December 17th

I cannot believe how fast we are moving towards the end of December - My thought today is - if we don't have homemade sugar cookies this year - do you think anyone will care? I always have such great holiday ideas months ahead of time and then when the time arrives to actually do them - my enthusiasm level has declined significantly- It just seems like a lot of work for me- I had thought about just making the cookies on Saturday - and then on Sunday when Barry gets here we could do the frosting - actually as I am thinking this out- we could make them on Saturday and then on Sunday when everyone is here for Sunday dinner - that means Jordan, Jon and Adrienne is generally home I could have them all decorate cookies - now that is a good idea ! and then I will do tacos to make it easy on myself for dinner - I got my gift for the secret santa- well... before I forget --Adrienne called me last week before work (she doesn't know how the roads are going to be so she leaves 1.5 hours ahead of time and since we have not had any snow she gets there early and heads over to Fred Meyers) so she just got done at FM when the cashier asked if she wanted to use her bonus coupon- and she asked what bonus coupon ( it is actually my bonus coupon because she just puts in my number so I get the points for what she spends since she does not spend enough to make it matter) so because I spent a certain amount I qualified for the 40% one time coupon on Home, Toys, Clothing, Christmas- WHAT!! so then I mentioned it when I was checking out in Palmer and she asked if I wanted to use it -(Adrienne and I were waiting for Saturday morning to use it when she was not working) and I said no.. but was super excited - and she gave me two more coupons good for 30 dollar off if you spent 150 - and so on Saturday we went to Fred Meyers- It came to around 470.00 before everything and by the time I was done with coupons it was 270.00- and pretty much everything was already on sale - so for example Adrienne had a pair of Columbia Snow Pants and they were 60.00 but then they were on sale and with that and our other stuff she ended up paying 12 dollars- I got her a shirt that was 65- Columbia and when it was done I paid 18.00 - so her cost was 70 which she gave me and my cost was 200- and I got a lot of stuff- I got a Schleich advent calendar for Rainey that was 39 and I paid 10- of course it was after the 1st but she doesn't care -and that is where this all started with the secret santa gift for Christmas Eve - we are having the party and if you want to participate you bring  a gift - I got beautiful wine cups the nice ones without the stems- with cute sayings on them - normally 40 dollars for 8- and a pink ice scraper with a glove that you stick your hand in for 6 dollars - I might keep that for myself!! so that was a fun Saturday - I loved watching Rainey at the parade of lights in Palmer - it was so cheesy that it was fantastic- when your not around that type of stuff you forget how heart warming just small town Palmer parades can be - then we were freezing and got hot kettle corn to enjoy while we waited for the fireworks- small pleasures ! it was nice - so I think I am almost done with Christmas shopping - still some things coming in the mail - Barry asked me to take him to buy flowers for his mama- it was touching - he said he wants to get her flowers - pink flowers because they are her favorite- and I will hide them until Christmas morning and he wants to put them under the tree with a tag- OK - Duty calls - "Grandma can you get me more milk please " -