... we're not doing any.

I'm so tired of these credit card hackers. We had both of our cards (two separate credit card companies) re-issued in the same month, and because they were mailed to one house and I was in another state, it took some doing to get my new card to me because of course we worried about it being hijacked out of the mail.

And then the other card was a big mess because it was a business card, and Mr. YouKnow is an authorized user, but the credit card company decided it would be expedient to issue him a whole new account. He didn't read about it in the letter that came to him with the new card, so didn't tell me about it via email.

I didn't want to have to track and pay two separate accounts, so called customer service to cancel his new account. They didn't explain that this was the new plan: two separate account numbers that will both be billed to and paid by the overall account. Reason: if one card gets compromised, the other card will still work. I think this is a faulty premise because we shop at the same stores with those cards, mostly Home Depot. If it got hacked again, both accounts would be compromised.

I didn't find out about this plan until I called customer service again. So we cancelled his new account, and then I set him up as a second card-holder online thinking they would send us a card with his name on it but my account number. It created yet another new account, but they didn't send a card for it, so I had to call customer service Again.

We were without credit cards for about 4 weeks, so no online shopping, and we had to be careful about gassing up the cars. Not that we do a lot of that, but Murphy's Law says that when you can't do something, all of sudden you want to a lot.

As for the Christmas gifts we are giving, turns out they were home-made, or we already had them on hand, so no shopping for those. I've already told you about the doll clothes I made, and corduroy drawstring stuff sacks for the boys. And since the boys' gifts might not have been sufficient, I made Mr. Hoarder part with a couple of his Happy Meal Hot Wheels from 1996. He has boxes and boxes of these things. I shudder to think of all the Happy Meals he consumed in order to get them. Yes. He ate all those burgers and fries. Anyhow, two of those have gone out the door. And a Beanie Baby for the youngest child. He has more than a thousand Beanie Babies with several multiples. We inventoried them and know what is in which box, and where the multiples are.

For our MyBloggers friend Sue, I'm knitting a long, skinny scarf that she can wrap around and around her neck in an artful manner. If she doesn't like it, she can re-gift it to her daughter. One year I made the nicest popcorn balls to send to Sue, and I hope to get to that this year because I know that'd cheer her up.

And I'm doing as little grocery shopping as possible. We're going to use up all the food in the house before I go back to Colorado so he can start fresh with whatever it is he knows how to cook. Since he doesn't cook with spices, I might take them all back with me and get organized with fresh ones next time I come back here. The house gets so hot in the summer time we have to store all the staples in the refrigerator.