QUICK THINGS TO DO TODAY:
- Phone a relative you haven’t talked to in a while.
- Take stock of your perishables – lettuce, bread, eggs, milk, butter, orange juice, etc. During wintertime we can often be taken by surprise by storms. Do you have enough of these items you won’t have to worry if you can’t get to a grocery store for a week?
- Take ten minutes to yourself, regardless of children, pets, or significant others wanting your time. Demand the time you deserve. Hide in your bathroom, bedroom, or even a closet if need be. Do something you enjoy. Paint your nails, read half a magazine, glance through a catalog, listen to music, or just sit resting with your eyes closed. This will help with the pre-holiday sanity maintenance.
TODAY’S PROJECT: Potential Projects
Do any of these project ideas sound like a good fit for you and your family tonight?
- Bake cookies, pies and other baked goods. Sort out your cupboard and inventory your cookie sprinkles, frostings, cutters, tips, and other decorating supplies. Don’t buy anything for this project, because you probably already have enough.
- Sort out your game closet or box of household games. Discard old games you can honestly admit you’ll never play; schedule an after-Christmas shopping trip to replace that dogeared old set of Old Maid cards. You’ll need games for upcoming holiday visits and long winter evenings, so get your games in good shape. For each game you’re keeping, organize it, examine pieces for damage, throw out old used scorecards or papers, count and make sure you have all the needed pieces to play it. You can find extra games for cheap on Ebay to salvage for parts. Discard the unused parts so you don’t end up with clutter.
- Majorly clean a room, top to bottom.
- Majorly clean your kitchen, if it needs it.
- Thoroughly clean refrigerator in preparation for holiday events.
- Drive (or bundle up and walk) around your city looking at holiday lights. My family likes to pack big thermoses of coffee and hot cocoa, pile blankets into someone’s minivan and all pile in. We go to some of the ritzier neighborhoods, thinking they have more money to buy nicer lights, and maybe they hire professionals to decorate for them. I’ve found this is a great time to spend talking to teenagers, as long as they don’t sit out the whole ride with Ipod buds in their ears.
LOVELY BLOGS: Diary of a Mad Hausfrau
“From Big Time Glamorous TV Career to Small Time Village Life in Germany.” This blogger, Lora, shares her life in a small German town. I particularly enjoy reading it this time of year as she’s showing her Christmas poinsettia cupcakes, Star of David latkes, and her Electric snowflake cookies. I’m so busy going through her back archive of posts, I hardly have time to wonder what fabulous post she’s going to make next!
http://www.diaryofamadhausfrau.com/
LOVELY KITCHEN:
This is really childish, but I want to tell you how much fun I’ve been having with my inexpensive new cotton candy maker. (I picked it up for $39 at Bed, Bath & Beyond).
We played with it at my last dinner party. You just throw in a couple Lifesavers or other hard candies, then spin your plastic spindle around the bowl to catch the sugar threads. It was fun experimenting with different flavor combinations (I can’t recommend Wild Cherry mixed with Butterscotch!) I just regret that it is a large machine and takes up so much room in my kitchen storage cupboard.
Cotton Candy Maker, at Nostalgia Electrics
LOVELY LINKS FOR TODAY:
Lora
Wow thanks for the link love! I love your lovely blog.