'Tis the Season!

Hello blog world!  I can’t believe Christmas week is HERE! Unreal.

The week is shaping up to be a good one. The presents are all purchased and wrapped, besides the little one’s gifts.  She is going to Nana’s house Thursday and we will wrap them while she’s gone, then put them back in the basement until Santa brings them on Christmas Eve. I really love having a child this age at Christmas. It’s all about the magic and excitement!

I did one last stop today during my lunch break. My husband reminded me that we need almost all sizes of batteries, so I made a quick run to CVS to get a bunch of packages. There’s nothing worse than getting a gift on Christmas and realizing the batteries aren’t included and not having the right size on hand!

The only thing we will need to do prior to the in-laws arrival on Friday is stop at the grocery store for our seafood. We like to make bacon wrapped scallops for an appetizer and they need to be really fresh, so we’ll do that Friday afternoon. The rest of our Christmas Eve dinner will be ham, scalloped potatoes and salad, all of which we already purchased when we did the regular shopping. Oh, and we might need to pick up a little more wine and liquor, too, but that’s it!

I have to say, I am very proud of us for the way we approached the holidays this year. We have a whole new mind set on shopping, spending and budgeting and it shows. Just the fact that we planned ahead to save ourselves (okay, mostly me) the stress and aggravation is a big step. Mike and I have never really planned for large expenses (hence the lack of a steady E-fund.) It’s embarrassing, but true.  We always approached personal finance with the attitude that ‘we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.’ Well, that hasn’t worked – see our sidebar!  This new strategy – planning and saving (gasp!) has taken a lot of weight off our shoulders and allowed us to enjoy the holiday season so much more.

On Wednesday, I will update once again since it’s payday, and I will change the sidebar to reflect the new numbers. Our progress has been slow but steady. I am looking forward to really getting the year off with a bang in January! Stay tuned!