Here we are back for day three of my edit your holidays series, where we’ll discuss editing your holiday meals. In our home the holidays have always been about food. Up until a few years ago, it was typical for our small gathering of 8-10 people to sit down to a meal that would have easily fed 20. Our collective girths were proof that food was an important component of the holidays. A couple of years ago though … Read More
When I was first married I loved decorating for the holidays, probably because I didn’t have that many decorations. As timed marched on though and our family and house grew, the number of decorations grew too. This has resulted in my getting much more selective about what I want to put out for the holidays, as I don’t want to spend more than a day decorating the house, or more than a day packing things up in … Read More
Editing Traditions: Just because your family has myriad holiday traditions, doesn’t mean all of them need to be rolled out every year. Growing up, my family had lots of traditions, like opening an advent calendar and making cookies. I especially recall Christmas Eve traditions – going to church, opening one present each and completing a 500 piece holiday themed puzzle. My husband’s family had their own traditions that were very different from those of my family. While … Read More
There are a lot of pessimistic people in this world. I know, I used to be one of them. Ok, I wasn’t pessimistic all of the time, but when confronted with a challenge, I found my mind would typically focus on the negative. Or when I had a bad day, I would lie in bed that night and ruminate on what went wrong and worry about everything else that might go wrong as a result. I started … Read More
I won’t see my family on Christmas day, so we celebrated with them last weekend. Today, I have to share the gift that my very clever sister came up with for me, this gift card wreath! Gift cards, though very practical and it this case very appreciated because I love to read, aren’t necessarily a fun gift to give or get. In this case though, Amy had a lot of fun implementing this idea, though she said … Read More
When I was growing up I loved decorating the Christmas tree. Dad’s job was dragging the tree in, setting it up and putting on the lights. My little sister Amy and I helped him with the lights, but then he typically disappeared while Mom, Amy and I decorated the tree. It was so much fun unwrapping the ornaments and recalling the stories behind each of them. My mom will probably tell you I lost interest in decorating … Read More
Many people will be putting away their holiday decorations this weekend. Before you do though, I would encourage you to go around your house and take photos of any decorative displays you were particularly fond of and might want to recreate next year. Store these photos in a file called holiday decorating and next year’s decorating will be a snap. Happy New Year!
I took the day off to get my holiday decorating started. First task was to put up the outside lights. I’ve learned over the years to test all the strands of lights inside before I venture into the cold. I’m so glad that I took the time to do this because apparently half of my lights “expired” this year. I didn’t realize there was an expiration date on lights, but I don’t know how else to explain … Read More
I love this photo of my family at Thanksgiving a number of years ago. The meal was delicious and the atmosphere was relaxed. I wasn’t working at this time though and had plenty of time to plan for and prepare the meal. Not the case anymore. Therefore my mom and I agreed to simplify Thanksgiving this year. We’ll have one kind of cranberry sauce instead of the typical three We’ll only make two different vegetables. Finally, I’ll … Read More