I THINK I finished my Christmas shopping today. But it seems something else always crops up. Today I learned that my DIL's grandfather will join us for Christmas so I needed to get a little something for him. He has Alzheimer's and my son suggested that I get him a stuffed toy, as he seems to respond to them. I actually found a free one, with the purchase of four birthday cards, which I will use anyway. So that was good. I also had to buy another bag of Hershey's Bliss for my Yankee Swap gift at work -- I already had two, plus two small Christmas tins to put them in, but the two bags didn't fill the tins.

I also bought some gift cards. I added $50 to the $25 Jewel card I already had -- this will go to my out-of-work nephew. Then I bought a packet of three $10 I-tunes cards. They will go to my sons and a grand-niece.

For my BFF, whom I won't see till New Years, I bought a candle plate for the pillar candle I already had, and a Sudoku book.

Today was my first attempt at the $20 grocery limit (even though it's not the new year yet, it's a good time to start because I'm so stocked up on food). I spent $18.78, and most of it was not food.

I bought two boxes of corn muffin mix, sour cream, three fresh jalapenos (all these for jalapeno cornbread for the Christmas party at work), some coffee creamer, a bag of mixed greens, cat food and maxi-pads. I also got a free can of chicken dumpling soup with a store coupon. I wanted to get wine, but since that would have put me over the $20, I resisted.

My weekend with my grandson was exhausting! First of all, I had to give up on taking him to A Christmas Carol; he insisted he was too scared and started crying. So I finally called the box office and asked them to donate the tickets to someone who could use them. Well, he was in a negative mood all round. He didn't want to eat anything I offered, and even refused pancakes at McDonalds (where I had to drag him). He did enjoy the Play Place once we finally got there. Then I suggested we go see "ChipWrecked." No. He's seen it. (Not true, his mom told me). The only thing he could think of that he would like to do was to see Cars 2 again. I tried to get it at a RedBox, which wasn't working, but I was lucky enough to get it at the library. Unfortunately, as we watched, the images started breaking up about halfway through. I had to clean the disc twice, but finally got it good enough to go all the way through. Then he got it in his head that he wanted to play his Cars 2 video game, and that was the ONLY thing he wanted to do, and he HAD to go home. Well, it was only a few hours before the time we had set, so I took him home! Clearly, he's at a very obstinate age! (And was probably a little homesick, too.)