Present to myself

When my maternal grandmother passed away (back when I was in high school), my mother put her money into a trust, and every year my sisters and I get a Christmas check from Grandma L. She loved giving gifts (oh, the enormous box that would arrive every Christmas!) and this is a glorious way of remembering her.

The rule is that we’re supposed to use the money for ourselves—not for the household, not as a gift to anyone else, etc. (In other words, buying groceries is not okay, but going to for romantic dinner with the husband would be just fine.)

I haven’t officially used my gift in the past few years, because I could never decide what I wanted. Then, at Thanksgiving, Ken commented, “We really need more light in the living room. We should buy lamps.”

And I said (not really gritting my teeth…much), “Absolutely. You mean, like, the lamps I’ve had on my wish list for years?”

As it turned out, those lamps were on sale, and I’ll take a picture of them gracing our living room soon. (Along with the new curtains, which are perfect!)

But this post isn’t about them. This post is about what I did with this year’s money:

A picture is worth a thousand words, right? So I shall say no more.

Because I have to go practice!