Dough-cember

Hello, December. How did you get here so fast? In the back of my mind, I was thinking you were a long way off -- and I was way ahead of the game when it comes to Christmas shopping. Looks like we still have some dough to spend this month, but not much.

I failed to mention that while I was laying around Up North eating bon-bons and getting foot massages (I must have dreamt that), hubby was shopping with the big boys. We worked out a deal with the picky teenagers a few years back. Dad takes them shopping and tells them how much they can spend. They pick and choose. Dad pays and step-mom Robyn wraps.

We don't judge their choices -- whether they are a non-essential 80-dollar pair of shoes or a Pabst Blue Ribbon sweatshirt. They are getting what they want. We are guaranteed a merry Christmas (or something like that). Sometimes they do forget one or two items they picked out, so while it's not a complete surprise, it's good enough.

With shopping out of the way, we need to turn to other important things like decorating. I probably won't make Jim haul the tree up until Saturday. I kind of like to decorate it in daylight so I see where I'm putting everything. We also haven't put any of the outside lights up yet either. We're hoping the new-fangled clips we got at Wal-Mart tonight will fit on our apparently non-standard-sized gutters. Everything requires an extra purchase, doesn't it?

While we were at Wal-Mart getting "a few things," we also conceded that my Fonzie moves on the hood of the car have run their magical course and that headlight has to be replaced. Might as well throw one in the cart.

Have you seen those battery-operated candles you can place in your windows during the Christmas season? Cool! Let's get 4 boxes and try them out. Oh yeah, we need batteries (2 AA each!) so let's grab some of those, too.

Hmmmm.... It's no surprise we call it Dough-cember even when we're "done" shopping!