Grocery Shopping

I just got home from doing a very large shopping trip at Aldi's.  We were out of alot of items.  We had pretty much the bare minimum and were running out of things to prepare! :-)  I spent over $100!! Eek!
I have so much food in the car, I really dont want to unload it all.   Luckily it's cold outside, so it's sitting out there until I get the motivation to go out and unload. 

I have learned a couple of things from this trip.  One is that it is expensive to host parties for the holidays!  One is a brunch and an early dinner.  The other is hors d'oeuvres, finger foods, and then breakfast the next morning.  The other thing I learned is that juice is expensive!  We will have a 2 year old running around the house on Christmas Eve, so I had to get her some Apple Juice.  I also got some cranberry juice & OJ (fake OJ, by the way) for an "adult drink" that I love with peach schnapps for the New Years Eve company.  Oh, and I got sparkling red grape juice for Christmas Eve for our early dinner meal.  My step-father is a recovering alcoholic, so I thought it'd be nice to have some sparkling juice with dinner.

On top of all the juices I bought, I bought 20+ lbs worth of ham, 2+ lbs of shrimp, fruits and veggies, among many, many other things.  Now, I have to start planning out the menu for each occasion.  I really should try to keep it simple, but it's not looking as that will happen.

And the food in the car...I am thinking that with the juices, I will leave them in the garage to remain nice and chilled and keep the fridge free of clutter.  I will put the "party food" in a plastic tote so Todd is not tempted to eat any of it before the get-togethers!  And the freezer food I bought will be put in a bag and marked "DO NOT EAT" until it is time for them to thaw.