In the book The Long Winter, one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books, there's a scene where Ma tells the girls that Pa hasn't been able to get work for wages that year, so they can't spare money for presents. But they could have a happy Christmas just the same.
Laura started thinking, and she realized that there were things she had that she could give as gifts: a cardboard picture frame she'd been embroidering, a cardboard hair-receiver, some knitted lace. So she did just that, and that was how the Ingalls family had a merry Christmas in the midst of a brutal winter.
Recently Frank and I had a visit from the Orkin man. We have a termite bond with Orkin, and last year, during the termite inspection, the Orkin man said that we were having moisture problems in our crawlspace and we needed the crawlspace encapsulated.
Well, we put off having it done . . . and then termite inspection time came around again. The Orkin guy showed up at the house unexpectedly (in fairness, he'd called before and I had not returned the call) and Frank and I both happened to be home. He discussed the different options with us, and we told him that we would let him know what he decided when he came back the next day to do the termite inspection.
What I think he really wanted was for us to do a full encapsulation for over $6000. Instead, we decided to have a moisture barrier put down and the wood treated for about $2600.
What this all boils down to is that we got hit with a big chunk of change we didn't expect, and as a result, Christmas would be very skimpy.
When Frank told Matthew that we had had to spend money on Orkin and that, as a result, we wouldn't have presents under the tree, I thought, "Not if I can help it."
Thus, Project "Long Winter" was born.
You see, while I have the ingenuity and the creativity that Laura Ingalls had, I also have a resource she did not: the local dollar store.
The other night, Matthew asked me if we weren't going to have any presents at all, and I said, "No, we're just not going to buy presents this year." Then I told him that I was going to show him how we could have Christmas without spending a lot of money.
Yesterday, we went to Dollar Tree, where I bought five tins for a dollar each. Then, we went to Food Depot and bought six boxes of butter (each box containing four quarters of butter) and two and a half dozen eggs. (The butter and margarine was being restocked while I was there, and while the big boxes of eggs were still there, the boxes of eggs packed by the dozen were GONE.)
Today, I plan to make brownies and cookies. Two of the tins I bought will be packed with brownies and cookies. That will be Frank's gift.
One of the tins will be packed with a (used) power pack and a couple of (probably new or maybe used) charger for Matthew's phone.
I will also make him a blue and white hat so he can wear it while watching Doctor Who.
This year, the fates conspired to ruin Christmas.
What the fates did not take into account was that they were dealing with me.
Merry Christmas.
Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.
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