We had our company Christmas party this past Saturday night. It was fun and my dinner was delicious. I received a Christmas bonus of $1750, same as last year. For now, I used it to pay bills. On payday, I will send $1450 to CurveBall. I do have a fence to replace and my car insurance is due in February. BF borrowed $300 last week which he will repay soon and that will go to CurveBall as well. More on that below.

I bought J's iPad2 on Sunday. With a cover, 2 year warranty, and tax it came to $825. I used $500 of Best Buy giftcards bought with credit card reward points. Ex-h is contributing $150 so my out of pocket is $175. Also, for purchasing the cover I received a $50 Best Buy gift card which I used to buy Microsoft points for nephew for Christmas. (That's what he said he wanted). I will send my daughter a check for $150. And that is it, I am done Christmas shopping.

BF was here over the weekend but left this morning to go back to his house. He has a meeting tomorrow with a real estate agent at the house. He had his mother's jewelry appraised and is in the process of selling it. She had some collectible guns which he has taken to a gun store to sell on consignment. He has been gathering up items of value to sell on e-bay, some are already listed and receiving bids. He has been working on getting the corporation documents in order (family business, now defunct but still owns real estate). So he has been getting the ball rolling. He says it feels really good to finally be making some progress. He will be receiving a check next week which represents the last of his IRA money. I lent him $300 to hold him over until he receives it. His checking account was overdrawn. He has also decided to sell his car. He has a car and a truck. He loves the car but needs the truck, so the car has to go for now. He has lost a great deal of money by procastinating dealing with all of this and living off of his savings. His reasoning was that he didn't have time for a job until he settled the estate, but he wasn't doing a thing about settling it. And so here we are. Fortunately for him, he should still come out of this with a significant chunk of cash and his share of the corporation. I told him when the house sells, he needs to take his share and set it aside, investing it sensibly. Then get a job rather than live on his little nest egg. He says he will. I hope that he does, but that is entirely up to him.