Having a nice relaxing day at home, balancing the books and drinking coffee. A payment went to the UK credit card: US$80 to principal. $1572 down, $964 to go on the December goal.

I was going to go mail my payment to my dad today, but I don't have anything else to do until later, so I'm just going to mail it Monday. That way it'll still count for December and I'll reach my goal.

My parents sent boxes of gifts and were way generous as usual, so I guess the recession isn't hurting them too bad. I realized that they probably sent the three of us enough in Xmas gifts, gift cards and money to about cancel out the check I'm sending to them. Oh well. I didn't get them Xmas gifts, just sent a card, but NT decided that with part of his bonus we should get flowers or something else nice for each of our families, so I ordered a really nifty birdseed wreath to be delivered on New Year's Eve. They have several birdbaths and bird feeders, so hopefully they'll like it. My dad's diabetic and not really into flowers, so it was the one thing that grabbed me on the FTD site.

Hope everyone's week has been great so far! We went to our friends' place for Christmas Eve, and a few other people came over as well. We fixed Japanese and traditional holiday treats and drank sake, and our friend read aloud a David Sedaris essay about Xmas in Norway.

Xmas day was really mellow, just lots of opening presents and then playing around with said presents. We'd picked up a vegan roast from Whole foods and made some mashed potatoes, stuffing and vegan green-bean casserole to go with it.

I have today off, and AS doesn't have a job anymore, so we're both home. Ironically, NT, the lone person used to getting Boxing Day off, has to work, but with any luck he'll get out early. This afternoon/evening we're going out for drinks with some friends, so I don't know if we'll cook the dinner we planned or end up getting some carryout food somewhere. We've got plenty of spending money right now, so it's an option.

Oh, and we booked our Vegas trip (flight and hotel) for March! Woo hoo! With those parts out of the way, we can plan the rest of the trip at our leisure over the next few months.