So, we turned on our heat. It has actually been pretty mild. Like it is usually a bit of a challenge to keep heat off until Thanksgiving, but was easy peasy with the late Thanksgiving this year.

I don't know that I necessarily needed the heat on today, but we had a freeze last night. (I am bundled up and will head to work soon with ample heat). BUT, dh is babysitting today and I thought he would probably never think to turn on the heat. Who knows, it might be so cold that my efforts may be futile (it might cool off quickly when I leave). But is my attempt to not look too insane to other people. Other than that, the kids will have to speak up if they are cold.

Otherwise I have my gloves on and am toasty warm, myself.

It was interesting when we got back from the beach because my parents told me their house was 54F degrees. Yikes! Ours was only 64F though our region tends to get a few degrees colder. Just to illustrate how much of our energy savings is the house itself. This morning it is only 60F in the house (the lowest it gets on its own) but there is definitely a colder chill in the air.

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It is busy here.

I think the Christmas stuff is done. Since it's a busy time of year we don't do much for the Holiday.

Christmas Doings:

--I bought my dad almond roca, like we do every year

--For his 62nd birthday I am giving him $10 for a National Park lifetime pass

--Mom gets a donation to a pet shelter (in the name of her pet that just passed) & I got her some earring on Etsy for her birthday

--I already sent my sister some of these gloves last month - they are DIVINE! We don't necessarily do gifts but I get gifts for people when I see them.

--$10 Starbucks gift card for work exchange - I could only find $10 in pack of 3 but thought that would go well for gifts on hand. I picked up a $5 candle a while ago too. Might give my friend a GC and a candle. I had also ordered earrings for co-worker.

--Christmas work gift will pay for boss work gift

--Dh's family will gift us more than we pay for them - we usually just reimburse SIL for her purchases. Dh might offer to provide Amazon gift cards with the AmEx deal we did.

--Kids bought each other $15 in gifts

--Dh's new cell phone cost me $10 out of pocket. (After credit card bonus paid the bulk). So, the kids ended up buying that for him. He is happy and needs NOTHING else.

--Kids picked up a birthday gift for dh ($10 Blu Ray) - YES it is birthday central here.

--Kids' teachers will get gift certficates to Scholastic (dh earns by volunteering).

Dh's family is driving me crazy with their wish list demands. I thought I had quite a wish list going but apparently they just thought that was for my birthday. I told dh to deal with it. He is trying to talk them into buying some of his and the kids stuff for me. (I often try to sneak their stuff on my list). Will see... I don't think they usually go for it, but if they can't think of anything else.

They are also driving my SIL nuts. Who for one lived in a super teeny tiny space and for two is "homeless" this Christmas. She has a birthday this week too. They sold their home!! But still haven't found another. So, we have both been pretty grinchy about Christmas, but we kind of always are an no one seems to care. Anyway, the past several years I have just put needs on our wish list but I think the thing this year is we no longer even NEED anything. So I have been a little more frustrated than usual.

So yeah, those are the Christmas doings.

Busy doings?

--Only working 4-day weeks most the rest of the year but have TONS of work to do. This week I only get like 2 days in the office. Just CRAZINESS. I will be working some weekends - time is running out!

--Dh is wrapping up his second script - they are rushing a finish because they have an interested buyer. (It's one of those things will believe it when I see it, but overall sounds pretty promising. The buyer is interested in the script they are in the middle of, so no pressure or anything! They want to finish it before the guy changes his mind or forgets about it).

--Dh is volunteering at Scholastic many hours the next few weeks.

--Dh is doing tons of volunteer work at the Public TV station

--Dh is doing tons of babysitting for friends. Our kids are old enough is no big deal, but these friends have a smaller child. I am dreading coming home tonight - SO EXHAUSTING. So much worse in this cold dark weather where we can't run them around outside.

So yeah, it's like dh is working full-time plus nights and yadda yadda. I am only surviving because I am doing all my last minute education this month. Yesterday I attended a seminar from home. BM's shoe broke, so I took him to Payless at 4pm. I hope that is the LAST store I step foot in this year. Often dh is my Christmas elf helper but that is just not happening this year. I think I basically took advantage of down time this past week to get things done. I finished up my online shopping yesterday while attending seminar. I LOVE that. So it seems to be working out.

P.S. See last post for credit card reward tally for 2013!