gifts galore and something a little mysterious to boot

Whew! I am done. Christmas shopping is officially completed. It makes it easy when I have six nieces who are young enough to not care that they got the same exact thing as their sisters/cousins. Coats and clothes. But not without having shopping fatigue. You know how hard it is to find cute, affordable clothes for six girls (ages 10, 6, 3, 3, 3, and 9 months)? Yes, there is a set of twins in there. My American Express card and I were both wiped out on Saturday.

I was also happy that I was able to get shopping done for Rick's present. He's been really wanting an iPod and hasn't gotten around to getting one for himself yet. So I decided that's what he'd be getting this year. But boys will be boys....

He just pulled his stereo system out of his old Mazda and wants to install it in his Audi. Why? Because the Audi has the factory stereo which doesn't have a CD player. And so in going to a couple of places to get installation quotes, it's running near $200. Only for the installation, no equipment purchase. I'm trying to slyly keep him from spending so much money on his stereo system when in just a few short weeks, he'll be able to listen to his music via his new iPod. But I'm not willing to ruin the Christmas surprise just so he doesn't spend the money. Uggh. Didn't anyone ever tell him that you should not buy yourself things in November and December??

So changing tracks....

There's something afoot with Rick...and I can't put my finger on it yet. The other night, out of the blue, he asked me what I was doing Tuesday night. Uh nothing, why? Then he says, "Why don't you plan to come over here on Tuesday." Ok.

Rick had to work yesterday and we had planned to grill some steaks that we'd picked up at Costco. But when he got home, I could tell that it had been a rough day at work, and he wanted to go to Best Buy to get a quote on the stereo installation. Uggh. So we ended up putting the steaks in the fridge and going out for very yummy Thai food.

As I was leaving for work this morning, the steaks came up and when we were going to cook them. He thought for a minute and then said, "I'm waiting for something to arrive, so maybe we'll have them on Tuesday." Not sure what that has to do with the price of tea in China or the defrosted steaks sitting in the fridge, but between that odd statement and his unusual way of asking me to come over on Tuesday, he's definitely got my interest piqued.