Tis the Season

Here we are, 2 days after Thanksgiving. My thoughts have been leading to my budget quite honestly. I always like to say how I'm planning ahead and almost finished shopping before Thanksgiving is here. I have to do this because I do not own a credit card. It's a plus and a minus. It's a comfort knowing on Christmas day that every gift is bought and paid for. However it takes lots of budgeting and planning. On my slim budget, I have to start about 4 months before Christmas Season.

I am proud to say that I've spoken to Santa and Santa has assured me that Gman's Christmas will go off without a hitch. Santa's only thought on Christmas at our house is how to present the Santa gifts. He'll get it figured out. He always does. Gman is so sure he's going to get a PS2 complete with Guitar Hero guitars and games that there is no guess work. I'm going to talk to Santa about leaving only practical things under the tree this year and then hiding the "goodies" until later. *snickering*

I've bought the customary books for all of the nieces and my nephew. But this year I want to give them each a canvas book bag to take with them when they go to the library. I will personalize each one in some way and I can't wait to go shopping for those things.

I know what I'm going to be giving everyone else and I'm hoping that it will all fit in to the budget along with driving home for Christmas. I haven't been home for Christmas in 5 years or more so we are looking very forward to going there and spending time with family on an actual holiday. We are also looking forward to meeting the newest addition to the family. My brother Dan and his wife and two kids are expecting the third child in the family. We don't know what the baby is going to be, so I will probably wait with Christmas shopping until I get home and know the sex of the baby.

On to teachers. It's crazy. You'd think teachers would be the easiest to shop for, however I think they are the most difficult. Most people give teachers an ornament or some other trinket. Teachers get millions of those things in their years of teaching, so I always like to give them something unique as well as useful. One year I decided to make these fizzy bath salts. I made these beautiful bags for each one to go in to and tied them with beautiful ribbon. There was a small hitch. The mix of chemicals that went in to the bath salts solidified in the huge Tupperware bowl I mixed them in. It took me 4 nights of non-stop scraping that shit in to crystals again. OH MY GOSH! Ixnay on the oapsay from now on.

So tonight I was browsing around on the computer and even though I've found some cute stuff, nothing seems just right. Plus this is the first year Gman has had a male teacher for any of his classes. So I have to take that in to consideration as well. I will think and think and eventually come up with something and if all else fails, each teacher will get the grande bottle of hand sanitizer and a jug of disinfecting wipes for their classrooms.

I finally got a different car. I'm so excited about it....kind of. It's older than the car I have now but it seems to be much more mechanically sound in comparison to the car I own now, which is blowing blue smoke thanks to the oil the engine is burning. The "new to me" car needs a new catalytic converter on it. That's an expensive repair. However, the good news is that if I take my car to U Pull It, my mechanic told me how much I should be able to get out of the car and that will almost pay for the catalytic converter. YAHOOOOOOO!!!!!! I'll still have to put out a little bit of money but not nearly what I was expecting. The seats are worn in the car but I think that some seat covers will do just fine in there when the time comes and I have some extra cash. I just hope this car holds up for a couple of years.

It's kind of crazy. The car doesn't have electric windows, seats or locks. That's going to be a big change. It also has two keys...remember when cars had 2 keys? One for the ignition and then another one for the doors and trunk? Well that's this car. haha

My mechanic asked what I was doing with the old car. I said I was going to try to just sell it for its body. No I don't think it's a prostitute. I told him that the car is seriously on its last leg, needs a new transmission, probably an overhaul, new tires and the list goes on and on. He said he'd pass on that since he doesn't want to do that much work on a used car to give to his daughter.

Anyway, so things are looking up for now. I'm looking forward to going out Christmas shopping here in the next couple of days. It should be fun. The tree is going up tomorrow and with any luck we will be able to go downtown and look at the million lights there.

For Gman's birthday I want to take him out for a nice dinner in the nice part of town and then as a 12th birthday surprise I am going to take him on a horse and buggy ride through the Old Market of Omaha. I think he will really enjoy it.

That's all for now. Signing out fat and happy after Thanksgiving leftovers.