Happy holidays to everyone! We had a great Christmas at our house and a wonderful time with the family, extended and otherwise. Tomorrow is our big Open House and we always have a fun day. I'll be running off to Costco in the morning for some quick and easy snacks, the house is clean and will get a quick pick-me-up, and we'll be ready to go. I like to spend my time with our company and don't worry too much about whatever else is going on...plus, there's always an abundance of children around and it doesn't matter what the house looked like at the beginning of the party because it's always a mess after the first 15 minutes!


I've been working on setting some financial goals for 2006, which will include:
1) Topping our emergency fund up to be $10,000--this is an increase of $4000.
2) Bringing our mortgage down to $80,000 from 90,000.
3) Changing our life insurance so if anything happens to dh or I we will not HAVE to have outside employment.
4) Cutting my hours at work down to average 32 hours per week.

Dh is still pondering buying a new (or new to him) vehicle. I'm trying to convince him that if his car dies, we can manage with one vehicle. Mine is a 1996 Dodge Caravan in perfectly good condition, and since we usually work opposite hours, and are both working close to home, this should not be a problem. If, on the odd occasion, we really needed a second vehicle, I could always take a taxi to work, as it's only 7 minutes away.

We will be participating in the $20 to $5000 challenge, and I am enjoying plotting my game plan...