This kind of sums up my planning for Christmas in the 42nd week prior to the big day. As fast as January and February flew by, and now March is rolling past, I have much less time than I thought I did. But it's spring here and I though I don't have the blues about trying to organize Christmas, I had rather be planting zinnia seed.
I found 2 different free to me cookbooks with recipes and Christmas customs from Sweden and France, and another book about Christmas in Nigeria. I was thinking it might be fun once a week during the Advent season to have a meal using the recipes and customs of a different country. I could easily do it for just the two of us, but it might be a great impetus to get my rear in a weekly holiday entertaining mode.
I've read through all three of them and there are some wonderful sounding recipes as well as some tips to make the meals "feel" more authentic.
I have already added this idea my Christmas to-do calendar. Right now I have it planned for Wednesday nights during advent, but that is subject to change, obviously.
I will need to try some of the recipes in advance and plan to do that sometime in the spring. We are planning a trip at the end of the month through mid-April and I don't want to buy any unusual ingredients before we leave. (Translation: I plan on doing the minimum cooking until we leave and just don't want to be bothered doing anything out of the ordinary.)
I did get all of my Dickens Village houses packed neatly and safely away. I have 14 houses and to keep all the boxes they came in takes up too much space. Instead I keep them in a huge storage bin all wrapped snugly in thick fleece, then I use the same fleece to fill in any gaps so there is no movement or shifting. I had taken them down long ago but had just moved them and not carefully packed them away. Now they are happy and if the container gets bumped in the room of chaos I so fondly call the decoration closet room, there is no longer any worry of them breaking.
Wrapping and securing the wrappings with rubber bands does not take very long at all. It's fitting them in the container like a jigsaw puzzle that takes a while. But now it is done and one more item is crossed off the list. Just don't ask what else was done to the room or closet because the answer might possibly be nothing. I am a master at avoidance.
Other than reading a few newly found on the library app Christmas magazines and listing a few ideas I might like to use next Christmas, I did nothing.
I had said I was going to read one Christmas book a month and found some through my library app, but it is too early to request them since I plan on reading during the trip.
And that all I have. Now I begin the 41st week before Christmas with no plans other than avoiding the room of terror another week.
Ho, Ho, Ho or Ho, Ho, Hum; your choice!
Anne
That reminds me I have not seen my Christmas houses since Dec 2018. I do keep them in their original boxes. I had a huge empty room where I stored them. I kept a cheap one out to paint for a Halloween house.
ReplyDeleteYears ago I bought some plaster houses from Dollar Gen or The Dollar Tree (don't remember which) and painted some for Halloween and some for Easter. I gave all the Easter ones away last year. I have no idea where the Halloween ones are or if I even still have them.
DeleteI'd be very curious to see a few Nigerian Christmas recipes!!!!
ReplyDeleteThey are rice based with meats, or soups, plus a beverage I had never thought of, watermelon juice. Several ingredients are things I have never heard of, but looked them up and think I can find a decent substitution locally.
DeleteI have thought before about doing international nights, but never thought about doing them around Christmas. Sounds like fun, but a lot of work during a busy season. But you have so cleverly started prep a year in advance, so I look forward to hearing about your events. :)
ReplyDeleteTrust me, when I do them they will not be blow out recipes. I will probably pick one thing that requires more work but can be made ahead of time. For the other meal items I will choose simpler recipes.
DeleteIt will force me to be intentional about having dinner guests throughout the holiday season.
I lost track of how many bins the boxes of Christmas houses take up, but way too many but I know I'd break too many if not put in their original boxes. I think I have 11 buildings, plus large Central Park tree, and a bridge, so not quite what you have. Well done finding a way to store and protect them in less space.
ReplyDeleteMine were taking an entire wall of a large closet si I felt the need to do something different. A few years ago I found some very thick fleece during a summer sale that was dirt cheap. It is seriously ugly fleece but the houses don't care what they are wrapped in. I. only wish I had bought more then 4 yards.
DeleteI'm loving the Christmas countdown! I wish I still had my tree up - I would decorate it for St. Pat's day.
ReplyDeleteI am going to pull the living room tree out of storage before long. One of the magazines I looked through had a decorated gold tree. My living room tree is very formal and I use gold, silver and copper ornaments. I don't want a gold tree, but I was thinking I might use a dry brush paint technique and brush the tips of the branches with copper. I will test a portion and if I hate it, it will become the part of the tree facing the wall.
DeleteI love thinking of Christmas year round. But I have two Christmas pieces sitting in my kitchen counter, still waiting to go back to storage. Lol maybe I should just keep them out at this point!
ReplyDeleteOne year when our sons were younger and I had done everything toward Christmas except for actually purchasing and wrapping the gifts TheHub gave to me, then doing everything to take all remnants of Christmas down and put away except for the living room tree itself (I had taken the others completely down and stored them in the basement) I asked TheHub to bag it and take it to the basement.
DeleteA month went by, then 2, then 3 . . . until one day in September he said it needed to come down? I guess he had not noticed I had decorated it for every holiday. Anyway I told him in not so polite language a big fat NO!
It stayed up until New Years Eve, but I never had to ask him to take it down more than once again. No matter how many trees I decorate they are taken out the minute I get all the decorations off them.
I love your idea of a weekly international dinner! Better than EPCOT Orlando ... and far less walking!
ReplyDeleteI think it will be a fun thing to try, of course I might be setting myself up for failure too
DeleteYour Christmas plans sound amazing....and way more work than I'd ever be willing to do. Yep, I'm lazy!
ReplyDeleteAs for Christmas versus planting seeds, I'm on the side of being out in the garden too.
So far this week I have done no Christmas planning, nor planting. Laziness personified here
Delete"I have 14 houses"
ReplyDeleteI opened your post and for some reason this line jumped out at me before I'd read anything. Who is this? Oprah?
😀
Even if some gigantic ship came in and I had all the money in the world, I would not like 14 houses. I only currently have 1 house and have a room of terror in it. If I had 14 I am sure I would have 14 terror rooms.
DeleteTaking care of the 14 Dickens houses is hard enough!
The room of terror, I like that!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like some monster came in and threw up holiday crap everywhere.
DeleteI am enjoying reading your year long Christmas preparations. You will be the most prepared person when Christmas comes. I used to buy gifts for the following year during the after Christmas sales, but, I seem to have stopped doing that.
ReplyDeleteWow, you are making great progress. I have yet to get much done for us. I need to work on it soon. I do have a recipe to try, but just have not had any time to do it.
ReplyDelete