This and That

1. Our four party run is officially over. It was nice but WAY too much to pack into four days straight. (we have a fifth party next weekend; I don't need to bring any gifts but that one has an almost 6 hour drive round trip)

2. The kiddos seemed to really like the homemade gifts. My niece, who I wrote the book for, whispered to me that it was her favorite present this year with a little side note, "actually my second favorite present." She said the karaoke machine she got was her favorite. Come on, what can beat a karaoke machine for an eight year old girl? Then she proceeded to read through almost half the book before the family gathering was over. She is a FAST reader! I think she was reading through it faster than I did during my million edits. My other niece said something like, "I don't like the blanket I absolutely LOVE it." I'm a happy aunt :)

3. The average daily spending for the year right now is at $18.03 a day. I desperately want to come in under an $18 a day average for this year. There's only four days left in the year but very little food left in our house. Now, this is an accomplishment that I'm TOTALLY capable of pulling off, the "under $18 a day" goal but I've put myself so darn close that the littlest thing could blow it. Additionally this month has been so rough with the whole self control, crazy emotions thing, gah, this is honestly going to be very difficult.

4. I'm supposed to have the next two days off of work (I put in vacation for them) but we also have a super time sensitive project this week and I won't know when I can start it up until the stores start e-mailing me. I REALLY hope I have the next two days off. I'm ready for some serious rest and relaxation.

That's probably about it for now.

This was on the way to party number three.
He pulled his hat down like that and fell asleep about two seconds later.