November Crunch is On...

Apparently a snow squall warning is in effect for these parts- meanwhile the sun is shining. I am not complaining!

I am considering this photo of Lily and her Christmas mouse for Christmas cards this year...

Cheery....no?

My chili stretcher week was a success (chili with buns; chili on top of a baked potato with sour cream and taco salad - romaine, scoop of chili, grated cheddar and crushed tortilla chips) but there are still 9 more days of eating before the next budget takes over. I grocery-shopped on Monday and used $20 of PC points in addition to the $70 that was left in the food budget. Not to worry (though no doubt I will anyways) as I have put a meal plan into place. After reading all of your posts the past 10 years or so I don't know why I wasn't meal planning sooner!!

Upcoming yummy dinners include Tuna Melts, Chicken Fajitas, Salmon Patties, and/or Salmon Steaks, Stuffed Peppers, Jerk Chicken and Breakfast for Dinner. 

That's not quite 9 dinners but I get two meals out of some of these recipes and sometimes more if Kazi eats at her boyfriend's house or goes out with friends like she did last night. So I'm pretty confident that I'll make it to the end of the month before the end of the contents of the fridge :)

My Snowflake Box (extra savings squeezed weekly out of my misc budget) currently holds $620 with about the equal amount being added in December. Christmas is paid for - hurrah! And my PC points will cover extra food, what I need for baking and stocking stuffers. Yes, I still do a stocking for Kazi although she is 27 years young. She says it's her favourite gift. All I do is go to the Superstore and purchase lotions, facial masks, hot chocolate, toothpaste and other drugstore type items and then wrap each one with the odds and ends of leftover Christmas wrapping paper. Covered by points it costs me nothing but time. So why mess with tradition?

I don't usually do a lot ahead of time though I do have a turkey frozen since the Thanksgiving sales. I have gifts for one of my brothers (he's so easy to buy for) - I bought him a book by an author we both love about the "WILD" parts of Scotland, a CD called "The Secret Path" written by Canadian superstar rock god Gord Downie of the band "The Tragically Hip" who recently passed away from a brain tumour. The CD is about a young indigenous boy who ran away from a residential school in winter and was found frozen to death. True story. My brother makes his living as an oil painter and told me the last time I visited that he wants to explore stories of Canada's First Nations people for inspiration for his paintings. Whenever he tells me these things I tuck them away in my mind as gift ideas :) The other thing I got for him is sheet music for Mendelssohn's song about Fingal's Cave on the Isle of Staffa. My brother plays piano and we plan to see the Isle of Staffa next year if all goes well! 
I'll post the song by Mendelssohn in a separate post.

Now if only the rest of my family was so easy to buy for! My great-nephew is 10 and I have not a clue about what 10 year old boys are into these days - his Thomas the Tank Engine days are over unfortunately!

Suggestions??? Anyone???