Holidays

...make for busy days! I couldn't even tell you where the season has gone! This has been my "latest" for sending out cards and wrapping gifts. Finally, last night I sat down in the LR floor and wrapped gifts with Josh tagging and putting them under the tree. He's not really a gift-wrapper. I had fewer to wrap this year as we did more of a simpler Christmas for the girls and there wasn't anything to wrap for each other. I am excited to see their faces when Keirah gets her present! Aliyah probably has hers all figured out anyway.

We went to Lowe's yesterday in search of a gift for my grandparents. Grandparents can be hard to buy for because they either a) have everything or b) don't see a need at their age to have anything updated. That's where we are... Anyway, I was walking along and I told Josh that he needed to remember to pick us up some furnace filters the next time he was at work. That no sooner came out of my mouth when I saw on a rack a pack of 3 filters (the only ones) in our size for $2.50 on clearance!! What a deal!! That was one of those moments where I so felt those were there for me!! Not only that, but I mentioned my lamp broke (or the glass shade) I should say. The lamp itself is fine. On that same rack at Lowe's was a glass shade for .50!!! These are garage sale prices folks!! Not only that, but you may remember that I love flower gardening in spring, summer, & fall. I do not purchase fertilizer/weed & feed at full price b/c normally it can be found on clearance (yep...found that as well) $1.99 per jug! Furthermore, Aliyah likes the Disney Buddies movies. There is a new one out this year called "Santa Buddies". The Disney store which we no longer have here sells the adorable dogs from the movie. Well, they have sold out twice over and the last time I talked to them, they said that was it. For whatever reason, I got the notion to call the Disney store that we will be visiting this weekend in Oak Brook. You guessed it...she said, "I think we have one". She got back on the line and said yes we have 2 of the same one and they are BOGO free!! SCORE!! I paid for them and they are waiting--yay! These must have been quite a hit (there are 5 different dogs) and they are sold out seemingly everywhere!

We went to a Christmas party the other night and had a lot of fun. I love parties! The food was YUMMY! Speaking of food, my husband made Party Mix and Muddy Buddies (puppy chow) mmm! Our Christmas gift was delivered yesterday --kitchen table & chairs. We love it! It is bigger and is a tall table with stools (they have backs). It is cherry and ebony colored.
Right away I decided it needed a runner. We have some fun $$ to spend, so we decided to use some of that for the runner.
Story about the fun $$:
We have a neighbor who is 95. She lives on her own and drives and everything, but it goes without mentioning that she certainly cannot do everything by herself. On a few occassions, we have gone to rake her leaves because her yard is a big deal to her and because we want to teach our girls to help others. We also did some minor trimming along her portion of the alley. She noticed this at some point and called to ask if we had done this and I told her we did. She thanked me profusely and I told her we were happy to be able to help her. She calls at various times to chat briefly and she left a message the other day for one of us to stop by. I did and after a lot of knocking and her not hearing, I called her on the phone and she came to the door. She thanked me for the Christmas card and we chatted for a couple of minutes. Gladys handed me a card and then I was on my way. Figuring she was giving me a Christmas card, I opened it and was shocked to find $75 inside. Gladys immediately got a phone call. I tried unsuccessfully to explain to her that we did not want $$ nor did we try to help her out to get $$. She told me that we most certainly were going to have this money and not to argue with her about it...after all she is privileged (her words not mine). I was instructed to do something fun with the $$ or use it for Valentine's Day or whatever. OKAY then... so that's the fun $$. She has quite a bit of spunk and definitely has opinions for 95...and she is quite a character! I'm so thankful for nice neighbors!