The week of minimal spending

Last week is always going to be a memorable one, I finished my Christmas shopping, I threw the Christmas Party of the year (well in my book anyway, it was the only Christmas party to which I was invited and that was only because I threw it), and I didn't work outdoors at all because of the weather.  Wait, me, have a whole weekend off so close to Christmas?

It's true, I'd already booked Saturday into my calendar as a day off and on Friday I took the wise move to reschedule Sunday's clients because of the cold, it's rare I reschedule due to cold but I have Reynauds and 95% of my clients are under the age of 5, for me, being out in -5 temperatures for 4 hours could actually induce hypothermia and for my small clients, well it's just not fun and it can actually be painful for even an hour.  I love what I do but it's definitely not worth dying for.

So this week after the flamboyant week that was last week and the no working, well this week has to be the week of minimal spending.

I have a veg box due tomorrow, I have a pretty full fridge and freezer and I'm not planning on going out for anything other than therapy, dog walking and tomorrow I have a newborn photo shoot (indoors).  Next weekend, well I think it may warm up a little, I'm due to be outdoors for 5 hours on Saturday and 4 on Sunday, usually, I'm used to January being super cold so I only go out for a maximum of 2 hours at a time.  I'll be watching the weather keenly this week because I don't want to disappoint families so very close to Christmas and I also really need to work, I only have Saturday, Sunday and next Tuesday outdoors doing photography before I break up for the Christmas holidays, yet another reason why I really am having a week of minimal spending.

On the top of my to-do list, make a gingerbread house and when Looby surfaces from her Monday sleep in (she always gets up late on Mondays after doing a full day at the stables on Sundays) that is our task of the day, we were kindly gifted one by my favourites, the Biscuiteers and I'm excited to try and make the best gingerbread house ever!  I've also got the ingredients to make some gingerbread and I want to make fudge this week too although my minimal spend might have to stretch to the fudge ingredients it won't be too much.

Next week is really the big countdown to the most magical day of the year, for me, I'll be honest, it's Christmas Eve, so full of magic and expectation, even now in my forties I believe that anything could happen on Christmas Eve, it's such a special day and I always make the time to go to my local parish church for the crib service, it's the nearest thing to a Nativity play I get to experience now my own children are older and I love that hour to reflect and sing Christmas carols as loud as my lungs will let me.  I usually cook a Christmas dinner for friends afterwards but I'm still not sure what I'm doing this year, maybe it's more fun to not quite know what to expect.

The enormous Christmas shop will surely happen next week too, I have booked my Waitrose slot for the 21st and I need to pop into Aldi and Iceland so minimal spend this week will be followed by stocking up the winter store cupboard and I for one am determined to let the Christmas bubble last for as long as possible, I don't want to engage in real life, I want to relax during Twixtmas, I want to take long baths and catch up on reading books and watching trashy movies, there's no need to rush back into the outside world I feel and this year, I might just have a big enough fridge-freezer to achieve that and on that note, I'll stop writing before this becomes a blog about kitchen appliances *shudders*