My family and I received a gift of homemade treats in the mail, completely unexpectedly! Isn't that nice? I was genuinely touched by the gesture.

Our gifts here are just about all wrapped. We need to bring out our stockings, and we still need to send out cards. Those are just going to have to be late this year.

My parents get into town today around noon, and DH's brother and sister-in-law get in later this afternoon. We'll all be going to DD's later performance this evening - should be fun! She did great last night, from what I could see from the wings.

I need to go chop some celery and onions and get things organized for the open house. I have to leave here around 12:30 and won't be back until around 7:45, so I'm getting things organized and my mom's putting it all into crock pots for me. Good to work as a team.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Did I mention we're having issues with our washing machine? In particular, we're having issues with the drainage. It's been quite a December for us. DD and I went to the laundromat this morning to do 4 loads of laundry. Eight dollars. I haven't done laundry at a laundromat in a very long time. While it was nice to get it all done at once (well, not all of it, but at least four loads of it) it is expensive. I still need to do towels and sheets, and DD has more clothes to do (but that isn't a full load so it will have to wait). I may go back tomorrow to do a few more loads while DD is off making and decorating cookies with her cousin and grandma. I'm doing the last of my shopping tomorrow too (Santa shopping) and wrapping gifts while DD is gone.

I finished the lap afghan for the nursing home. Now I need to call over there and see if they will in fact accept it for one of their residents. If not, I'll find somewhere else to donate it.

DD has her first stage rehearsal this evening for Nutcracker and I'm helping out with ironing and steaming costumes. We stopped by the store to pick up a case of bottled water for the girls.

We got our Christmas tree this afternoon, finally, and now it's lit up and decorated, looking beautiful. We have LED lights inside and out now, and I feel good about that.

My daughter had her musical at church this morning and it was fantastic! And that's not just a biased mom talking - it really was quite entertaining, and the kids did an excellent job. We did hear some compliments about DD in particular, which made my heart swell with pride. Now on to Nutcracker this week, and then the big performances will be over for a while.

My mom tried kashi's snickers fudge recipe. She said it was a pain to make, but I'm betting it's well worth the trouble. I'll find out next weekend! kashi - thanks again for sharing your recipe.

My daughter and I went shopping for toys yesterday. My husband truly wants very little for Christmas, so DD and I decided to take some of the money we might have spent on DH for Christmas and instead by toys to give to children in need of some holiday cheer. All in all we bought 12 or 13 toys. We're going to write DH a letter and take a picture of all the toys, then wrap that up and give it to him on Christmas. I think he will like that very much.

A week or so ago we went caroling at a nursing care facility. The residents there seemed happy to have the visitors, and I'm thinking now of using up some of my yarn stash to make small lap afghans for them.

We have so much, and there are so many who are in need.

Last December I wrote out the following goals for myself/my family this year:

*Increase 401k contribution by at least 1-2%. We did this.

*Increase ING monthly transfers by $25 (went in and increased by $10 for January) Did this.

*Keep dining out expenses under $160/month on average - move any money saved to ING each month This looks like it was about $175 per month so far this year.

*Keep grocery spending under $300/month on average - move any money saved to ING each month This looks about $360 per month so far. **

*Launch new business by 4/1/06 done

*Increase tutoring and homeschooling adsense revenues - need more new content and link exchanges done

*Update advertising options at DivaTribe - better bang for the buck for advertisers, steadier revenue stream for DT
done

So the food continues to be a goal to work on. I love the irony that someone who once dealt with an eating disorder continues to deal with food in a somewhat confrontational way. Maybe it's not all that ironic, I don't know.

**I think some of the grocery spending is skewed because in Quicken, if it was a Vons or Trader Joe's purchase, I categorize it as "grocery" even if it had household items, dog food, etc. I've been more careful the last few months about breaking down my receipts, so next year my figures ought to be more accurate.

Ultimately, I need to look at net worth 12/31/05 and 12/31/06 and see where we're at. I know we'll be doing better retirement-wise. It's the liquid and semi-liquid savings I'll be looking at.