It's Cricksmas Time!

That's how Steve likes to say "Christmas." I am so excited for Christmas this year that I can hardly wait! I am going to have virtually all of my family here: Steve's mom, dad, brothers, soon to be sister-in-law, grandma, my mom, David, Susan, Josh and Kirby. We are also inviting a friend Steve works with and her son to have Christmas Eve, Eve dinner with us. It will be a full house, but I've been preparing for all year.

I love it when the weather turns cold, lights twinkle inside and out and people expect you do to a half-ass job at work because it's the holidays. We lost our receptionist at work so we're back down to the office manager and me. It's sad, but it feels more normal when it's just the two of us. We understand each other's quirks and have even learned to appreciate them. We can anticipate when the other needs help and can swoop in before there's a problem. It's nice to have that kind of comfort level at work.

Steve and I are have been making good progress on our debts over the last couple months and will have a credit card paid off this month and should have another one paid off before Easter. It would be pretty sweet if we could pay off a debt every major holiday. We spread the Dave Ramsey financial gospel to anyone who will listen. We need to harness that same energy into losing weight and forwarding God's kingdom.

I need to work on a grocery plan now. I normally plan a week at a time, but this month I am trying to keep are grocery bill under $120 for the month (excluding Christmas), so I am going to plan two weeks at a time. We'll see how it goes. I want to have enough money to really live it up while my family is here so we going to be eating a lot of rice and PB&J the rest of the month. If anyone has an recipes that can feed 2-4 people for under $2, please share them!