End of a Busy Week

I have just finished making a batch of dog biscuits. Again, I will be moving half of the batch into doggie paw print gift bags destined for the freezer to be given out closer to Christmas.

Yesterday I went into Napanee and hit a couple of stores to finish up Christmas shopping. I have wrapped the stocking stuffers for my daughter and her husband and will be taking them with me when I go to Cobourg tomorrow morning to drop off the Advent Calendar gifts to my grand children. While shopping for others, I picked up for myself a 4x6 area rug for $10 to place at the door where people enter with their snowy boots. We will have snow that stays very soon. I also had to buy a new battery for my van. That was NOT on sale.  They never are. On the way home, I stopped at the local Christmas Tree farm and bought a mixture of evergreen boughs for my 3 front yard planters. It is much cheaper to buy them here by weight than going to Home Depot and paying for prepared bunches. I used the yellow twigged Dogwood in my own backyard for the centre height, and also I pruned some smaller branches from my Juniper bushes to fill in the gaps left by the larger branches.

This is one of my planters at the entrance to my verandah. The second is off to the other side. The third is in the background by the downspout. I only added a solar light and a gold star (from the Dollar Store). I may add some more red and gold with a ribbon or something.

This week I did not make ANY Christmas cards at all. I have been shopping, wrapping, cooking or chopping and freezing food I bought in abundance on Tuesday, cleaning out the basement and dealing with all the stuff I have been bringing upstairs. I have thrown out a lot of JUNK and I have been moving stuff out of the house and into the shed (where it may eventually get tossed in the Spring). I have NOT been doing any housework except to sweep up all the grit that is coming upstairs from the cellar. I will thoroughly clean each room before I decorate. I did however clean my fridge by removing everything and washing all the shelves before I went grocery shopping on Tuesday. And I removed everything from under my sink and thoroughly scrubbed under there....just because it needed it badly and I couldn't stand it any longer. I made a lovely chicken vegetable soup that has given me lunches all week.

 I cut up the four bags of broccoli and placed the florets into a large freezer bag, and I peeled the stalks and sliced for the medium sized freezer bag.

 I shredded one of 3 heads of cabbage and sauteed in butter.

I used two bags of frozen tomatoes (from last summer's garden) to make a tomato sauce for tonight's moussaka when my son and his fiancee come for dinner.

Yes, I am still following my Doctor's recommended diet to control my blood sugar. It is a lot of work, but it is getting easier. I don't see her again until January.  This week's goal is to buckle down and get those Christmas cards made and sent off in the mail. How are your Christmas preparations going?