I’m Beautiful Like Me.

The Spirit of Christmas is upon me. Mostly, it’s credit to the group of wonderful women I knit with on Tuesdays. Some other nice financial things have happened as well.

One of the ladies I knit with asked that I call her about 10 days ago and asked if she could help us out with groceries through her church. I thanked her but told her I’d prefer they help someone else who really needs it. She conspired with another of the ladies I knit with and mailed us a $50 gift card for the local grocer. The truth is, I really don’t need grocery money - the government has helped us with that the past several months. However, I can buy diapers and toilet paper with this gift card, so it is incredibly helpful.

When we moved in here, we had to pay a huge deposit to turn on our electricity. It was returned to us via our credited bill. That was incredibly helpful! Work has been slightly busier and I’ve gotten better sections and tips lately, too. Further, Husband has made a little money with his slowly-building business and I’ve helped my mom out some, too and will be helping her out again this week.

I’m still pinching every penny. Every little bit helps.

That said, I did brave shopping yesterday. We needed some buns to go with dinner and while out, I made some very small purchases for the kids. I bought the boy a small, squishy football and got the girl a shirt and some Pokémon cards.

As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve been spending some time volunteering at The Healing Place. We didn’t make it out there yesterday, though. Frankly, I’m exhausted! I’ve been working more and this week is going to be a long one: I work Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at my job, helping mom out on Tuesday and maybe even Wednesday morning before my job, and spending the better part of the day at The Healing Place on Christmas Day. We are going out to mom’s on Sunday (the 28th) to do our family Christmas, complete with my brother and his two girls. Big Rob has been helping mom out on her farm a lot of Sundays and I conspired with him yesterday to get my Christmas box out after all. I will hook up with him at some point and surprise the kids with the decorations on Christmas eve.

The big surprise for them, especially Joy, is that when they get up on Christmas morning and find presents under it! I really hadn’t anticipated being able to have gifts, so this is just as fun for me, being able to surprise the both of them. I am really looking forward to it.

Lastly, if you remember the nasty girl from work I mentioned in this most depressing post, I have an interesting story about that. She coordinated a Secret Santa swap for work and asked me to participate. I declined for a number of reasons: I don’t know most of the people I work with well, I’m broke, I had a previous engagement for the Secret Santa swap with my fellow knitters. When I told her this, she told me she had a hand-knitted scarf that someone had made for her but lost it in a house fire last year just after Christmas.

So, I made her a scarf. I used some acrylic (read: cheap) red yarn and a free cable pattern, but I put love in each stitch. My family endured a house fire on December 23, 1989 wherein nearly everything I personally owned at the tender age of 12 burned up. I know what it’s like to lose sentimental items. I’m happy to report that she loves it. I gave it to her today and it was very well received.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!