I had a quiet and lovely Christmas Day. My actual family celebrations took place on the 11th and the 18th, so the 25th was just a me day. I opened the presents that were delivered from my Oregon kids and some friends in different states. I had long telephone conversations with those close to my heart. I watched some Christmas movies and I made a Christmas dinner of sorts -- sauteed chicken breast, mashed potatoes, carrots and wine. It was actually a delightful day.

But very cold. I did not go out of the house during the polar vortex. I forced myself out yesterday because I had to go get my car from the hospital parking garage -- my free time was up! From there I went to the university lot where my son's car was parked. I made sure the car started and then I moved it to a different spot. Scraped it enough so that the parking sticker was showing. Then I went to PetSmart and bought some cat food ($16) for my grandcat.

Today I did some laundry and took some boxes out to the recycling bins.

Of course I am starting to look forward to the new year and thinking about how I might do things differently. I'm certainly going to stick to my $100 grocery plan. I'm going to take a bunch of stuff to Goodwill -- in fact, I'm going to work my way down to a capsule wardrobe. I have a new haircut plan -- cutting my hair to chin length and then letting it grow to shoulder length. I figure I should be able to go three months or so without a cut, and I'm going back to Supercuts. I'll miss my stylist at the salon, but I have to admit I can't afford their prices. Those are just some early thoughts.

I'm excited to be getting a "raise" and I hope I can leverage it to good effect.

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and that the new year will be amazing!