I'm having a good time planning a Christmas Day dinner at our house with my cousin. This is the first time we'll have company over for a meal in the 5 years we've lived here, 7 years if you count the year we bought the house.

We were out of milk so braved the grocery stores today. I figured it'd be busy, and it was. First, though I went to Michaels to look for some stocking stuffers and all their Christmas stuff was marked down 70%. How nice. I got a little kit for decorating wooden Christmas ornaments with colored pens and glitter that we can all work on while dinner is cooking.

When I told Mr. Troutbend thanks for taking me out so I could shop, it was a lot of fun, he said 'You think that's fun?' and I replied, 'And you don't?'

Oh, I could see his eyes going to the price on the shelf for everything I loaded into my cart. I'd pick up something and I could hear him think 'Now what? What's that going to cost me?' Oh, screw him, I bring in more of the household income than he does every year, so technically it's my money that's getting spent. Besides, he's the one who wanted the cheesy sauce on the dinner casserole and that involved buying two different kinds of cheese, so right there, he's got no room to talk.

Don't worry, he'll get over it. He never carries a grudge. Of course I'm not bringing it up, because he might say something about he was wondering why I needed that assortment of flavored tea. Don't ask, don't tell, that's the thing around here.