Well, we're getting ready to head out again. I'm adding some things to Mama's computer. We went shopping yesterday afternoon and no doubt shocked our bank. I won't mention some of the presents that we bought because I'm afraid that some family members might have stumbled across my little Blogger experiment in self-absorbtion, but I will mention a few things that won't compromise any surprises.

Right now Mara is sitting in the dining room playing around with her new PDA. I had wanted to get her an I-Pod but just couldn't get it here in time for Christmas. So I finally wound up telling her what it was, because I wasn't going to be able to get it soon, and I gave her the option of waiting for it or picking out something else. The idea of the PDA came up immediately. At first I'd planned to get it and put it under the tree, but that seemed stupid since she would know what it was. Anyway, it's a big hit.

We bought a scanner for Mama. Her main Christmas present hasn't shipped yet and probably won't be here by Christmas. So we went ahead and hooked up the scanner to the computer for her. I would have put that under the tree, too, but Mama has been wanting to do scan some images to put on t-shirts or something. Again, it made no sense to put it under the tree.

We went down to Gaffney yesterday and bought Mara's mother's gift. I'm excited about that because I know how much she'll love it.

All in all, we blew through a lot of money yesterday. About $1,300 all together. That's no big deal. We bought the gifts that we wanted to get. But we still have some gifts to pick up. I'm not looking forward to having to fight the Christmas crowds to pick up those last minute gifts, but we just haven't had the money until now.

Paul Yale and CCB have just about ruined whatever Christmas spirit I might have had. But I'm determined to work on that this week. I'm sure having next week off will do wonders for my outlook.