Happy Holidays!

Despite the attempts by all retail locations to start Christmas prior to Halloween, I refuse.  I celebrate each holiday as they come up and do not begin any Christmas preparations prior to Thanksgiving.  With that being said, Thanksgiving is over so bring on Christmas! 

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I managed to lose 4.6 lbs this week, bringing my total weight loss to 17.2 lbs in 6 weeks!  For all my co-workers mocking my food scale on Thanksgiving, this is why I do things the way I do.  This week's goal is to lose at least 1.8 lbs, bringing me to 10% of my starting weight lost! 

With Christmas comes parties, dinners, and my favorite, Christmas cookies.  The season is not complete without my baking journey.  Each year I bake 15-20 varied types of cookies and candies at Christmas time.  I still plan to bake this year but I will attempt to "lighten up" some of my recipes with Splenda and other low-cal ingredients.  The majority of the cookies will not remain in my home.  My work, Matt's work and the daycare centers for the kids will get a significant portion of my baking yumminess!

I am a pack rat.  I always have been and it is a habit I am working to change.  Last month I made a decision to list my wonderful front loading HE washer and dryer with the under drawers on craigs list.  This was a very difficult decision because I LOVE these appliances.  However, we are paying an extra $160/month for a storage garage to store items we never use, including these appliances.  Since we will be renting for the foreseeable future, there is no point in letting them sit dormant and unused.  I am feeling a little better about it this week because the $850 we sold them for has funded the Christmas fund, allowing us to spend the Christmas account on a vacation.  We will be going on an Easter cruise from Baltimore to the Bahamas in March!  I will have this vacation completely paid off before we go and we will be settling our onboard accounts with cash this time! $0 on the credit card.  The total amount I am estimating we will need is $5546 to cover everything.  This allows us to spend a little extra to get the kids their own adjoining room as a traditional stateroom is very tight with a pullout sofa and a pack n play set up!

Black Friday was a success...I went out around 4am (after Asher's morning feeding) and was back by 7am!  Kohl's left me $250 poorer but I got $75 Kohl's cash for this week and most of the Christmas shopping is done.  All in all, the trip was worth it and I feel this week was very successful!