I worked until 10:30 p.m. yesterday from 12:30 p.m. when I finally got going.  I fed all the critters, got the fire going, made the toffee bars, made a rum baba cake in my bundt pan, and made a pasta chicken salad for my food, which was pretty good, featuring dried, sweetened cranberries.

Then I got all the presents wrapped.  This will be a frugal Christmas, and I think that is appropriate to the times we live in.  I got my son a fleece padded workshirt in an olive grey color, my daughter-in-law 2-piece underwear in denim blue with slippers, my son-in-law a pair of sweatpants in navy blue and a pair of gloves in black, and my daughter a quilt in burnt orange and a puzzle mat in black.  My grandson received a check for $30.00 in his card, and each of the other presents came to $30.00 as well.  So 5 presents x $30 each = $150 spent on Christmas this year for presents. 

Food?  That's another $50 very likely - I'm bringing Barefoot Merlot, Asiago cheese, Wenzel's summer sausage, cut up carrot and celery sticks, rutabaga chips, home-made ranch dressing dip, chips, crackers, rum baba, toffee bars and sodas.  My daughter and son-in-law are furnishing a raft of other goodies, and we are just all going to relax and feed ourselves from a smorgasbord of food whenever we feel like it.  No fancy sit-down dinner with lots of dirty dishes on this day. 

And I've already cleared all the snow off my truck; however, that leaves a question of whether I will be able to drive away from that mess.  John did some snowblowing yesterday, so once I get a run for it, I should be able to make it out of here.  It's a clear, sunny day with the forecast for ?rain? tomorrow, which I don't believe.