What a week!!!

I have been recuperating from 7 parties in 6 days and two days of work and also work tonight. It just seems like the past weekend is socked full every year, and then things slow down quite a bit. I even put off my Christmas shopping until this week and believe it or not, got most of it done in two days. It was power shopping to the max. With list in hand and keeping careful track of my spending, I was able to knock out a bunch of stuff in a matter of about 8 hours. My list is rather small as I buy for my immediate family, my dad, my mother-in-law, and the name drawing on the Tindell side. Yesterday, after getting a delicious latte at the coffee shop at the hospital, I had enough buzz in me to wrap most of them before my nap:

I have already done all of the charity shopping for the mitten trees and A Safe Place. Work is also doing some charity things, which I am contributing to tonight. You see, the Tindells are very blessed this year. We look around and see all of our friends and neighbors who are struggling in this economy and we have our jobs with very little chance of being laid off. So, with a united consensus, we decided to buy some animals from Heifer International. Check out their cause. Catie first introduced it to us last year as she gave us a flock of chicks. This year we bought a Llama and a goat. These animals will go somewhere in the world where the people need food and sustainable resources to stay alive. We are very excited about it and don't in the least bit feel cheated for Christmas gifts.
I stayed home all day yesterday because we got socked with quite a winter storm overnight. The drive home was pretty bad as the snow was falling at a rate of 2 inches an hour for about 5 hours. I think our total, which I really can't confirm any where is about 10-14 inches. Our neighbors had a shoveling party and cleared 7 driveways yesterday morning after Chuck went to work and I was safely home.
That is the pile at the end of our driveway. Catie is in Illinois, but we won't see her until tomorrow as she is downstate in Peoria at her Wheaton roommate's wedding.
More shopping and gift making today, then I am off to work.
Have a joyous pre-Christmas weekend!!!