We’re gonna go with stream of consciousness today!
First, thank you so much to all of you for celebrating with me about my new car. It is so sweet of you all to be enthusiastically happy for me; you all made me smile. Thank you for sharing in my joy!
I forgot to mention in the post that my Civic is a hybrid, which means my gas mileage will be very nice. I will not save enough on gas to make up for the price of the car, of course, but hey, we take a win where we can. 😉
Lots of you asked about the status of my van. I do still have it in my possession; there’s obviously no loan on the van, and insurance is really inexpensive, so I probably will just keep her for a while.
If I find that I rarely need the extra space, I may sell the van. But for now, I do have the parking pad space to easily store an extra car, so that’s the plan.
Switching gears, some of you said you liked my blue velvet top in the symphony photo.
But surprise, it’s actually a dress, which I bought for my niece’s wedding last year.
It comes in a lot of different colors, and the one I have is listed just as Blue; it’s not the Royal Blue color.
Also, just as an FYI, I tried the Dark Army Green and I will tell you it’s way more like a brown than a green. I decided I liked the blue better!
a dusty mirror picture from last winter!
I honestly am just very proud of myself for not even ordering the black one to try on.
Do I have a lot of black dresses? Yes.
Do I still always gravitate toward the black option when shopping? Yes.
Black dresses are just so….YES.
But I boldly bought the blue one instead. Please clap for me.
This is the best style of dress for me because it does not have a defined waistline. I have a very long torso, which means anything with a defined waist never hits me in the right spot. So, when I shop for dresses, I am always looking for styles that have a flexible waist design, and this one hits the spot.
A summer dress, but the same idea!
Fellow long-torso women, I know you know what I’m talking about.
I’m headed to work today because it’s my year to work the Christmas holidays (we rotate between Thanksgiving and Christmas).
I honestly don’t mind; my kids are all grown up (Zoe and I will have a makeup Christmas on Saturday!), and besides, I know my patients will need a little sunshine if they are stuck in the hospital at Christmas.
So, I will do my best to brighten up their days.
Cookies from previous years. I have baked ZERO cookies this year.
To prepare for a string of shifts (I have six 12-hour shifts in the next eight days), I did a lotta cooking yesterday; among other things, I made squash soup, kale salad, and egg bites.
And I actually baked! I made a batch of these whole wheat rolls.
Since there are only two of us here, I froze some of them, using the suck-the-air-out-with-a-straw trick, which basically vacuum seals the bread.
Anyway, now I have some quick and easy breakfasts and lunches for my work days, and that feels good.
Annnnd now I’m off to bring some cheerful Christmas Eve energy to some patients at work. 🙂
Wanna do a stream of consciousness with me?
Feel free to add a little stream of thoughts in your comment!
Mary
Wednesday 24th of December 2025
I rarely shop for clothes at Goodwill because I have too many clothes. But I needed a black dress for a funeral. I found four options and picked a simple, black Old Navy swing dress. At my GW the weekly discount color applies to clothes only and I was pleasantly surprised at the checkout the dress was 50% off, $4.50! That happened to me once before when buying a dress, same scenario. I rarely wear dresses so to have two in my closet for less than $5 each, ready in case I need them, is a win.
Addy
Wednesday 24th of December 2025
Kristen, you’ll have to let us know how good the gas mileage is on your new hybrid. I’m sorry you have to work today and tomorrow, but if I had to be in the hospital on Christmas, I’d feel better having you and your cheerful self as my nurse! Merry Christmas to all!
N
Wednesday 24th of December 2025
That cut of dress is so gorgeous on you! You may as well get onein every color, including black. ;)
We've been enjoying our village's holiday spirit. This past weekend, my husband and I drove around looking at Christmas lights. We brought homemade cocoa with us, and my husband played holiday music on his phone. We made a friend's night by texting him that he'd won our private light contest again--his Victorian with a wraparound porch is always a showstopper when fully festooned!
Our light-viewing cocoa had the bonus addition of homemade cinnamon marshmallows. A barista at the local coffee shop gave a package to us, as she had extra from her family's marshmallow making party.
I helped with the village Christmas fair, selling wrapped "Santa surprise" books (all donated) for $1-3 each. This was the book sale's first year, and it was a hit! All proceeds went to the library's snack and craft budget for the children's programming. The library board members (including me) had several book wrapping parties throughout the previous week, and another member organized them by age range and set up the booth the night before.
The Christmas fair, itself, is really neat, as the village kids get to pick gifts for their parents (all free/donated), which are then wrapped by a fleet of grandmas. There was also free cookie decorating, card and ornament making. For food, there was free cocoa and a free will donation soup and sandwich lunch (I gave $5). The closing game of Bingo was INTENSE.
MH
Wednesday 24th of December 2025
I have one additional thought on your post about your new car. Buying your Civic new is actually frugal in the long run, if you plan on keeping it for a long time. We drove all of our Civics (we've had at least 4 I can remember) a minimum of 300K+ miles with very little repair work, other than typical maintenance: tires, oil changes, etc. We were able to pass them down to our kids when they needed vehicles for college. Our son just bought a used Civic because his old one (our gift to him) was beginning to have mechanical issues that would ultimately cost way more to maintain than to buy a new-to-him model.
So if you plan on keeping your new friend for years and years, it's a frugal win!
Sophie in Denmark
Wednesday 24th of December 2025
Nice pun with 'switching gears' ;)
I love the blue dress! Blue is my favourite colour - the majority of my wardrobe is blue, as yours is black - but I really think it looks great on you!
I always enjoy the quiet of Christmas Eve. They celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve in Denmark, so I sent Christmas messages to my friends there, but here it's still a day of anticipation. We exchanged gifts with my sister's partner last night but will do the main event tomorrow. I bought a Christmas present for their cat but she hid because there were too many people, so hopefully she'll be there on Christmas Day! The cat is also disgruntled because her platform was moved a quarter of an inch to make room for the Christmas tree!
I'm enjoying the combination of new ornaments with older ones on my parents' Christmas tree; there's some from their childhood, ones their parents owned before they were born and some my sister and I made as children. I'm watching My So-Called Life with my mum in the evenings, and it's so nice seeing the tree in the corner of the room with its colourful lights.