I read in the local paper that the utility was doing it, so I spent some time cruising their website and found it. Ours is Nicor; I can find the page by googling Nicor free weatherization kit. That'd be my first try; if that didn't work, I'd call. https://www.nicorgas.com/residential/ways-to-save/free-products-and-services/weatherization-kits.html

I am hoping and crossing my fingers that our medical payment crisis was averted. College girl has a specialist she sees on occasion who is out of network for ongoing treatment. Our insurance allows her to see the specialist and pays as if specialist was in network but we have to get an agreement renewed every 6 months. With her not going since she's in college and everything going on and her being 18 and having to do it herself, we forgot to renew when it expired in November. Well, she's been home since before Thanksgiving and went to the specialist 2x in December. For some reason I checked our insurance claims today, and saw $240 each appointment. My heart sunk - almost $500, when it should've been only about a fifth of that. Well, I immediately made her call the insurance company once I realized that her agreement had expired. I think because she is allowed so many appointments within the 6 months, and she didn't use them (as she was away at college), they will be covering the two appointments. That's what the lady made it sound like. I'm waiting for the paperwork before I call them to re-do the two appointments though so I have paperwork in front of me. Other frugalista things: Christmas presents are all ordered; most have arrived. Kids had a smoothie for snack yesterday with the canned fruit that was backing up in the fridge from the school lunches. Tonight we're having tacos (some came from the school, and I'll make some). We're doing pretty good on using up leftovers, so I'm happy. Unfortunately, I realized cats are due for their shots next month, so I'll have to adjust the budget that I was working on. Our cats never ever go outside, so we never got them shots. But last year, the county made it a law that they have to go to the vet and get shots annually. Edit: Forgot to mention. I weatherproofed the house a little today with the freebie pack sent to me by our heating utility. I put the little foam things behind the outlets & light switches, put some weird little caulking stuff around a few windows, and put a door sweep under the garage/house door.

OP here reading everyone's replies. Thank you so much for your thoughts. If it were just me, I would most likely nix the in-person visit. We're not seeing my family this year. I feel we're so close to the finish line, we can do this, but DH and DMIL both are all in with the visit on Christmas. I am more hesitant especially considering our schedules the week before, which, unfortunately for a number of reasons, we cannot reschedule. Argh, I have a feeling we will be spinning in place for the next weeks as I mull over how to do this. The only place outside could be the garage, which is dingy, gray, crowded, and decidedly not festive. I do not think there is a way to make it in any way festive. DH does have a garage heater. She has poor circulation so no cold visits are advisable. We've done Zoom with her on Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Fourth of July, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. She is just so done with Zoom visits. We have visited with her a little her and there - mainly outside on the patio/deck, but youngest DD spent a few days with her while middle was in the hospital/daily therapy. She also went to brother-in-law's house for about a month over the summer. She will be driving herself here. We can probably rearrange the living room and she won't notice the reasoning behind it because the tree has already shoved everything out of place, so I'm thinking of putting the recliner off a little way so that can be her spot. I don't usually cook for her (except important holidays such as Christmas) as she has celiac disease, and we eat a lot of gluten, so it's not totally weird for her to not get a meal here.

Back story: I live in an area with around 20% positivity. The governor is begging people not to gather for Christmas. Despite the above, we have decided to have my MIL over for Christmas day. We have decided to only open presents (no food, no hugging). We will all mask. We're expecting her to be here for an hour or two. However, I have pretty bad anxiety that we will pass CoVid to her. On the one hand, she's 81 and not in great health so we're being reckless in my opinion. But on the other hand, she lives alone and desperately wants to come over. DFIL died a year ago, so this is only her second Christmas without him; last year we took her with us to FL for Christmas. I cannot in good conscience leave her to herself on Christmas Day. But on the third hand, my family has six in-person dentist/doctor appointments in the next two weeks and DH is working in the office, where they have had 80 confirmed cases in the last 2 months, about 3x per week so we cannot isolate and will have had lots of exposures just prior to Christmas. I'm going to be a wreck the week or so after Christmas. And then, it'll be time to take DD back to college, which entails driving through four states. Ugh. I just hate the fear and the lack of normalness around this season. I am so beyond ready for this all to be over.

I have one who uses Pinterest pretty heavily. Mainly for Marvel and Dr. Who quotes and memes. I use it only for recipes now; I used to use it for teaching and craft ideas often. Edit: Oh, yeah, and she loves her Baby Yoda meme board.

My youngest, age 13, just took her computer for Zoom youth group. Middle, age 15, said let me know what craziness your group gets into. Youngest DD looks at her and says, "I don't talk to my small group. They're loud." Middle: "Who do you talk to?". Youngest: "Alison [youth group leader, aged 30-something]. We talk about books; we're reading The Diary of Anne Frank right now." So my 13 year old started a book club with her youth group leader and that's the only reason she goes to youth group now.

Awww, I'm sorry about the exposure. Glad you are able to hunker down easily, and I hope it'll just pass you by.

I'm on a mission to make sure that all the leftovers/school lunch/groceries don't go to waste. Any ideas on things to use up canned fruit? I have some peaches, pears, and a couple of individual servings of that fruit cocktail. No one is really eating much of it on its own. Any good recipes that use up canned fruit? I used applesauce as the cold water in jello yesterday (it's a holiday meal tradition in my DH's family, so the kids were super stoked to get it just on a random Monday). Our excess of apples (which have been getting eaten, but we had a glut of them) went to a pie filling for the freezer for Christmas and apple fritter bread today.

DH got his notification from his last class today. He finished his last course at our comm coll for IT Security. Yay! He does has a BS in computers, but he wanted to focus on security, so he got an AAS in it. On the frugalista side, his work has reimbursed us for all his classwork.

I haven't been out and about nearly as much as normal, so that may have a big effect too. I always, always get a cold with every change of season - not this year. This year, a few days of sniffles here and there, but no out and out colds, bronchitis, etc. I also noticed that I was able to work in the garden for much longer than normal if I wore a mask - must filter the allergens as well.

I'm sorry, Ditto. I've had a few packages go on walkabout lately. I'm a huge fan of the USPS as my aunt, uncle and mom all worked there for decades, so I know the system. I wish we would fund it fully so it would function better.

My oldest was usually about 40th percentile - I can't find her stats for 11 yo. She is 5'1 1/2" now as an adult. She did lose a little height with some scoliosis. My middle was 4'9" and 77 pounds at her 11 yo physical. She's about 5'3" now at age 15. Youngest has always been documented as short stature. She was 4'2" and 52 pounds at her 11 yo physical. She is now 13 and 4'7" and about 65ish pounds. I was always the tall kid in grade school. I stopped growing in 6th grade and watched everyone pass me. I am 5'3". So that type of growing does happen.

We don't get a menu either which led to a funny story on Monday. My college DD and I were sorting the food for fridge, pantry, freezer. She said "Corn dogs! Sweet!". I was sorting something that I decided were cheese curds (we're close to WI, what can I say?). So, for lunch she pulls out her corn dog and decided to go for the cheese curds. Well, when she opened the container of cheese curds, she said, "Wait these are mini corn dogs. So, in the same package we got corn dogs and mini corn dogs? Weird." She cooked the big corn dog and bit into it - it was a pancake wrapped around a sausage. Still good, but not with ketchup and mustard LOL. Here you walk up to the foyer of a school, and hand the (masked) lady a sack and tell her how many meals. She takes your bag and brings it out filled with food. Often they give you a spare bag or two as well above the amount you ask for. Urologist appointment today. Surgery will probably be needed, but it can wait. The stones aren't doing any damage right now. So, he said if I ever hit my deductible and want to blow these stones up, he'll do it. I'm just gonna hope the stones don't shift for a while. I am so sorry about the furnace, Saraha. That sucks. We've just about paid off our new furnace which was installed last year. Wow on the dental bills, PrairieWind. How awful!

Oh, that would be a toughie (and probably something I would worry about for months prior to the date!).

Nope, no planning for anything beyond next week. Just plodding along day by day.

Most of my family is buried in a different state, which both of my parents came from. So, I didn't grow up visiting graves often. However, when I do get back to the area (about every 5 years or so), I visit my father's stone (he was cremated and the ashes scattered, but his tombstone is there in the family area) and other various family members. My mom's cousin takes care of the family sites, so she and I usually go together so she can take me to the ones I can't find. We pull some weeds, talk about our memories of the person, scrub the stone if she's noticed it's dirty lately, lay some fresh silk or real flowers out, and in general straighten up the area. I and my mom often mail huge boxes of silk flowers to her cousin before holidays to lay on the graves. Edit: I do talk to Dad when I am there, even though he isn't. Like a general stream of recent happenings "I know you'd have just loved to see Granddaughter in her Tae Kwon Do competition. She kicked so hard the bag practically fell over! You would've been so proud, Dad."

I've got to go out and about for a doctor's appointment tomorrow. I think I'll pick up some fusing and make some of these stars. Christmas present for my neighbor and some Christmas fun for us - yay!

My tree usually has "finger chains". Yarn knitted with your fingers as the needles. https://www.instructables.com/How-to-chain-knit-with-your-fingers/

That would definitely catch their attention! I like fire, but my youngest would lecture me on the safety violations LOL.

Looking for some fun ways to make Christmas special with teens. We're going thin with presents this year due to budget, and most activities have been curtailed. It seems like anything I suggest is met with eyerolls and a quick return to the screen or the book. There will be no family visiting, so I'm afraid most of December will just go by with no real excitement. We don't celebrate Advent. Any ideas on how to make this season a little more fun? I am planning on hot chocolate and the drive through lights one night. Christmas read aloud? We've done most of the well-known ones. We're currently in the middle of Frankenstein, but I can set that aside. Christmas movie ideas? I forced two of them to watch the Miniature Christmas challenge on HGTV this morning, and it went ok. One of them likes crafts, one likes to bake, so we'll probably do some of those. Anything else? It's so much easier when the season itself is magical; any ways to get some pizazz?

2020 came out to be a wash. We are almost exactly where we were financially when we went in to 2020. Hopefully, we can make some traction in 2021; I feel like the past few years has been just a holding pattern. When we get some $, it seems something comes up that takes it. Medical for this year: 3 hospitalizations and one 6 week stretch of daily therapy, 3 months of 2x week therapy. One root canal. 3 cavities. Finished paying for 2nd kid's braces although removal has been delayed. Medical for next year: We're being hit with some doozies of medical bills right now even though our kid with the most medical bills is in the "free zone" (max out of pocket for 2020). My youngest is having migraines again; I remembered she has not been to the eye doctor this year, so she has an appointment tomorrow. She is ready for braces now. Appointment is set for January. I did contact the hospital for assistance with my CT scan. I have an x-ray tomorrow, hoping they will decide the kidney stones can just live in there for a while. But we'll see. School for this year: DD graduated high school/comm college & started college. A couple of road trips for college decisions and then taking/bringing her back from first semester. One very expensive laptop. Books and fees and tuition, oh, my! Dropped out of co-op, but added an online course. School for next year: same old, same old. Cars for this year: a couple of minor repairs, but nothing major. Gas was a savings for the year, although with the road trips for colleges and daily therapy 1 hour away for over a month, it wasn't as great as it could've been. Cars for next year: DH will need a new car soon, so that is probably where tax refund will go. College DD wants a car, but that would be on her to provide. Debt, retirement, savings: all are close to plan if not exactly where I hoped we would be. VIPKid was a wipeout with the pandemic. DH took my space over, and I literally have no where to do it in this house. I have only opened slots when they offer me an incentive to do so. I haven't taught a class in well over 8 months. I have made almost $100 doing just those incentive slots, so not horrible. DH didn't lose his job, although overtime was cut for a while, so I am thankful for that. Almost finished Christmas shopping today. I have MIL left, but DH hasn't any ideas, and MIL has given one idea to everyone in the family, so I would have to check with everyone to see if anyone else bought it. I also have neighbors left, but I am clueless on what to get them.

Ours is usually in the living room corner so you can see the TV from it. It's where the tree goes, so right now it's in our bedroom.

I started my morning by getting on the exercise bike. 20 minutes because the cat decided it was time to get off and feed her. She can be a nuisance.

Made $15 today on our Christmas tree stand. We sprang for an artificial one this year. Oldest has some pretty bad allergies, so it was past time to move to fake greenery.

I have a DD who we are "holding back". She has had a rough 2 1/2 years with mental and physical health issues. She is only now starting to come out of the fog a little bit. If she makes a huge leap in the next few years, we will figure that out, but for now, I'm calling her a 9th grader even though she has been a 9th grader before. I don't know what you would like to know. The reasons we are holding DD back are 99% most likely not the reasons you would hold your son back.