So with that already casting a shadow over us, we stopped by the Dollar Tree. Mom bought a bunch of Christmas decorations for the house. Well, not a ton of stuff, mostly those booty-stocking things. She got two blue ones and two silver ones for the Blue Room, and two jade-green ones for the dining room. I suggested she stuff those with rags so they'll look full and then top them with some fake grapes. She loved the idea! (The dining room is decorated in a grape-and-wheat theme.) The kids were wistful because of all the soft, squishy toys we couldn't afford to get. We didn't even buy anything for Angel or Anel�, and that hurt some. I wish we could give them everything!

Afterwards, we were gonna go to H.E.B., but 'Ama started groaning and complaining that she was oh, so friggin' hungry, that it made her head hurt how hungry she was. Grizz got a bit annoyed by that, because she obviously wasn't gonna buy her own food. She wanted us to buy, knowing full well we're on a budget. But hey, she's our mother, we can't say no. So we took her to grab a bite at El Zarape. We both ordered Torta Combos and were fairly disappointed by the food. It wasn't worth going this time, and that just irritated us all the more. Still, we didn't wanna make Mom feel bad about wanting to eat out, so we kept our mouth shut.

We then went on to H.E.B. Since the food knocked sixteen dollars off our already dwindling budget, we had to make do. We were extra-picky about what we bought, and since the kids were dominant while we shopped (they usually are, at least Jack tends to be), they wanted all sorts of goodies that we couldn't get. That made M.B. whiney, and Jack weepy, and since he got weepy, Gis got scared. She thought we were so broke, we weren't gonna be able to afford any food and that we were gonna starve to death. BB had to explain to her that this wasn't true, and that a budget was simply a method to keep us from spending too much money, but that we did have more money than just eighty-four dollars in our bank account, but that other money was for bills. We could buy what food we needed, but there was a big difference between need and want. That made her okay for a while until she realized that Christmas presents fall under the "want" category. Then she started sniffling along with Jack. Ninja's exasperated sighs of "But don't cry!" didn't help much. B.B. had to explain again that we would be able to buy presents for our loved ones, and not to worry, because we had until January 6th for most presents, because that's El D�a de los Santos Reyes Magos, which is when typical Mexican families open their gifts. This buys us time, she said, for us to get something for everyone. And even though the Dud's birthday falls on December 23rd, we're not giving her her present until afterwards, because she'll be in Jersey for her birthday and Christmas too. We have lots of presents for ourself, though, because we haven't been opening all the stuff we buy for our room all year long, and maybe since before, so we've probably forgotten about all the shit we've bought. I'm sure we'll be surprised at what we've gotten ourself.

It's really windy today. Mom said earlier that blustery weather makes her depressed. Maybe that's why we've been bummed, too. We tried to be cheerful on the way home, but Mom kept complaining about the weather, and that didn't help any. We told her to be more positive, and she seemed to hold that against us.

After we got home and got down all the groceries and put most of them away, Mom said we should go ahead and see Pifas at the cemetary already, before she changed her clothes. We drove over to the cemetary to see him, and we got so sad! His white flowers are falling apart (they're made of fabric), and some of them had even blown over. We fixed them up and 'Ama ate cinimmon ice cream. She offered us some but we didn't want any. We missed our Pifas. The Little One started crying, and Yowlie dug his spindly fingers into the carpet grass, looking for bugs and dirt. He dug out a bunch of dead grass and went down for almost an inch of carpet grass root before his fingernails came up with clay-like earth. In the end we brought the dead grass home, and the kids dropped in the blades carefully into the cream-colored mortar we have at our computer desk. Even though we had two dollars and sixteen cents left over from our budget, it's not enough to buy the Sandlewood oil we need to replace. We're kinda hoping this batch of incense will absorb all the oil that spilt from that broken bottle. I'm not sure why the kids would want carpet grass in it, though.