've been working on these for an order and for Christmas presents for family. I am totally and completely in love with this variegated cotton. It's called "Over the Rainbow" and almost reminds me creamsicles. I wish I had made it outside to take the pictures but alas there is only about four and a half hours of sunlight these days and my crafting time is after Andrew has gone to sleep so in the end I took them inside. I think they are absolutely gorgeous! & I don't mind tooting my own horn. :P

Quite a while ago I blogged about 'fusing plastic' to make a durable and upcycled material that you can sew to make cool and funky bags.

I tried to do this and all I want to say is that it was a BIG BUST. I couldn't get the right temperature on the iron I guess and I was either melting the plastic to the parchment paper or it was bubbling or it just wasn't sticking. In about 3 hours I think I got 1 5*7 piece of 'material' that I could have used to sew with.

In the end I threw my arms up in the air and declared this was not the craft for me. *sigh* It's a shame because it does really look like a hella cool thing to do.

I took last Wednesday off as a Holiday Day and so me and Steve went out and finished up our Christmas Shopping and did our Big Shop for the CEDFH. We were dropping off some crafts at a friends house in the South and so we went to the Superstore over there. It's the first Superstore that they built in Winnipeg years and years and years ago and it's cramped and poorly designed. There were also hordes of senior citizens there doing their shopping and some very frazzled looking SAHMs. It was a very stressed store and I just couldn't get in my Zen shopping place. As a result I don't think we did all that good.

I'm feeling lazy today and I'm just going to seperate our items into 3 columns. CEDFH, Christmas Presents, and Our Stuff.

CEDFH
Onion Soup Mix for Dip - 1.48
Refried Beans - 2.48
Salsa - 1.98
Margarine - 1.67
Plum Sauce - 2.19
Chicken Fingers - 6.99
Nuts - 6.48
Honey - 2.48
Broccoli - 1.87
Parmasen Cheese - 4.69
Triscuits - 1.99
Sausage rolls - 3.99
Cream Cheese - 4.56
Lettuce - 1.58
Tostitos - 2.96
Baby Carrots - 2.48
Celery - 1.28
Cucumbers - 1.28
Oranges - .87
Tomatoes - 1.42
Tortillas - 2.99
Taco Seasoning - .88
Grape Tomatoes - 2.97
Cinnamon Sticks - 2.68
JuJubes - 3.05
Christmas Candies (which I see now weren't rung through properly and we were severely over charged) - 11.31
Dry Cranberry - 3.26
Gouda Cheese - 6.30
Havarti Cheese - 4.77
Cheddar Cheese - 5.51
Mozzarella - 5.63
Cloves (holy expensive batman!) - 7.69
Cranberry Juice - 4
Havarti Jalapeno Cheese - 4.77
6 Cases of Pop - 13.32
Total of 133.85

Our Stuff
Ice Cream - 6.29
Splenda - 8.47
Ice Cream - 6.48
Cereal - 4.17
Ice Cream (Yes, my husband LOVES ice cream) 5.29
Banana's - 1.31
Freezer Bags - 5.28
Toilet Paper (24) - 5.48
Total of 42.77

Christmas Presents
DVD 9.99
DVD 6.99
Razor Blades (stocking stuffer) - 17.29
Chocolate - 11.99
Deodorant (stocking stuffer) - 3.09
Deodorant (stucking stuffer) - 2.59
Spiderman Bubble Bath - 5.99
Huge Ass Fire Truck - 49.99
Total of 107.92

Taxes
GST - 7.70
PST - 10.77

Grand Total of $303.01ish. My Mathing might not be very good on this one. Our bill is all crazy looking too, so I'm getting confused.

We got $117.40 in discounts this time!!! Here's how:

$10 coupon off Huge Ass Fire Truck
$30 coupon from Superstore for spend $250 get $30 off
$26.20 Colleague Discount
$40 in PC Points Redeemed
$5 off coupon
$6.20 in Superbucks
Total After Discounts...drum roll please...$185.61

So while I feel we could have done better (ie. the severly being overcharged for christmas candies! and all the friggin' ice cream) I think getting over 100 dollars in discounts was pretty darn good!

A lot of the items we bought for CEDFH will still be around after the meal is over (ie. honey
and cloves) so we won't have to purchase those at later dates.

In total so far CEDFH is $149.31 (Egads!) and I still need to get bread and mushrooms...and beer. Holy Crap that's expensive! It had better go well!

Cheers!

PS. you might think I'm horribly cheap for putting things like deodarant and razor blades in christmas stockings...but I'm okay with that. I'm all about the practical.

I made this set for my good friend Anne back in the summer when she was visiting her. The hat was an experiment that I didn't think had gone very well and I had unraveled a zillion times. I found the pattern in a crochet book from the 70's that I picked up at Value Village for about $1. The scarf is a mesh stitch that I made up quite quickly. I can't remember what pattern I used or if I just made it up as I went along.

It's all made from upcycled materials. A co-worker gave me the sweater that she had knitted years ago and I unraveled it. & the underpart of the hat is made from yarn that was given to me by one of my Grandma's friends.

Anne tells me that it's quite warm and that all her friends are quite jealous of her. :) I've even seen pictures of her wearing it in real life so I am quite chuffed! A big thanks to Anne for taking the lovely picture of it too. Thanks Anne!

Weeeee!!!! I'm officially revealing my nerdiness here. I cannot wait for this.



For ease of viewing...the official trailer. It looks awesome!


edited to add: This post is quite fitting for today. I heard on the radio this morning that Majel Barrett has passed away. Majel was Gene Roddenberry's wife and the voice of all Federation Computers on Star Trek and Lwuxanna Troi on TNG. Rest in Peace Majel.

i've just been informed that my husbands company has shifted around their schedule for christmas and they now have him working christmas eve (the night of CEDFH) and having christmas day and boxing day (thursday/friday) off instead of tuesday/wednesday. supposedly they want to have all their staff in on christmas eve to get things all ready for the weekend because the warehouse is closed on christmas day (secretly i think they just don't want to pay for people to work the stat on boxing day).

now i'm terrified to have CEDFH without him being there...and in a way it seems kind of pointless to have a big family dinner without your husband being there? gah.

i feel like crying now. i don't deal well with unexpected change.

We're halfway through December and I just want to check in with my December Goals.

My Goals for December are...

• Not purchase any more yarn/thread/crafty stuff until i have decreased my stash by 50%.
• Bring Mini Holiday savings to $300 dollars
• De clutter the basement
• Complete all gifts to give to family/friends
• Host Christmas Eve dinner with a smile surrounded by good food and a clean house
• Enjoy Christmas

I did a blog entry 1 week into December to keep myself on track and now I want to write the mid-month update.

1. No More Craft Purchases--Check! I have been working on my cross stitches for Christmas presents that i bought months ago so my mind has not been wandering to buying new stuff.

2. 300 buckaroonies in the holiday account--Well on the way. There is $264.95 in there right now and today I am dropping off some more orders I had so I will be able to add $23 dollars to that account bringing it up to $287.95. Sweet!

3. Clean up the dungeon--We had a good start to this goal but have been neglecting it since the initial heave ho. It is definitely in a presentable state now...just needs a little more work to be fab-u!

4. Finish the handmade pressies--I'm on my last cross sititch. After that I have one more slipper to make for my aunt (1 evenings work). I am going to my Grandmothers this Saturday to work on the felted wreaths. If I have time I want to make nuts n bolts or granola or hot chocolate for people for Christmas...but I'm not panicked to make that happen.

5. Clean House and Smile for CEDFH (New acronym for Christmas Eve Dinner from Hell)--Still hopefully optimistic. As fast as I clean my 3 year old messes it up again, and I never seem to catch up on laundry and there's a layer of drywall dust on everything no matter how much i mop/sweep and i can't find all my serving platters and my 3 year old dropped one of my serving dishes that fits the set that goes on my lazy susan and we have not gone shopping yet and and and and and i'm getting worked up again thinking about it all.

6. Enjoy Christmas!--So far I am feeling zen and enjoying everything. We put up our tree last Saturday and it makes it really feel like the Season is here!

I've spent the last few days sick....again. We are simply playing pass the illness at our house. This morning I am playing catch up with all the Blogs I follow. I love catching up on what y'all have been doing while I have been laying in bed having crazy dreams.

We were out for supper at the Olive Garden last night and I was taking Andrew for his mid meal pee. We get to the bathroom, Andrew looks at the door and says, "I can't go in there because that person has a dress on". I have no idea where this has come from. We've never had this issue before. I wonder if he learned it at daycare? In my desperate attempt to get him into the bathroom before he had an accident I told him that it was okay to go in because Mommy had a dress on (which, thankfully I had a long skirt on that could masquerade as a dress).

That got him into the bathroom but didn't ease his confusion. All we heard for the next half hour was mutterings about how he didn't have a dress on and that was for people with dresses and it was okay for Mommy because she had a dress on but Andrew didn't have a dress on...

We went grocery shopping on Wednesday. I'm feeling kind of meh about this shop. We spent $108.36, but it doesn't feel like we really got all that much.

dairy
large sour cream (for Christmas Eve Dinner) - 3.48
yogurt - 5.28
milk - 1.25
cheese - 5.73

produce
white onion - .71
10 lb Potatoes - 5.98
9 lb mandarin oranges 5.88
cucumber - 1.28
apples - 2.69
banana's - 1.33
tomatoes - 2.99
red pepper - 2.01
green pepper - 1.69
orange pepper - 2.28

misc
crackers - 3.98
wraps - 3.38
case of applesauce (andrew loves these!) - 7.89
2 cans tuna - 1.94
2 cans of beans - 1.54
can of cheese soup (I've never bought this before....I hope it works well in my recipe) - 1.77
granola bars - 5.98
guacamole - 4.99
fruit to gos - 4.99
italian dressing - 1.57
sunflower seeds - 1.50

fluids
clamato juice - 2.91
juice boxes - 1.88
powdered juice - 1.79
decadent hot chocolate (steve's choice) - 5.99
root beer - 3.22
diet coke - 4.44

snacks
tortilla chips - 2.68
silly chocolate things - 2.49
mr. creamy - 2.48
smarties - 7.02 (I've got to wean Steve off the Smarties--holy expensive!)

household
dish soap (phosphate free!) - 3.69
cake pans - 2.08

This totals about $122.78 before taxes (if my mathing is correct...which it very well might not be).

We had $18.68 in coupons (Superbucks, store coupons, and a PC Points Coupon for $5 off) which brought the total to $104.10 (ish) and then with the taxes equals 108.37 (ish). The bill actually says 108.36...but i don't want to do all that calculating again.

Final Total - $108.37. Not to bad. Could have been better. Steve couldn't find his employee card so we didn't get the 10% off...but that's okay because at least hefound it the next day.

Total Cost for Christmas Eve Dinner so far - $15.46.

Next time I go shopping I plan to make it the big one to include all the stuff for Christmas Eve dinner. I hope that it is only about $100. I feel like I'm blogging an awful lot about this dinner, but really it is a major big event for me. I've moved into the realm of grown up-hood and it's a complex event to arrange and it's darn expensive! Please forgive me for the Christmas Dinner ramblings.

I've been sorting through the books on my bookshelf and I think I am finally ready to own up to the fact that there are quite a few books that I have not actually read. I'm really quite embarrassed to admit that. Buying books used to be something that I took very seriously. Especially buying used books. I would relish finding the PERFECT book at a garage sale, used book sale, or used store. I loved getting books as gifts. I loved buying them new. Going to Chapters or Prairie Sky (the local funky spiritual book store) was one of my favourite activities. I even liked having multiple copies of certain books. However, since becoming a Mom I really have not had the time or the urge to continue my love of books. I mean, I still read all the Harry Potter books days after they came out and I've read Tuck Everlasting and Sophie's World and some other books since Andrew was born but nothing even remotely close to how much I used to read. Pre Andrew = Reading The Pillars of The Earth in 1 week. Post Andrew = Reading The Clan of The Cave Bear in 6 months.

Friday night I went shopping in my own Library of books. lol. It's a money saver for sure!

These are the 4 books that I am putting up next to read.

• Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. Can you believe that my ex-boyfriend gave this to me in the year 2000 and I still haven't read it? Oh the embarrassment. I will admit that I was quite ticked when he gave me this book because it was not something that I was interested at the time.
• Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. I picked this up at the annual Children's Hospital Book Market just before I got pregnant or maybe just after I got pregnant? I remember starting to read it and quite enjoying it. It got lost in the shuffle of one of our moves and I only just found it a few weeks back.
  
• The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. A book about Dinah from Genesis 34. This is one book that I am seriously ashamed for not having read yet. I'm sure some of readers don't know this but Dinah is not my real name. Dinah is my alter ego. It's been a long road but essentially I first learned about Dinah (who was raped--or not raped-- in Genesis 34). I wrote many papers about her and her story. When I signed up for my first online message board it was Dinah that I thought for a name. Since then it's stuck and Dinah has become my alter ego. So that is why it is seriously embarrassing that I have not yet read this book. One day, readers, I will tell you all about Dinah.
• Racso and the Rats of NIMH by Jane Leslie Conly. A fun light book to read. I really love the Secret of NIMH (both the movie and the book)--Andrew calls it 'Mommys Movie'. hah. I got this book from a school library I used to work at. They were discarding it so I took it home....about 5 years ago.

I'm going to put these on my bedside table so I don't forget about them.

PS. How is it possible that I own 5 Bibles? & all of them different translations?

This week at life there is much to report. It feels like everything is such a whirlwind these days!

The Highlights:

• We painted the living room, which I blogged about yesterday. It looks wonderful, but now is taking quite a bit of effort to put back together. There is drywall dust and paint specks everywhere. Guess what I'm spending my Friday night doing?
• Steve got his PC Points account straightened out finally. Thank Goodness! (There was some glitch the day he applied for the MC and the points were not showing up online or in store) We have 41,339 points already! He got the card in October and I think he's brilliant with it. He uses it and then we come home and he pays it off right away. 41K in points is 40 dollars worth of free merch at Superstore. I am very pleased because that will go a long way towards funding Christmas Eve dinner.
• Last Saturday we went to the bank to invest Andrew's Christmas money. Nana gives him some money every Christmas for us to invest for him. We met with our favourite bank lady (who is pregnant and going on Maternity Leave soon--gah! we won't be making any financial changes until she comes back!) and put his money into a 4 year GIC @ 4.65%. We chose the 4 year because that way it will mature at the same time as his one from last year. I'm proud to say that our son practically has more investments then we do.
• While at the bank I got our favourite bank lady to print off a summary of our Mutual Funds. It's a sad state. Mine are down 23% (if I have done my math correctly) and Steve's are down 5% (he put his in Mutual Funds after the big drop...about 2 months ago?). I'm trying to remain positive and remember that these are long term investments and the market will bounce back and the money will grow, etc...but it is so gosh darn hard!
• I've been playing with this neat little site called Springpad. It's seriously pleasing the chronic list maker that I am. Although, trust me I have recognized the irony that now I have another vehicle to add to the many ways I already make lists...Check it out! I've got my master Christmas Eve Dinner list in there...and yes, I know that I've made one here on my blog as well. But, I love trying to be organized.
• I finished one cross stitch and have started on the last one. This one is smaller then the other 2 I've done so hopefully I'll just zip through it.
  
• Tomorrow we are having some friends over for the evening. It will be low key and I'm not preparing any food or anything. Just a couple of hours with good friends that we don't see nearly enough anymore since we have all grown up. However, having people over does mean that we need to clean up...something we are very good at avoiding. So far I've cleaned my sons room, put the dishes in the dishwasher and turned it on. Not enough progress. So, I'm off to do my interval cleaning and I'll be popping in and out all night.

Cheers!

Steve and my father have been hard at work getting the house ready for our hosting of Christmas Eve dinner. Quite a while ago my father had moved the doorway into the kitchen so that we could have more workspace in the kitchen. We had the hole in the wall for months and months and months (12 actually). He has finally drywalled it up and they painted this past week! I love my new colour. It makes the room look so bright and airy and spacious.

This is from before we moved in so it's not our furniture. Note where the doorway is.

Note how the doorway is moved over & please excuse the godawful mess! I'll have to take some pictures when it's all clean and orderly for Christmas Eve Dinner.

I got another cheque from Pinecone and payment for some crafts that I had done. Yippee! This brings our Mini Holiday Savings Account up to $244.95. We definitely rock.

I feel like that smurf looks. I shoulda known something was up when I went to bed last night at the same time as my 3 year old--7 PM. I slept right through until midnight and took some neo-citrin and went right back to bed. In the end I think I have only been awake for about 3 hours today. & now I'm considering going right back to bed.

Some cute yet embarassing things he says/does....

The other day he asked Great-Grandma if she had a vagina. Good times. Good times. Thankfully I wasn't there to have to answer the question...

Last Monday morning while we were in the car driving me to work he asked me if his nipples were sleeping.

It's been 1 week since I made my goals for December and I just want to check in to so everyone can know how they are going for me.

Not purchase any more yarn/thread/crafty stuff until i have decreased my stash by 50%.
Check! I have not stepped into the craft section of any store. I have been working on ideas to use up what I have.

Bring Mini Holiday savings to $300 dollars
Getting There! I'm pleased to report that our Mini Holiday savings fund is sitting at $209.95. I think this progress will slow the closer we get to Christmas as we will need extra money to put towards purchasing food for Christmas Eve dinner.

De clutter the basement
Getting There! Steve and I worked on the cleaning up/sorting through/decluttering the basement 3 nights last week. I am quite please with how nice it is looking down there.

Complete all gifts to give to family/friends
Slightly Worried. This is one area I am worried about. I have a large list of things I want to complete before Christmas and some of them are very time consuming. I will work on prioritizing absolutes from wants. I have also started bringing my cross stitch to work and doing it during lunch. That has helped.

Host Christmas Eve dinner with a smile surrounded by good food and a clean house
Hopefully optimistic. My father has been over drywalling the living room and kitchen and we hope to paint the living room Tuesday and Wednesday. After that then we will put the tree up. I plan to spend the 2 days I am off work before Christmas cleaning up and preparing as much food in advance as possible.

Enjoy Christmas
Check! So far I am feeling quite liberated by Christmas. I have my menu for Christmas Eve dinner in place. I have asked each family coming to bring something (ie. my aunt and uncle are bringing their homemade wine and devilled egss. my parents are bringing egg nog and a cheese ball. Grandma has supplied us with perogies and perishky already.) I am making 4 gift baskets this year (one for parents, aunt, aunt & uncle, and grandma). We have Andrews gifts purchased/prepared already. I've sent my Hitched Secret Santa gift already. My spirits are quite high.

At this point the only thing I am feeling any stress over is that my husband does not get any time off over Christmas. The only days off he gets are Christmas Eve (because that is his normal day off) and Christmas Day. He will be at work every other day this holiday season. It makes me sad.

It's been a cold week here in the Peg. Windchills in the minus 20's. My work has been having heating issues (which really is a nice way of saying that the first and second floors don't have any heat because they are installing new vents) and there is not supposed to be any heat for a few more weeks. brrrr. i'm used to wearing 2 sweaters to work and having the space heater inches away from me under my desk. Although I will admit that it has been better since they got the heat working in the basement. I'm quite surprised by how much only having heat in the basement has warmed up the first floor. I'm so glad it's Friday.

I've just taken an order for a plarn bag and 2 more dishcloths! I'm-a-happening crafty chick this Christmas. It will be more money to add to my mini-holiday fund. I've got money coming for another item that I made. I'm quite pleased with my sales this Christmas.

Since making the round ripple blanket I've been working on my Cross Stitch. I had totally been neglecting my cross stitch and I had purchased quite a few to make for Christmas. I am about 60% finished one (this picture shows it when it was about 30% done--and photographing cross stitch is harder then it looks I would just like to say) and then I have 1 more I definitely HAVE TO MAKE by Christmas. There are 2 others I bought but I can save them for next Christmas. Thankfully, they are all small projects and the more I do this the faster I get.

I've also discovered that it is hard to craft/prepare for Christmas when your house is in complete disarray because your father decides that now is a great time to finish working on your kitchen/living room remodel that was started exactly 1 year ago. (where is that eye rolling emoticon when i need it?) he's drywalling and mudding and preparing doorways. i hope this is all over with soon. i can't take mess and disorganization and having my kitchen all turned upside down.

Me and Steve also worked at organizing/de-cluttering the basement 3 nights this week!

Saturday is super booked for us. The Bank, an event at my church, Steve has work, and I need to plan an Advent Party. Busy as bees!

What are perishky's you ask? They are a little piece of heaven that Grandma only makes once a year and they are sitting in my deep freeze right now just waiting for Christmas Eve dinner.

Some people call them meat buns. Some people say they're like perogies. Some people call them pastry. Some people call them desert. I seriously just eat them and don't talk about them to anyone because then there might not be as many for me to eat.

My grandma makes them with a pizza pop kinda dough (sort of, but not really--but it's not a pastry either) and then the inside is filled with sauerkraut and fried bacon and caraway seeds (i think they're caraway seeds). They are so yummy! The thing with my Grandma is that you have to cajole her into making them. You have to carry on about how good they are and that you only get them at Christmas and that you love them and that there is never leftovers...because she doesn't like making them. Or so she says. I think she just really likes the praise.

I tried googling to find a picture...but none look like the kind my grandma makes....so you'll just have to imagine them.

I wonder if anyone would notice if I had a few...dozen? :p

I finished the Round Ripple I posted about earlier. I'm in love with it. Totally and completely in love with it. It took me about 3 evenings to do (& that is counting all the unraveling I did) and I really hope that my friends love it for their new little girl.

I cannot wait to make another. Although I have resigned myself to the fact that making another will have to wait until after Christmas because I have so many other projects on the go. (Speaking of projects on the go--I really should make a list about what I have to finish before Christmas--HA HA HA HA)

I have a lot of acrylic wool lying around in my stash from before I was so discerning about yarn and thread. Some of it I bought, but a lot of it was donated by folks. I think a round ripple would be the perfect way to use up all the super saver red heart and 100% unknown fibers that I have had for years.

Anyways...some more pictures of the round ripple from all angles.

Whaddya think?

I got tired of only having 2 columns. I decided I needed 3 of them! I briefly looked around and found this one. So far I'm really quite pleased with it. It's easy to manipulate and hasn't screwed up so far.

The only downside is my BlogRoll seems to have disappeared. *sigh* I spent a long time working on it and now it's gone. Please give me a shout out to your blog and perhaps to a funny, interesting, riveting, well-written one that you think I would also like.

I've now got my December Goals right where I can see them every time I look at the blog and my works in progress are right there too.

Update on my Weekend goals (just to prove to myself that I did stuff this weekend)

• Wrap Hitched Kids Secret Santa package (card?) DONE
  
• Mail Hitched Kids Secret Santa package out, DONE
  
• Mail a gift package out for an order I have, DONE
  
• Make an appointment for Family Pictures
• Make Spaghetti Sauce & freeze DONE
  
• Type out Daycare Board Meeting Minutes
• Buy more cotton yarn DONE
  
• Go to used store to look for sweaters to felt DONE
  

Not bad, eh? Everything but 2. I admit I am totally avoiding typing out the minutes and I still haven't decided where we should go for family portraits...

Cheers!

PS. How do you do that strikethrough on text in Blogger?

I want to make some goals for December that I will be able to keep and will want to keep.

Simply put....

This December I will:

1. Enjoy Christmas
2. Host Christmas Eve dinner with a smile surrounded by good food and a clean house
   
3. Complete all gifts to give to family/friends
4. De clutter the basement
5. Bring Mini Holiday savings to $300 dollars.
6. I will not purchase any more yarn/thread/crafty stuff until i have decreased my stash by 50%.

I need to remember to check back to make sure I'm actually on track...