Well, I'm here to testify, there's life after Christmas. One thing I've learned--Christmas is easier when you're dead flat broke! No massive gift wrapping required. No lugging gifts to the post office or to other people's houses. No need to spend a day or two baking cookies. No need to spend two days cooking to provide dinner for loved ones. If you didn't miss all that, it would be a wonderful way to have Christmas, very relaxed. But, I'm trained to it--trained to all the baking, cooking, gift shopping, gift wrapping, lugging gifts here and there, and so, it feels a bit empty this year.
We were blessed to receive just what we needed this year--cash and cash equivalents. My mother and Joe's mother sent checks. Because of them, we were finally able to make the December house payment. It posted to our bank account yesterday. Only 26 days late. That was a cooperative effort between what Joe has brought in from signings, everything I could scrape out of my bank account and the Christmas and Birthday money we received. December's car payment is still not paid. Joe says the bank account is getting close. We seem to need about $75 before we can make that. That still leaves various utility bills to be paid. I'm sure glad these are God's bills and not ours. We were bought with a price (the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross) and now, being bond slaves of God's son, these are His bills not ours. We are merely the funnel through which the money flows... Only when it flows to us can it flow through us.
Jennifer and Jason outdid themselves in the gift department as well. We got gift cards from Sunshine Market (groceries!), Petsmart (dog food!) and Shell Oil. All good stuff. And Jennifer gave us lots of nice goodies in our stockings as well. Matt and Patti gave me a pink bathrobe and Joe received a very nice wallet.
It's been quite cold here. Cold and windy. We've had quite a few overcast days, and a number of days when it was obviously snowing in the mountains around us. I went to work on Friday and it was so cold in the office when I arrived I could hardly stand to touch the desk. This in spite of the fact that I was wearing two shirts, one quite heavy. Of course, this is pretty much the way I dress in winter and I stay pretty comfortable. Joe, on the other hand, runs around in bare feet and short sleeves. Then he whines about being cold. Well, duh! What do you expect when you dress like that?????
I did not go to work on Tuesday and Wednesday. I had planned to, but Matt more or less invited me not to. In fact, he was pretty insistent on it. Perhaps he thought I really wanted the days off but with so little Christmas prep, it was nowhere near as important that I be off from work as it was that I make some money! I still planned to go to work on Wednesday anyway. But, Joe had two people who wanted him to do signings at 11AM so he scheduled me for one of them without asking. Now, I work about 4-5 hours a day and there was no way I could work around an 11AM signing and still get in a decent number of hours without working until after dark. So, I didn't go to work after all. And, Matt did payroll for everyone but me! How nice..... And, for once, there was actually money in the bank to cover the checks and this is the week I didn't get paid! I had not turned in my time sheet on Monday because I fully expected to be there Wednesday and he never does payroll til Friday anyway. Friday I tried to call him wherever the heck he was but the phone connection was horrible. The first try, I couldn't hear him properly. The second try, either he hung up or I was cut off. SO, when I left the office yesterday, I left my time sheet taped to the computer screen of his laptop. He can't miss that, right???? So, on Wednesday, I traded one signing for 4-5 hours of work, about 50% of what I could have made without Joe's "help".
We really enjoyed our Christmas Day. We were at Jen and Jason's house by 7AM. Had to be there for the opening of the presents, you know. The big present for the boys was a battery-powered car. It's in John Deere colors. It was the last present they got, but it sure impressed them! Will was out there in his PJs, driving it and Atticus was wearing nothing but a tee shirt and his diaper! They rode around a little and then came in for warmer clothes as soon as the initial excitement wore off. Then they were back outside riding around again. Eventually Jason herded them back into the house and put the car in the garage. Atticus went back out into the garage several times--he was just sure he should go for another ride or two.! Will had driven one of these cars at a friend's house so it took only 2-3 minutes for him to get used to handling this one. Atticus just got in and waited for Will to drive, as though that were a given.
Atticus got a wooden truck, a replica of a "trash truck". Joe got delegated to assemble it and it was quite a deal. There was one hole mis-drilled entirely. And all the other hills were not drilled deep enough. He struggled with it for several hours and then we went home for a few hours. When he came back, he had a drill to work with so that made it easier. Finally by the time we were ready to sit down to dinner, he finished. The truck is really cute and Atticus loved it.
Will got a hydrogen powered car and a pogo stick and some artist sketch books. Aunt JoAnne sent lots of clothes and a collection of books. I'm not going to sit here and list off Christmas presents, but that part of the day was fun and the boys (as well as Jen and Jason) got some lovely things.
Jen had a good dinner for us. I brought scalloped potatoes, pumpkin pie, and red devilsfood cake. She made pumpkin curry soup, a spinach salad with blue cheese, candied walnuts and cranberries, roasted vegetables, a lovely roast beef (fake roast beef for Jason), and rolls. She did a good job on it. The only hangup was that the beef took longer than expected to cook. And, the scalloped potatoes were a bit "rare". I melted the butter in the microwave and poured it into the casserole hot. I popped the whole casserole into the microwave until the milk was hot. Then I put the whole thing into the oven here. After about half an hour, we had to take it out of the oven. I covered it to hold in the heat and we headed to Jen's house. I put it back in the oven with the roast and it was in there for a good long time, but the 'taters didn't quite get cooked. Darn!
Well, that's about it for now. I've got a kit ready to go in the store tomorrow, together with a set of 4 quick pages. I don't want to post it here til it's in the store, so I'll come back and post about it later. I'm also proud that I have another kit finished all but the previews for next week. I'm trying to get a few kits ahead so that I have less stress trying to add one a week to the store. I want to get a decent inventory built up and then perhaps I will try to add another store. That seems to be an easy (not that anything about designing is "easy") way of finding customers. Prospective customers go to a specific store to see other people's kits and while there may happen upon your stuff and decide to try it out. Anyway, no second store for a while. But, someday....
Gotta go.
