Almost Ready! Happy 8th Birthday Evan!!

Steve spent part of Saturday tiling the back of the stove. Putting the new small tiles on the new wall shelf he made. He still has the sides to do and it's done. We aren't sure we love it. We could not find exactly the same tile color as our existing wall tile. It's close but not an exact match. We didn't have enough of the existing tile, so this is what we came up with. 

The after with the new small tiles and built in shelf for oils ans spices

The before with the granite countertop tiles as the back of the stove without a tiled shelf. 

If we could, we'd probably take off all the old wall tile, but we are keeping it since it's the entire kitchen walls. 

It's Evan's birthday today!! 8 years old!!! 

I got most of the presents and stocking stuffers wrapped Saturday. I still have at least 30 more to wrap up. That's my least favorite part todo, so I'm pretty happy we have a week to go and I'm pretty much ready for Christmas with a few more gifts to get. I'm hoping to finish up by Monday with the gift buying and will finish wrapping the gifts and doing my cookie/candy baking. 

Spending this year, we did save some by using Visa points on gift cards, giving cash so not to buy extra gifts no one wanted. We got the family practical gifts that everyone will need. Steve and I aren't exchanging gifts as trips we took are our gift and camping. We buy what we want throughout the year, so no need for extra stuff. I did purchase a few stocking stuffers for Steve, but that's it. 

We have 12 people to purchase gift for as our family is expanding. I always try to spend the same amount on family members and the same on my three kids and grandchildren. I don't have a budget we just buy and spend what we can. Plus, we buy all the food for a Christmas meal and have everyone over for Dinner. Not sure what's going to happen for our celebrating this year as Omniron variant of Covid is now taking over and will soon explode in cases after the holidays. The three dosages of vaccine will only protect us around 60% or so??? Not exactly sure of the %, but it was not 100% with the first covid or Delta variant. We all felt safe going back to crowded bars, restaurants and grocery stores and now we are back to wearing masks, not going out and considering not gathering for the holidays with family. How quickly things changed with Omniron! 2nd year in a row of Christmas that might be canceled. For now its plans as usual to gather but Tuesday nights President Biden's address to the country might change our minds about gathering. Hospitals will soon be over run in January. One step forward and many back again to get this pandemic under control. No one wants this to continue but many are against getting vaccinated. We all need to do our part to keep everyone safe. We are all tired of having to deal with this. The virus is not tired and is not letting up. All we can do is have HOPE for 2022.....