A normal December Monday

Over the weekend we finished decorating the inside of the house for the holidays. Sunday late afternoon, we had a short break in the rain, so I ran outside to clip a handful of short branches from a cedar tree in the yard. I made two of these mini-swags to go in front of the two kitchen windows. They make the room cheery and didn't cost anything. I had pieces of wire in a jar, the fruit picks leftover from a garland we used to do on the banister and the two ribbons from a package many years ago.

I also made gingerbread men cookie dough and a small batch of more eggnog. Getting into the holiday spirit.

This morning I needed to go grocery shopping. A week ago Monday, I made a quick dash to Walmart to pick up basics -- milk, eggs, carrots, bananas, and jalapeño peppers. I was using the car in between the excursions of two family members who also needed the car. So I was as quick as I could be. Later in the week, I thought about doing more grocery shopping, perhaps getting a start on some Christmas meals shopping. I decided to wait until today and make what current meals from what we have on hand. We're needing more space in the freezer for another delivery of beef coming up shortly. Better to use what's already here than add more to the freezers.

So, this morning I went to WinCo, Chefstore (wholesaler), and Grocery Outlet. My list really wasn't very long. I bought more almond flour so I could do another batch of almond paste for almond macaroons, plus avocados, bananas, tangerines, dried cranberries, turmeric, black pepper, cayenne pepper, mixed nuts, a little bit of Christmas candy, chicken breasts, a Christmas ham, a 5-lb loaf of cheddar cheese, and a pint of whipping cream on markdown for 78 cents. The dried cranberries are for Christmas brunch muffins. The spices go into my super-charged spicy morning cup of cocoa (turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, coconut oil, milk, cocoa powder, honey, black pepper, honey). I began this as a way to use up the turmeric I had in the cupboard. Little did I know I'd enjoy this spice in cocoa so much I'd need to buy more! The mixed nuts are for some favorite nut bars I make every Christmas. The one item on my list that I didn't buy was fruitcake fruit. One daughter expressed interest in making my mom's fruitcake recipe. However, the fruitcake fruit was so expensive! If we go ahead and make the fruitcake, we'll improvise on that ingredient. What I noticed while shopping was how much more expensive several foods were today, comparing Christmas 2022 with today. Ham, chicken, and cheese added quite a bit to my spending. The almond flour, however, was less than I paid for it in summer. So not everything is more expensive right now, just almost everything that I would buy this time of year.

After grocery shopping, I stopped by the pharmacy to pick-up my husband's rx and went to the post office to mail something. I was pretty beat by the time I got home. I feel like I'm still recovering. I have pain everyday still, although the pain is less and less each day.

I thought I would get to decorating the outdoor tree and making a swag to hang over the garage. But it was too cold and wet for me to want to do that. Maybe tomorrow's weather will be better.

Just now I tucked a chicken pot pie into the oven for our dinner tonight. Should be tasty.

Anyhow, today was a normal December Monday for me. How was your day? Any special activities, or  was it just a normal day for you?

And now I'll go wash the dishes that I dirtied while getting dinner together. have a lovely rest of your evening.