I've delighted in recent years in getting really good/creative gifts for my Dad in like the $10 range.  One example: a lifetime senior pass to the National Parks.  Others were more creative.

This year we went the complete opposite direction.  MH noticed that one of their favorite musical artists is doing private concerts.  The gift fits in the theme of recent gifts (very unique and special) but...  Went the polar opposite way as far as cost.  Was $250 + fees.  But it was also somewhat of a selfish gift.  That ended up being on my Dad's birthday so we made it a birthday gift.  He invited a couple of friends, and we also attended (online concert).  That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  Amazing!  Making lemonade out of these lemons.

I've mostly never bought school pictures of the kids (the quality is generally terrible and/or way too expensive).  But... 10th grade seems to be the magic year.  They both had really nice 10th grade pictures.  That said, I think MM's 10th grade pictures were nice *and* reasonably priced. DL's (this year) were nice but the cost was completely ridiculous.  Whatever, I could at least send all the grandparents some pictures and make it a "Christmas gift".  It's extra appreciated because we generally never do formal pictures.

{It's senior year for MM.  The plan: Just going to have my Dad do some nice photos of him in the spring.}

As to the money for my Dad's gifts?  Usually MH's mom is *all* about the gifts.  But...  She didn't want the adults to give/get any gifts this year, so probably the money we usually spent on them, we redirected to my Dad.  So that probably evens out in the end.

{Our Christmas budget is $0.  We usually only buy for in-laws, and they give us more cash than we would ever spend}.

Today is busy busy.  The prior week ended up being completely absurd, and my client wasn't ready so I had to push off my side work to this weekend.  In the end, I crashed and did absolutely nothing yesterday.  Work has been exhausting.

Today is busy busy with various paperwork I have to tend do (financial aid forms, professional license renewal, latest forms for the study that MM is participating in  ~ in all cases just a lot of paperwork).  I want to get all of that off of my plate and I also have some side work to do (my last client, that I intend to fire next month).   MH and I also need to sort out menu planning for the next couple of weeks.  He's been down to shopping every 14 days with flu season and extra so with the current COVID surge.  We just started to think of some ideas for Christmas dinner.  I also want to try a couple of Instant Pot recipes.  I just want to make sure I can get my input in today, since I will be in the office tomorrow while he is grocery shopping. 

Edited to add:  I initially forgot the one financial thing on my mind.  I think I am just going to rip the band aid off and throw $3K extra at the mortgage.  It's a placeholder goal from 2018, when I never received my OT Pay (when employer sold company).  Cash isn't particularly high with retirement over-funding this year and car purchase (paid cash).  But... I do have the cash to fund this.  I am getting more resigned to just selling investments to fund 2020 IRAs.  It feels very "now or never", since I expect that all mortgage pre-payments will probably stop the next several years while we pay cash for college.  

I also had a "typing in this blog helps me process" moment because...  I totally forgot we sold off some investments this year to beef up our emergency fund (during pandemic; never in a million years thought my employer would have a record sales year).   That cash still in our investment account. So...  Duh.  It's not even a taxable event to move that money out of there into my retirement.  I could do it today if I wanted to.  I was more concerned about financial aid and creating more "income" but I guess that's moot.   

I updated my sidebar, now that I know how 2020 goals sorted out.