Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Holi-daze

Since Halloween is over the Christmas marketing machine is in full effect which sort of bums me out because my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.  And I'll be really honest as to why: there isn't any stress about buying gifts and spending a lot of money AND if I had to choose my "last meal" it would be Thanksgiving dinner.  It is my most favorite meal.....ever.  I've been half tempted the last few birthdays to ask my mother to make stuffing for my birthday dinner.  My birthday is in August.  But her stuffing is just too good to only have it twice a year.

But my husband.  Loves.  CHRISTMAS.

So much in fact that we already have a four foot Christmas tree sitting in our living room carefully placed out of the reach of a certain eight month old's reach.

I get easily overwhelmed during the holiday season just because I want to make sure that I spend my money on presents for people that they are truly going to enjoy.  I really put a lot of thought and effort into purchasing gifts with the recipient in mind, which I think is a very good quality but at the same time it can absolutely drive me crazy with stress and worry.

This year Craig and I started thinking about Christmas presents in September.  Maybe it's the budget we're on and we want to spread out the spending over the course of several paychecks or maybe it's just the excitement about the first real Christmas with Natalie.  Probably a combination of the two.  Whatever the reason, we're almost done with our Christmas shopping.  Hurray!  This definitely takes a lot of the stress of the season off my shoulders and hopefully I'll really be able to relax and enjoy the holidays without the extra pressure of fighting crowds at the mall, worrying about spending too much, and the last minute midnight wrapping extravaganza right before the big day.

I even have Natalie's Christmas photo ready to be put into the Christmas cards that are already purchased and I am in the process of getting a Word document set up so that I can just print the addresses of the recipients directly onto the envelope.

Sometimes....I really, really, really love being so incredibly OCD.

So here are a few of the things that I've got planned for the holiday season.

DECOR: 



I love these glass jars with Christmas ornaments in them.  On the mantle right now I have two big hurricane glasses leftover from our wedding and they are filled with pinecones and gourds for fall.  I plan on bagging up the pinecones and gourds and replacing them with any and all ornaments that we don't use for the tree this year.


I could do this with some paint and some canvas.  I might not do a door hanger since we have a wreath for the front door, but it could definitely be something to display in the front hallway.

TREATS:

How yummy would this recipe for a sticky bread be on Christmas morning!  Super easy to make and it looks delicious!


A friend of mine made something like this a few years ago and I absolutely love them.  The combination of salty and sweet is so good.  They wouldn't just be a treat for my family but they would be easy to package and hand out to friends and family.  Plus - once Natalie is older it would be a great treat to make with Natalie.


The hubs loves brownies.  How fun are these?


Craig also loves red velvet cake ANYTHING so these treats could be just for him - toss a few green sprinkles on top and voila!  Christmas red velvet brownies!

THINGS TO DO:

Giving gifts for everyday during Advent can get pretty expensive and difficult.  I like the idea of printing off these fun ideas and things for us TO DO instead of BUY.

There was no source listed on Pinterest.

This is kind of along the same lines as the one above.  I could put it in a frame and then use a white board marker to cross things off as we complete something on the list!  Obviously there are some things I would take off (I don't see Craig and I on a horse drawn carriage ride).

Again - no source listed on Pinterest

I don't think this is something that I could do this year just because Natalie is still so little and doesn't have any specific requests for Christmas but in the future this could be really fun.  But just because she puts it on the list doesn't mean she's getting it!  Ha!

BUT....then again, who can really think about the holidays because it's November 8th and I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt outside with my kids today!

1 comment:

Heather said...

Ok I LOVE ALL of these things just like I loved your Halloween one!! Seriously LOVE it all! I'm inspired.;)