Supporting Small Businesses This Holiday

I’ve been sick for just about a solid week now, and I am cranky.

I guess I should be happy that I am getting a little better every day and I can breathe out of my nose again, most of the time.

Still, Christmas doesn’t care that you’re sick. To paraphrase Dr. Seuss, it will come just the same, whether you are ready or not. So, we’ve been attempting to get ready:

We got our tree last night. It’s the biggest tree we’ve had in a couple years, but the price wasn’t too bad; maybe because it’s a Douglas fir, not a Frasier.

Today, I finished cleaning and decorating the china cabinet and Tom worked on the outside lights. Pretty psyched about that — he has not done this much lighting in a quite a while!

He plans to do the second floor too. Hopefully, since he spent the money on these lights, he’ll do this for a least a couple years.

Inside, I also hung silver and gold ornaments from my kitchen curtain rod, and added silver and gold ribbon too (all stuff I already had).

We’ve had to buy two boxes of lights for indoors/the tree, due to old lights not working. We shouldn’t need to buy anything else as far as decor.

I’ve started shopping in earnest, both online and in person. I was able to get four gifts locally, in nearby Haddonfield, part of a fun few hours spent with F.

I also took a leap and bought a big batch of beeswax tea lights from Big Dipper Wax Works. Don’t think I’ve ever had a beeswax candle, but they sound like they are very clean burning. And I NEED tea lights. Got to have my lights all over the downstairs. In fact, I had to buy some at Walgreens today to tide me over.

I bought some beeswax lip balm for stocking stuffers, too.

Everything else so far has been bought at major retailers online, or smaller online retailers, following the kids’ Christmas lists. For at least two of their requests, I might be able to get the items used on eBay.

All this shopping invariably gets me thinking about things I want. I don’t like being in that mindset. I really don’t need Christmasy flannel PJ pants (but I have a pair sitting in a cart while I stew on it). Trying to tell myself to wait for the post-Christmas sales.

Tom got two coats for Rocco from Facebook Marketplace. He’s been on a secondhand kick lately! Unfortunately neither coat fits our big boy.

This week I spent $90 at urgent care for F and me, and I had to buy N goggles for the THIRD time because he keeps losing and breaking them. I should call the school where he lost the one pair and see if they found them. On the bright side, he is doing great on the swim team!

So with my sickness, I didn’t cook or grocery shop much and Tom has been handling much of it the past several days. Meals this week:

Sunday: pulled pork and twice baked potatoes

Monday: ditalini with Bolognese sauce from the freezer and garlic bread

Tuesday: stuffing, grandma noodles, chicken patties

Wednesday: scrambled eggs, sausage, diced potatoes, toast

Thursday: scrounge: I had a quesadilla that I couldn’t taste.

Friday: scrounge: tuna (no taste)

Saturday: PJ’s restaurant (no taste)

Sunday: chicken tenders and tater tots (you guessed it)

Everything is still hanging on in the garden. No hard freezes yet.