Wishing everyone here a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Tomorrow I will have a houseful of family over for the day for lots of eating, football watching, opening gifts and giving thanks for each other! On Christmas Day I will be going to my niece's new house for dinner. Her and her boyfriend just closed a few weeks ago so this will be my first visit at the new place. 

I am so grateful to have such a wonderful family, friends and the means to have these celebrations. Not everyone does, and my thoughts go out to everyone during this holiday season.

Stay warm and safe during your travels!

I always try to grocery shop on Tuesday because it is senior discount day at my store, and I get 10% off all store brand products. I didn't need much but every little bit of savings helps. 

The biggest savings was that I used 400 store club card points to get a free ham! I picked up an 11.97 lb. Smithfield ham priced at $39.36, for free. I will be using this on Christmas Eve for our family get together. That is some great savings.

Last week I went back to Aldi for more butter as it was priced at $1.99 again with a limit of 4. The first time around I snagged 6 so I am really well stocked with butter. 

I am all ready for Christmas, all of my shopping is done, everything is wrapped and all the decorating is finished. It feels great to be ahead of things this year. Now I am just trying to stay out of crowds so I don't get the flu or COVID which are running rampant again here.

I did meet some former coworkers last week for lunch and a small gift exchange. We sat out on an enclosed, heated patio where we were the only customers (most were seated inside). It was nice and warm and we had a great time!

Not much else is going on, I have started to think about my financial goals for 2023, which is mostly to just stay on budget. I think I will be very close to being truly paycheck to paycheck, but I'll need to see how things go. Has anyone else started thinking about next year's financial goals?

The storm that is marching across the country will reach Maryland overnight Wednesday into Thursday. In my area they are calling for some possible icing with a mixture of some rain and snow, then turning to all rain. Typical Maryland slop. 

I hope everyone is doing OK. The blogs have been really slow. I miss hearing from everyone!

I really do love the holidays! I enjoy getting together with friends and family to celebrate life, and giving thanks, and reflecting on the year gone by and the new one approaching. I especially love hosting Christmas Eve, preparing a wonderful meal, and spending the day/evening with all of my favorite people. 

But what I don't love is the gift buying. I feel like such a grinch just typing that! These days, I just don't need or want any more "stuff". And anything I do need, I prefer to buy myself as I know exactly what I like. We don't have any young children in my family anymore so it's just us adults. Honestly, I could do without receiving and giving gifts. I think I would enjoy the holidays even more without the stress of it all. 

The problem is that I am the only one in my family that feels this way. Everyone else loves gift giving. My sister especially who lives in Texas (we are all in Maryland). I think it makes her feel closer to us to have gifts to open, a little piece of "home". So, I go along with it because it seems to make everyone else happy, and I don't want to spoil that for them.

This year, I just asked for gift cards and when I got some resistance because it "felt like an impersonal gift" I really stuck to my guns and assurred everyone that that was really what I wanted (and it is). 

Does anyone else struggle with this? I guess in the grand sceme of things it really isn't a big deal. It's something we do to make the people we love happy, even if it goes against what makes us happy. I save for it all year so I have the money put aside, so this isn't a financial strain issue. 

Well, I have rambled on about this enough! I hope this all made some kind of sense.