I guess I've gotten out of the habit of keeping a running total on savings since I started diverting some of the money that was going there to paying off debt. But I did do a tally today and the grand total of all my savings accounts is now at $1600.98.

I am so anxious for January to get here. I am so anxious about what DH's raise will be so I can plan out the year. That is just about driving me crazy, not knowing yet. It is supposed to be substantial this year. Supposed to be. I hope so. Last year's raise was more than eaten up by the insurance rates going up. And they are going up again this year by $6 a week. Not nearly as bad as last year's increase which was about $150 a month if I recall correctly. It might have been more.

Gas and propane costs are out of control here. It really doesn't help that our gas tax is 30.1 cents per gallon. I think I may order a cord of super dry firewood to help with the less seasoned stuff that does not want to burn. Almost all the snow has melted off the wood pile and it has thawed out enough to break it apart again, but it still is quite damp from the soaking it took back during the bad rain/windstorm where we lost power.

I have added more Christmas lights. I ran green twinkle lights around the picket fence that goes around the garden and did the arbor in red LED lights. They don't appear to have green LED lights yet, or at least don't have them in our area. Over the last couple days I also did one tree in pinkish purple lights and one tree in amber yellow lights.

I stil have a ways to go. I have to do 4 windows, put up the penguin, the nutcracker, the seal that spins a Christmas present on its nose, the lollipops, a star, the rope light train and the blowup Santa Train. I'm getting there, though. The place where the rope light train goes has almost melted down enough that the snow won't be in the way anymore.

I'm hoping to get some done tomorrow. Rose woke up feeling great today (hooray for zithromax!) so we will be going to her basketball game, or rather games (2) tomorrow. They are back to back, thank goodness so it doesn't mean going to the high school twice in one day. I dislike that the 5th/6th grade teams play at the high school. The 3rd/4th play at the elementary which is where they all practice and it is closer. It's driving 10 miles instead of 1.2 miles one way. But the gym is nicer and the bleachers are better, so there is a bright side.

Today was payday so I will do a seperate entry on bills paid today, later. Otherwise, I think that is it for today.