Christmas Time at Chez Sluggy

Eldest rolled into town last Thursday evening.  It was so nice to have him home again for Christmas!
College Boy had to work Friday afternoon/evening so he didn't come with us on Friday for Daughter's Birthday lunch out at her favorite Mexican restaurant.

 I got enchiladas in a mole sauce.

 Both Hubs and Daughter got what they called a Mayan Burrito.

Eldest son got some kind of ultimate Nachos and of course had to Snapchat a photo of it before eating. lolz

The tree was up and filled out nicely with presents.........

Here's a look around at some of the ornaments on our tree this year..........

 From the Alligator park in LA on our last trip down there in 2016.

My Easy-Bake Oven ornie......it's even the same color of mine from 1966.

This photo is from December day 1966.  I am in our kitchen, watching something cook in my Easy-Bake Oven while my oldest brother waits patiently with a plate for his treat. Notice I am wearing a cowgirl outfit.  lolz

Back to the tree..........

A souvenir ornament from our Summer Road Trip from Virginia City, MT.

 One of my Daughter's ornies from her maternal grandfather.

A souvenir ornie from our Spring trip in 2016 to Cherokee, NC.

Eldest son's Percy the train ornie.

Another Souvenir ornie from our Road Trip last Summer from Wall Drug in Wall, SD.

 One of the handmade ornies I have that my mother made when I was a child.

And one of the ornies I made for my oldest brother when I was a teen.  Now that he's passed away I took those ornaments and put one on our tree every year to remember him by.

Saturday saw some cookie making, along with a lot of drinking........

There was also the traditional Bourbon Nut Fudge making too.......

This is always a popular item at Christmas around these parts.  ;-)

Christmas eve saw us having our traditional dinner out at the local Chinese restaurant.

Love their crab rangoons but only ever have them on Xmas eve anymore....

4 of the 7 in our party decided that hot sake was in order due to the holidays....ouch!

Then it was back to the house for coffee/tea and cookies........

We made 3 kinds of cookies this year--Cranberry and white chocolate, frosted eggnog, and salted butterscotch and cashews.

A photo of the extended family-Hubs, all 3 of my kids, brother in-law and nephew.

On Christmas day it was just us 5 home together.

The doggies were laying under my desk waiting for my kids to get up.  Gone are the days of 5 am rising on Xmas morning, now it's we're lucky if they get up by noon.

Finally they all roused and we went into the living room to find Santa had filled the stockings.

We took turns opening presents.........

College Boy got some new flannel shirts.

"Santa" got me a bag of caramel popcorn and Cinnamon wanted to help me open it. lolz

New smelly stuff for eldest son. (Notice the bow on his head.)

 Hubs played Santa and handed out the presents.

New New Balance sneakers I got Daughter with some Kohl's cash and hid from her since March cuz I'm sneaky that way.  They shipped the shoes with a store security thing through the lace holes....ugh....that was a PITA to cut through!

College Boy has gotten one present wrapped in Power Rangers paper since he was small, due to he had a big crush on the pink Power Ranger when he was little.  This year saw the last of that roll of wrapping paper.  *sniff*

Daughter's BF's parents sent her a bottle of aromatherapy body wash from LA.

Hubs' much pined for coffee grinder I paid $14.76 OOP for.  Score one for me!lolz

Some pine scented body lotion from Eldest son. Chester wanted a peek in that bag. ;-)

Chester got a new bed from Santa........

And went right to work rolling in it smelling it up.

Cinnamon got a squirrel for Xmas from me and Hubs.  Cinnamon hates squirrels.  If you yell "Squirrel!" in the house, she'll jump up and run to the back door and bark her head off trying to get at it.  I don't think she could figure out what it was as she's never seen one up close before and it wasn't running away. lolz

Chester of course had to check the squirrel out too.

A quick late breakfast/brunch of meats and homemade cinnamon rolls(with extra cinnamon!)and then it was stocking time...........

 Cinnamon got a stocking full of rawhide chews(her favorite!).

 But mommy kept taking photos/videos of Cinnamon and her stocking to show her "daddy" in LA instead of letting her have a chewy.

She finally got one and Chester tried to steal it.  Poor baby.....

College Boy got his fill of junk food, a Chipotle gift card and socks.

I always try to find Daughter a strange t-shirt.  Last year was this one..............

She said I topped myself with this year's shirt............

Yep, a cat in a taco.
Weird.

A couple of hours later it was dinner time.........

I kept it simple this year-roast beef, mac and cheese, Harvard beets and rolls.  I roasted the beets and cooked the pasta the day before, made up the cheese roux sauce and put the mac in the oven about halfway through when the roast was suppose to be done.  After the roast came out and while it rested, the rolls went into the oven and I made up the sauce and heated the beets through.  It had to have been the easiest, no pressure Holiday meal I've ever made.

I snapped a photo at the table before we all dug into the chow.
After dinner a few naps may have happened........

Eldest caught me the first time but after he got comfy on the sofa I got this shot off......

Chester followed Eldest's example......

And Cinnamon tried to nap but her mommy kept messing with her trying to get cuddles......

Hubs got all the Christmas cards we received hung up in the kitchen window so I'll have that to look at and enjoy for a couple more weeks.

Otherwise we just hung out around the house and took naps and the kids had fun hanging out with each other for the evening.

What was your Christmas like?

Sluggy

Card Shower Report

Ok, here is the list of card senders and cards I have received that went out in the package to Sonya this morning......(I waited an extra day and am glad because 3 cards came in on Tuesday)......
S Steiner
D Hartwick(2 cards)
Anne-New Happenings at the Table and Whatever
N Alexander
Cheap Chick-Living Rich on the Cheap
Jen-Absolutely Sweet Chaos
R Davis(2 cards)-Living Better One Day at a Time
American Dreamer-Frugal Things Every Day
Jen G.
Lorraine-We are Clamco
Jane-Crabapple Landing
Deb G.

CTMom-CT on a Budget
Linda-Practical Parsimony
Rivulet-$12 a Day
Jackie in CA
Email from Janie
Email from Angie
Hawaii Planner-The Hawaii Plan
Michelle D. in SC

That's a big pile of love so thanks for doing this for her even with all the stuff going on in everyone's life during the Holidays.

Someone who has her mailing addy wrote her so we didn't get to surprise her with this unfortunately.  She went and saw the post on my blog. *rats*
Sonya said this........

"I just wanted to say I love you. I got a card yesterday from XXXXXX. I knew that was you. And I saw the post. You really care. Thank you. You have no idea how much just knowing you have my back helps. 

Please tell everyone thank you for the concern. It's helps....."

Maybe I should have tucked some Kleenex in the package too because she's going to need it, right?  ;-)

Back later to recap our Christmas before turning my sights on the New Year.  8-)

Sluggy

Rite-Aid Last Saturday

Hubs and I went out last Saturday since it was only raining.  We hit Dollar General and then Rite-Aid so I got more shave gel plus a few other things since I had some good Qs...........

2 x Gillette shave gel $2 off reg. price sale=$3.58
2 x Axe shampoo on sale=$9.00
1 x Gillette razor(not disposable)$2 off reg. price sale=$6.49
1 x Colgate toothpaste on sale, but 20% Wellness disc. lower=$3.43
SubTotal...........$22.50

Coupons Used
1 x $1/1 Gillette shave gel Load2CardQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Gillette shave gel ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $2/1 Axe 'poo Load2CardQ=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Axe 'poo IPQ=$2.00
1 x $2/2 Axe items In-Ad R-AQ=$2.00
1 x $6/1 Gillette razor CatalinaQ=$6.00
1 x .50¢/1 Colgate toothpaste Load2CardQ=.50¢
1 x $3/1 Colgate toothpaste In-Ad R-AQ=$3.00
Coupon Total......$17.50

$22.50-$17.50=$5.00+ .09¢ tax=$5.09

I used $5.09 in Plenti points to pay and earned back $2 in new PPs($2 wyb2 Axe items)so this lot was gotten for $3.09 in Plenti points.
Nice.

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

* A day late due to the Holiday but here it is anyway.

The "A Satisfying Holiday" Edition--

We've done nothing but eat around here it seems, since the Eldest son has been home.  And what follows eating good food?  A nap of course!
Here is him sacked out on the living room sofa after Christmas Day dinner, just one of many naps that happened the last few days. ;-)

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

1. Sunday--Veal Parmesan, Salad

2. Monday--Chicken and Dumplings

3. Tuesday--Eat-Out?

4. Wednesday--Chicken Fried Steak, Taters, Gravy, Califlower

5. Thursday--Chicken Enchiladas, Rice, Beans
6. Friday--Pizza, Wings, Veggie Tray
7. Saturday--Leftovers

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Veal Parmesan, Salad

2. Monday--Chicken and Dumplings

3. Tuesday--Bob Evans Restaurant(I had a cranberry chicken salad.)

4. Wednesday--Chili and Cornbread

5. Thursday--Leftovers
6. Friday--Lunch out for Daughter's Bday, FFY dinner
7. Saturday--BBQ Pork Sandwiches, Cole Slaw

Last week saw 4 night of home cooked dinners, 2 nights of leftovers/fend for yourself, 0 nights of take-out and 1 night of Eating out.
I make a chili with ground meat and steak chunks in it usually but this past week's rendition I amped it up by putting andouille sausage in as well.  The family loved it!  We had so many leftovers I didn't cook on Thursday as planned or Friday evening.  I pulled out two bags of that pork I smoked back in September and made bbq sandwiches for Saturday.  That was a big hit too.

4 smallish trips to Weis and 1 trip to the Bread Outlet was the extent of the shopping last week and the bill came to $108.87 for all trips.  That brings December's food spending to $437.50.  I am now $37.50 over what I wanted to spend.......but I don't care. lolz  We can spare the $ for good food at the Holidays.
There are 5 more days in my shopping month so let's see if we can keep it under $500 for December.(Not holding my breath. lololz)

My savings percentages last week was 64.87% and the monthly savings so far ends up at 56.60%(without Rite-Aid trips added in).

Leftovers going into this week.......spaghetti and meatballs, chicken and dumplings, chili, bbq pork.

Here is this week's "food plan".....

1. Sunday--Xmas Eve Chinese Out

2. Monday--Beef Roast, Mac and Cheese, homemade Rolls, Harvard Beets

3. Tuesday--Fried Shrimp(son's choice), Fried Potatoes, CA mix veggies

4. Wednesday--Leftovers

5. Thursday--Lftovers
6. Friday--Pizza, Salad
7. Saturday--Leftovers or FFY or ?

This week will see 3 new meals cooked, 3 nights of leftovers, 1 night of Take-out/Eat-Out.

The only thing I need to buy to make these meals is nothing I think.  I picked up 4 lbs. of shrimp last week for the shrimp dinner.  That isn't to say that I won't go to the grocery store however. 8-)  I have more great Qs to get more $1.24 a bag coffee before the sale ends on Wednesday. ;-)

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten last week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week?


Sluggy

Joyeux Noël, Feliz Navidad, Buon Natale, Merry Christmas

No matter how you say it, have a Great December 25th Holiday.

I wish for you peace.
I wish for you contentment.
I wish for you joy in your life.

Treasure those near and dear because you never know what tomorrow may bring.

I'll be back on Tuesday with your regularly scheduled programming.  ;-)

Sluggy