Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown

So, my mom and I won't have a tree this year.

I'm really not all that surprised, just because I have been calculating it, and I knew we wouldn't have enough. It doesn't help that both Mom and I take daily medicine, and she has to get two of her non-generics filled, which is $80 out of pocket, plus I've got at least one generic, so that's $10 added to that. And we got groceries last night, which is more important than a tree. Bills also > tree.

And really, I'm not at that little-kid stage where I'm going to cry my eyes out if I don't have "presents under the tree," but it's just kind of the icing on the Everything's Changing cake of life.

So, Mom and I might end up with a tiny bare tree or a branch decorated with greenery in the living room. Well, no, in my room, because the cats will otherwise chew on it.

Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown, indeed.