An Early Christmas Gift

I am so excited! My hubby bought me my Christmas present early! I had been hoping to buy a bread maker with my Christmas money from my parents and my mother in law and we were planning to go and get one on boxing day however I opened the Canadian Tire flyer this morning and there was my bread maker for half price!!! A savings of $50! So my sweet hubby gave me the money and told me it was an early present from him. I love him so much he is one of the sweetest men I have ever met.

As we speak I have a loaf in there. It just finished kneading. I am so excited...I think I mentioned that before....~smile~ I can't not make bread from scratch no matter how hard I try. I don't know why, I can successfully bake most things but bread baking skills seem to be beyond me. I have tried MANY different recipes and techniques and step by step videos etc. and still my loaves look lovely but are heavy and just all around awful tasting. So I have high hopes for this one!

Here is the Canadian Tire ad....

It is a horizontal bread maker and makes 2, 2.5 and 3 lb. loaves. My hubby suggested I call and ask them to hold one for me until I could get there as the store is in a near by town so I did. They said they don't hold flyer items but asked when I'd be in and I said this afternoon so the lady was very nice and set one aside for me but did assure me there were several in stock. When I got there they were all gone - mine was the only one left! I guess others know a good deal when they see one.

Since I was going to this near by town I took my mother in law with me and we had a very nice lunch out. It was nice spending some one on one time with her. We did a bit more shopping mostly groceries. I tried to go to Walmart but it was so busy that I could not get through anywhere with the cart and I eventually just gave up without purchasing anything. Wow! Shopping mania has hit hard.

There was one rather sad incident in an otherwise wonderful day. When I was in one of the stores I witnessed a mother being quite rude and harsh with her daughter. It was so sad. Her daughter was perhaps 10 or 11 and was just excited about the holidays and all the things that were out on display. At one point she was trying to show her mother a top that she thought she would like and her mother snapped at her and told her to knock it off or she was going to kill her.....harsh, so harsh. I hope that this is not what everyday is like for this girl. I pray her mother will take a step back from the busyness and hectic shopping days to appreciate what is most important. I pray she will take time to enjoy the excitement of a young girl who will all too soon not be around to spend these days with her mother as she will be busy with her friends, boyfriends and eventually a family of her own. ~sigh~

Happy Holidays? I hope yours are!

Praying the Lord will be at work in hearts and lives this Christmas.

Blessings,

Liisa