It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well, today we decided to get the Christmas stuff out. Oh my goodness, does that stuff multiply in the garage attic over the summer or what? We have been too lazy since the big boys started working so much to put up the outside lights. Seems like by the time we got them all put up, and the inside stuff all done, it was like two weeks to enjoy them before taking them all down again. So since Thanksgiving was late this year we are definitely forgoing that ordeal. Nobody wants to do it anyway.

So after picking up youngest son at 10 from swim practice he and I went to Sam's for a few items. Actually his swim practice was 7-10 am and he is NEVER one of the first ones out. He takes a very long, leisurely shower. I guess it comes from being number 5 and having to share a bathroom with 4 other siblings for his whole life... the nice hot shower at swimming must feel so nice. Well anyway, about 10:20 we headed to Sam's and I fed the starving 14 year old boy with free samples at Sam's. Actually he also had a hot dog and pretzel and gatorade, too. I was going to get laundry detergent and eggs. Well, how many people can go to Sam's and end up with only 2 things? Not me. I got a Christmas gift for somebody, 4 packages of bagels that will be gone within a couiple of days, a clearance package of chicken breasts, syrup, vanilla ice cream, and detergent and eggs.

Got home around noon and had the girls and L bring in stuff. Oh, and I had a small cooler of ice. That is one of my weird frugal things I do. There are like two big ice machines at the pool that rarely are used, so I asked one time if anybody cared if I brought home ice. Nobody minded. So now I will occasionally fill my little cooler full of ice. I love that type of ice. I got some Wednesday after swimming and I put it in a big cooler and it lasted through Thanksgiving and the next day! So now we have ice to last another day. We have an ice maker on our refrigerator but it doesn't seem to make it fast enough when everybody is home.

Then L and I decided to get the Christmas stuff down out of the garage attic. L said he wanted it ALL down at once, not a little bit at a time. So I crawled up there and handed the ones we needed to youngest son, he took it over to hubby on the stairs, and he handed it over to younger daughter. Then everyone brought the boxes into the living room. So now we are surrounded by boxes while L puts the tree together and finds working lights. I started washing a few of the Christmas dishes and towels, but it will be a project that will last longer than one day.

We have two fake trees. We are so organized that we bought a new tree, forgetting that we bought one on clearance the year before that is EXACTLY the same. One year we just threw the old artificial tree away as it was so ugly and pathetic. The reason we are into the artifical kind is that oldest daughter is allergic to the real thing. Twice when we had a real one she had big swollen eyes. Poor thing. Twice because we didn't know that was it the first time, not because we are mean. Ha ha.

Well, I had all these plans of things I was going to accomplish with 4 days off. Of course when you consider having a houseful of people one of those days, church and friends over another one of those days, and trying to deal with getting fall stuff put away and Christmas stuff out another of the days, it doesn't leave much time to accomplish too much. Especially when you are taking kids to swim practice, work, doing shopping and laundry. Oh well. There is enough time to do what God wants me to do! That is what is the most important.

We are having some friends over for lunch after church tomorrow so I'd better get a few things ready now. We're having two types of soup...chicken noodle and bean. Yummy!