Archive for November, 2009

Falling into the Holidays

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Halloween has always seemed like the point at which someone signals that the race to the ‘Holiday Season’ is on… Thanksgiving, Christmas (in our home, Hanukkah in others), New Year’s Eve, New Years day… and then…. WHEW!

I was caught in this race year after year until I eased the pain a bit with pre planning. This year I am relying totally on a timeline list. It works for me in every other area of my life… when I remember! I have been delaying a huge project in my life due to many factors, most of which were unavoidable. Yesterday, Hubby insisted that I set a deadline (in 3 VERY short weeks) to get it finished and off of our minds. To make this happen in the midst of work, family and the coming festive season will require long days and short nights, but strangely enough I feel released. I also know that this pre planning will make life so much better.

I suggest to everyone that a reasonable timeline  is a great guide for anything that you need to tackle, be it work or play. Just remember to not cram too many chores into the Holiday schedule… it only creates more stress…. I know that from experience! I have been guilty of that very thing more times that I care to count! An example follows:

  • Do your deep cleaning first and soon. However, unless it’s absolutely necessary, don’t attack a huge project now.
  • Make a list or lists of events, guests, menus, chores, gifts… everything should be committed to a list and off of your mind.
  • With your lists in hand (or on the computer), plan your calendar so that you can allot some play time in between to ‘must dos’. Of course the more you do early, the more stress you remove from the Holidays… or so I’ve heard! :)
  • With early planning, bundling your entertaining ventures together into consecutive days is a favorite trick of many hosts and hostesses. The major prep is done once so that cleanup and set up for the next event is much easier! Just make sure that you build from small to large party so that the last event is the one that will require the most after the fact cleanup.
  • Research early to find what events are planned for your community that you are interested in attending or that your guests would find fun. Planning a party around a community carrolling stroll, a production of a holiday play, a concert, a parade or lighting show… whatever is happening in your area… gives you an instant theme and entertainment all in one!
  • Leave time for simple pleasures: driving to see the Christmas lights, a cold weather picnic while choosing a tree, gathered around the fireplace with hot chocolate and cookies looking at photos of Christmas’ past. The memories are the gifts we give ourselves!

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All Hallows Eve

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

Happy Halloween!

Quick ideas and reminders:

  • If you want trick or treaters to come to your door, leave a porch light on. Make sure that the walkway to your house is clear of any fallen twigs, excess leaves or anything that may impair little feet from safely walking on your front walk.
  • As tempting as it may be, if you are expecting children that you don’t know, and more importantly, who don’t know you don’t offer homemade treats such as cookies, cupcakes and popcorn balls. Parent have rightly become so wary of such items that your hard work and great effort will most certainly end up in the trash.
  • A treat bag with several small, wrapped candies inside and tied with a ribbon or raffia is a nice way of presenting the goodies. It also serves two purposes: it keeps everything fair without the squabbles of who got more and it allows you to put a mix of candies, packaged cookies etc together without anyone complaining that they ‘don’t like that kind’… they can swap those around once they get home.
  • Dress up for fun yourself! It’s great to be a kid again!
  • At a reasonable time, it’s ok to turn off the lights and no longer answer the door. That does not mean that your doorbell will not ring, but it will lessen the chance and of course, you need not answer the door after ‘lights out’.
  • Keep your outside animals inside on Halloween. With so much activity around the house, there are many opportunities for your pets to get excited, confused and/or injured. Speaking from experience, the vet’s office late on Halloween night is a sad place to end the fun.
  • Have fun and remember if a lot of children show up at your door from other areas of town by the carload: their own neighborhood may not be a safe place to trick or treat and their parents deem yours to be better. :)

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