Well, I promised I'd return in January, so here I am. I thought I'd share with you what December was like in our home. Thrift, splurge, family and all. I'm going to recount a bit of November because Thanksgiving is the start of the Christmas season for me.
Thanksgiving week and weekend: Katie made dinner the day before Thanksgiving and invited the whole family. Sam didn't go. I picked up his kids and took them with us. JD and his kids came.
Katie did an excellent job. She served 20 folks (including kids) and it was all lovely and delicious.
JD came here on his way home on Thursday. Daniel asked me how often I spent time with the other kids...That's always been a sore point with him and his siblings, that I might spend more time with the other children when I see so little of them. I'm terribly sorry they feel they miss out. Truly we're all missing out, but what do you do about it? They are six hours away. Between their dad's work schedule and their own busy lives, there is little time to be spent elsewhere and with our budget snug we don't travel as we'd hoped to do.
John and I had a long talk after the family left that day and admitted we were both disappointed. Maybe it would be more right to say we were unsettled, hurt, confused, but the truth is it's difficult to explain exactly what it was we felt. When we met with Lily two years ago, it was as though we'd always known her and she'd always known us. That's something we don't have with JD's family with whom we had spent a good bit of time when they were younger. They seem to have no knowledge of us at all, and it seems they shall always be unknown to us. It's awkward and uncomfortable for all of us and while we love them dearly, we can't seem to find a connection.
After I put up the tree, we watched our first Christmas movie of the season. "Miracle on 34th Street". So good!!
December:
Week One: I determined that I'd buy only groceries we absolutely needed for at least the first two weeks. I did a full inventory at the end of November, and even though I do this fairly routinely, I'm always surprised how a few things will slip my attention and suddenly there we are with a piece of meat dated "April" or a casserole from June. So those things are used first. We didn't need much the first two weeks. I think I bought eggs and lettuce and fruit.
I took the initiative this year and started gift wrapping right away as the gifts arrived. I wanted to enjoy the pile of presents under my tree.
Despite all the financial stuff that hit the fan in October and November, I didn't feel stressed about budget or gifts as I typically do. I had managed to set aside about half the usual amount we'd set aside for Christmas spending. I was able to add enough from the December budget to make up a bit more.
I began mixing cookie doughs and getting them in the fridge or freezer well in advance of actually baking them. This year I opted to make sugar cookie dough (Raspberry Coconut Thumbprints, Maraschino Cherry Bombs), Cranberry Bliss Bars (made early and frozen as they do incredibly well in the freezer), a cream cheese brownie bar, stove top cookies for John, and Russian tea cakes (made that dough ahead and froze it). I didn't have to buy any ingredients to make cookies since they all included items that we always have on hand.
I ordered Christmas stockings for John and me this year and was so pleased with myself...Until they both arrived monogrammed with a 'J'. I was as disappointed as a child. I felt like I wanted to cry over it. I was going to 'make do' and just use it anyway. John insisted I reorder and get one with my monogram. He said he wouldn't dream of opening the gifts in his stocking if I didn't have my own proper stocking. He was done with 'making do' he said. So, I reordered and got what I was meant to get!
Week Two: Temperatures plunged. I got up on the Tuesday morning following and noted that fog was moving in, even though it was below freezing. What happened next was magical.
I thought it had begun to snow, but it wasn't snowing at all. The fog had frozen in the air and on everything it touched. Frost was thick on the cars and leaves were rimed with ice. The air was perfectly still and perfectly frozen. I was shivering with the cold, standing out there on the porch staring at it, but I couldn't move. I was absolutely entranced by the beauty of it!
Sam came by one morning that week and asked if I had any room in my freezer. I said I did and he asked if I wanted half a deer's worth of ground venison. He brought it over the next day, and I seriously had exactly enough space to fit what he brought over. That was a huge blessing to us. And it was a lovely early Christmas gift, too.
The previous weekend I'd run into Publix to gather a couple of things we needed and on impulse took up a package of ground beef, since I knew we were getting low. When I was scanning the items in my cart, I ran the package over the scanner. The computer said, "$42.16" and I said "What?!" I called the cashier over and had her remove it from my purchases. I had read the sign as $9.99 but somehow forget that was a per pound price! My gracious. I told John that night I didn't know if we'd be able to afford hamburger any longer at that rate. So yes, the venison from Sam was truly a blessing.
Josh decided this year he'd join the school band. He's playing the trombone. He had his first band concert on Thursday, December 11. We were so proud of how comfortable and at home he looked onstage. Since we were out anyway, we stayed and listened to each grade group in turn perform and we thought it went quite nicely. The school had actually intended to have each group's parents come in and go right back out again while the next group's parents came in which was a shame. It meant people were constantly moving in and out and milling about which was distracting but also that there were very few people there. But the students did quite well. I was impressed both with the difficulty of the pieces played and the overall composure of the students.
The Saturday following Josh's concert, I took the kids out for the day. We went to Massee Lane, the home of the American Camellia Society, and I think highly underrated as a place to visit. Katie and I went one Christmas when she was about Josh's age. They have sponsor decorated Christmas trees for the season. I don't think the children really looked at any of them. There were 20 or more trees to see. I honestly don't recall but one tree that had dried okra pods. Someone had painstakingly put a bead of glue down each rib and dipped them in red glitter...It was really quite pretty! But that is the only tree that caught my attention and is remembered now that I'm looking back.
In the gift shop, I found kaleidoscopes. I bought one for each of us and the kids spent the whole of the afternoon looking in them and watching the formation of light and patterns each slight turn of the scope made.
What they were most interested in at Massee Lane was the collection of Boehm porcelain! Honestly, I hadn't expected that at all so it just goes to show you not to underestimate what a child will find fascinating. I had also wanted them to see the replica of a Japanese garden in the back of the camellia gardens. Again, they found the camellias interesting, which I hadn't expected they'd even notice.
They loved the Japanese garden and the very large Koi in the pond there. We stayed in the Japanese garden for nearly an hour, I think. They climbed rocks and explored nooks and crannies and hopped (much to the detriment of my nerves) across the millstones that bridge the pond. They picked up nuts and leaves and seed pods to examine and just generally enjoyed themselves. They laid the lovely camellia blossoms they'd picked up off the ground on the way to the garden in the portion of the pool where the Koi did not swim. It really was quite lovely.
Aside from the expense of the kaleidoscopes, the garden cost us $8 to visit. The kids have asked to return once again. I noted picnic tables on the grounds, and we will go back in the future and take a picnic.
Our other mission that day had been to sample the Grinch meal at McDonald's and to find a peppermint-ice cream treat somewhere. Well that all proved to be a big bust. For one thing, all the McDonald's within a 20-mile radius reported that the meals were OUT OF STOCK.
The second disappointment of the day was not finding a peppermint ice cream treat anywhere but they made do with blizzards. That disappointment was mine alone. The kids got ice cream and were happy.
Week Three: John had a visit with the dermatologist and had a biopsy on one spot. We'll hear in two weeks how that went.
That evening when we got back home, I went into the kitchen around 5pm and looked out the window. There were four deer grazing on the lawn. I stood watching and more deer came out of the woods. At one point I counted nine of them. We don't often see that many.
I spent one morning out on my own grocery shopping that same week, gathering things that were on sale to restock the pantry and freezer. I did not overspend our grocery budget, even though I did get a rather luxury cut of meat for Christmas Day for a truly fantastic price. We'd planned to get that particular item if we found one at a decent price and I did.
Next year I think I will put aside a little extra for December grocery shopping because there were so many good sales on butter, flour, baking items and yes, meats like turkey, ham, beef and pork roasts. I may need milk and eggs for the January Pantry Freezer challenge, and perhaps fresh produce, but really, we should sail through the month without worry as far as foodstuffs are concerned.
When I was ordering Christmas gifts, I admired a box of 168 Crayola crayons. The epitome was almost always the 64-count box in my childhood...and it does seem there was another larger box with a built-in pencil sharpener, too. But 168!! I told John that the child in me wanted that box of crayons, but I'd never order it for myself. And I didn't...
But I did order a set of Crayola markers. An item I must confess I was settling for, but they were on deep clearance, and I thought at under $5 they'd make a great stocking stuffer for my stocking.
Well, there is too a Santa Claus! The tracking info said they were markers. The package actually had the 168-count tub of crayons in it. I texted all my kids and repeatedly asked John if he'd ordered them, but they all assured me they hadn't. I finally thought to check Amazon. I had indeed ordered the set of markers. Someone made a mistake at the distribution center but I'm not calling it a mistake. I'm calling it a gift that was meant just for me.
The weather this week was odd. Freezing temps and barely hitting the low 40's in the daytime on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday of that week? The air conditioning kicked on. I'd already opened windows in an effort to cool the house down a bit.
On Thursday it decided to rain, and the temperature slipped down once again. John had lunch with his friend and former partner from EMS service. I took advantage of his being gone to get serious about cookie baking. I got both batches of dough baked up while he was gone that day.
After baking cookies, I went to get myself a fish dinner. I do love fish and John does NOT. I don't deal with the mess of frying and clean-up is easy.
When I came home, I put on a Shirley Temple movie, "The Little Princess". When it went off, the next movie began to play, and it was "It's a Wonderful Life." John came in while it was on and went off to the bedroom. He dislikes one scene in the movie intensely and will NOT watch the movie due to that.
Once the scene he disliked was over, he decided to come in and watch the rest and cried at the ending. He said, "I'd forgotten how good it was..." Will he watch it again willingly? Probably not. But I surely did enjoy it and I'm glad it happened to run right on into that movie.
We ended the week doing seasonal things. One in particular is almost Biblical...We went to pay our property taxes!
We will come to the end of this year with some credit card debt but that's actually on purpose. We have money set aside to pay off all of our credit cards but to do so would mean bottoming out our balance and we don't want to do that. We are in agreement that we will continue to pay on the credit cards aggressively, but we'll let our balance build up a bit more beyond what we have earmarked for them before we pay them off entirely. I fully expect we will have all our credit cards paid off in full within the first two months.
We served at the Homeless Outreach Center. I noted a family (single mom with four kids) came in and one of the girls had a guitar bag over her shoulder. I watched her take out the guitar and strum it a little, and a conversation took place between her mom and herself. They glanced at John several times.
I was right in my assumption that she'd brought it especially to get some instruction from John. The mom said, "Her first words were, do you think Mr. John will teach me?" That made me smile because John is quite good at encouraging others.
While the mom and I were talking, I watched as Grace took in every word he spoke to her. He tuned the guitar and gave her picks and an extra set of strings. He taught her two or three chords and told her to practice every day and bring in the guitar again next month for her next lesson. She handled the instrument almost reverently as she put it away.
As I was making my way across the room to go back to pack up equipment, I was stopped by another of the women we were serving. "I saw that child get on the bus with that guitar, and I said to myself, 'I bet she's going to show that thing to John..." I told her, "She wants lessons." She nodded, "Well she's got a good man to teach her."
Sometimes I am so proud of the man my husband is!
Week Four: The Sunday before Christmas is one of my favorite services. People dress so festively...and some of them are wacky, too. I passed a man in the lobby who had on a plaid suit decorated with garland and flashing lights and glasses. One woman had on a Christmas tree HAT made of green tinsel which she paired with a red and white vertically striped skirt and red and white striped stockings! Overall, the atmosphere is very much festive and fun and full of good cheer.
Friends of ours came up and handed us gifts. I was so pleased to open mine and find Christmas hot pads and oven mitt for my kitchen. John's gift was a Christian album by two artists that John knew from their rock years.
We had planned to buy new Christmas mugs at church today, a little treat for us. We then wanted to get our photo made. We had one of the pastor's wives take our picture.
From there we went to Katie's. We were greeted at the car by Liam (a cousin about the same age as Caleb and Bella). I was surprised Liam came to greet us because he's a little standoffish even though he's been calling us Grampa and Gramma for a while now. When I asked how he was doing he replied, "I'm doing."
Henry ignored me and ran straight to Grampa. Taylor surprised us by showing us that she has learned to play guitar (Cody's teaching her) and Caleb whined that he wanted to come to our house for a sleepover. By the way, I was told this evening that Caleb has a very wiggly front tooth.
We had a Gramma's fried chicken lunch. We finally headed home. I asked to stop by Kroger to pick up butter that was on sale. I fought my way through the crowds, got the butter and nothing else. It was terribly busy in the store, as I expected it would be, but people were so cheery and kept showing small kindnesses and saying, "Merry Christmas". I haven't seen people act so happy over the holidays in a good long while.
Presents are wrapped. Cookies are made. The only thing I must do is sort out cookies into gift boxes and after I do that I'm truly done for the season! I've planned simple meals.
Christmas Review: I always like to look back and see what worked perfectly, what I missed, and what I would have done differently.
For Christmas Eve, we went to Katie's which was lovely. The children were all pleased with their presents, even little Henry.
On our way home from visiting Mama, we stopped and bought Submarine Sandwiches at Jersey Mikes. I've had Publix, Firehouse, Jimmy John's, Subway. So far Publix has been our favorite, but two weeks ago I went to see Mama and bought one for our supper on my way home. Gosh but it was really good.
Because both Bella and Taylor leave on Christmas Eve afternoon, the children get all their presents at once. Out of respect for the other households they don't do a traditional Santa gift. Well Bella and Taylor both get Santa gifts at their other homes. I was thinking about that. I felt like Caleb and Henry were missing out on something a little special. So, I asked Katie if next year we might not get the boys a Santa gift to be put under the tree on Christmas morning as a surprise for them. I figured that her and Cody's budget was pushed already with the gifts they give to all four children, and I don't feel the boys need big gifts under the tree, but something special, you know? They tend to do bigger birthday gifts in their household, as does Sam in his household.
When I made the offer to Katie later that evening, she thought it was a terrific idea. She'd been feeling let down that their Christmas was wrapped up and done and there was nothing for them to enjoy on Christmas Day.
We discussed ways she can inexpensively make their Christmas Day special on a smaller scale using lovely little rituals that are for just the four of them. She seemed to appreciate the ideas of a second special Christmas morning breakfast like bagels and flavored cream cheeses, a small but special holiday meal and a special movie viewing.
Christmas Day was just lovely. It was only John and I for our holiday morning and meal. We were both up early. We had our traditional breakfast which is the exact same breakfast that Katie made. Next year, I'll do something different, perhaps a breakfast casserole, I think.
We opened our stockings after breakfast. I was surprised to find that 'Santa' had added something to mine. We both enjoyed those stockings, and I plan to fill one for us again next year. On a frugal blog I used to read, the author picked up one item each for herself and her husband ten or eleven months of the year and would wrap them immediately when she got home, then tuck them away. She said by the time Christmas rolled around she'd completely forgotten what was bought and so it was a fresh surprise all over again on Christmas morning. I think I'm going to follow her lead in 2026.
For our dinner, I cooked the Boneless Rib Eye Roast and made Yorkshire pudding to go with that. I made a new to me potato dish and cooked asparagus I'd frozen at the end of the season.
Yuck on the asparagus. That was a real disappointment, but the rest of the meal was just lovely. Until I was in my 50's I never had fresh asparagus. We ate canned asparagus, and I liked it very well for fifty years. I started buying fresh in season asparagus when I finally started seeing it in our markets. I have to insert here that while this is one thing I deeply appreciate about modern day groceries: the opportunity to buy a variety of things fresh and in season that I never tasted fresh in my life until these later years.
Our roast was large enough to serve us twice that day and still have enough meat left to thinly slice for generous sandwiches the next two days. And I cut two thick steaks off that roast when I bought it before I froze it...I'd say that it actually was a rather economical thing to buy.
I set the table prettily with a tablecloth and used our day-to-day plates. We had special glassware (John's mother's crystal), the 'good' community plate forks and knives, and really pretty paper napkins, mostly because their pattern was far more festive and pretty than my blue and white 'picnic' napkins as Caleb likes to call them. I do love a pretty paper napkin, but I don't think they are nearly absorbent enough.
After we'd eaten and let it settle, we went over to Sam's. Millie had saved her ice cream money and bought us presents at the school gift shop. Mine is a medium sized heavy cutting board that says, "Nobody stacks up to Gramma" and has a big plate of pancakes on it. John's gift was a hanging poster that said, "Number One Grampa". I thought that was very sweet. Bess made us all coffee, and we watched everyone open their gifts. Then we admired their Santa gifts.
I have to share two further things that I have no control whatsoever over. For one thing it was mighty warm for Christmas, nearly 80F. Sigh. Truly we seldom have a cold or even really cool Christmas, but I'm always hopeful. And on Christmas Eve when we picked up the mail, we found a slew of medical bills we can look forward to paying, all related to John's surgery back in the fall...
Fifth Week: I have come to really appreciate the sense of 'community' I've found in our church.
On Monday we finally got a bit of rain and then the weather broke. The wind picked up and blew and blew and wrapped the flag about the flagpole. The temperature dropped steadily all day long and got really cold.
I was up early (before 4am) and wide awake from that point forward. I got so much accomplished right up until I broke my toe...I was walking next to our bed and for some reason my foot hit one of the legs under the bed. I knew the moment I felt it that I'd broken the darn thing. C'est la vie...I've broken toes many times in the past just not here lately.
On Tuesday, I'd planned to have the kids here. I had a couple of new and inexpensive toys for them to play with. Isaac wanted to be outdoors playing in the cold. Millie wanted to paint, and Josh wanted to play games on his Switch. After a cheeseburger lunch (venison burgers with homemade buns), Millie wanted to build a fort and Josh joined in. They moved furniture all over the living room and draped blankets and pillows everywhere
On New Year's Eve we ate leftovers of food we had on hand. I went to Dollar General in town and picked up half priced items to use in junk journaling next year (or let the kids play with, either one works) and reduced priced candy which we don't need but it's reduced price! and I don't care if the M&Ms I'm eating in February are red and green.
I had a terrific headache and my foot ached so that after lunch I whined until John brought me Tylenol and a cup of fully caffeinated coffee which set me right once more.
This month has been a lovely one.
Now I'm looking forward to the beginning of a new year.
New Year Plans: All the resolutions I've made for the year ahead are personal goals and not one of them is for the house or big projects in the yard, etc. But I will begin January as I usually do with a #threerivershomestead Pantry and Freezer Challenge. Last year I went through mid-February before making any major grocery purchases. This year, I just hope to get through January. It's not a lack of food but I do want to keep my eye out for good sales on pantry basics. We're a little low on chicken and pork so I wouldn't mind replenishing those for the months ahead.
I'm also thinking of participating in a Can-uary challenge. I have need of cranberry jelly, chicken broth, may can some more dried beans, etc. And if I find a great price on collards or tomatoes (usually at the discount store) I might well get a bunch of those canned as well.
Other than that, it will be business as usual here.
And that is all for now!