by kathilipp | Nov 30, 2012 | Christmas, Home |
You have a tab in your Holiday Binder for your family favorite recipes. Now is the time to fill up that tab with the traditional recipes your family love.
Each of our kids has a favorite food that they confirm in advance will be prepared by me or my hubby. Here is just a partial list of what is on the must list:
- cranberry no-bake cheesecake
- pumpkin no-bake cheesecake
- artichoke dip
- bruchetta
- broccoli casserole
- ratatouille
- drunken turkey (turkey brined in white wine and spices)
In year’s past I’ve spent a lot of time and energy going through various cookbooks, computer searches and junk drawer layers looking for all these recipes – but no more! This year they were all sitting in the Holiday Binder just where they were supposed to be.
The other wonderful thing about having all your recipes together is that when your kids start to want to bring your family recipes to their future in-law’s homes, you can copy everything at once.
OK -now it’s your turn. Tell me what is the one recipe your family would boycott Christmas without. (I love to hear other people’s favorite foods, especially if they’re weird.)
by kathilipp | Nov 29, 2012 | Christmas, Home |
Hey girls – can you believe that you are ten days in? If no one else is saying it, I’m really, really proud of you. I love that so many of you are posting the benefits that you are already enjoying:
- Feeling ahead for this year
- Feeling ahead for next year
- Knowing what you are going to get each person on your list
- A feeling of accomplishment
Here are just a few of the comments that I’m hearing:
“Thanks for helping me keep it simple, Kathi. Doing photo Christmas cards for the first time ever and they are done and ready to go. I am smiling and ready to start sending…:)” Catha
“It’s so fun to get out of bed this week and see what I get to do today to get ready for Christmas!” Renee
Y’all have made my season – I love that you are encouraging me, as I try to encourage you. I am way ahead this year and a LOT of it is due to you.
OK – enough of the love in. Time to get to today’s project. Simple: Gather your stuff.
Originally this project was going to be “Buy your stuff”, but I know that all of us probably have enough gift wrap, tags and ribbon to supply Santa’s workshop. Problem is, most of us find it December 26th.
So dig through your basement, garage, spare closet or under the bed and gather together:
- wrapping paper
- ribbon
- tissue paper
- tags, etc.
- Scotch tape
- scissors
Get all this stuff in one place so that when you have to go into elf mode you’re not running all over the house.
This would be the time to also purchase anything that you are short on (I end up buying tape every single year.)
I would love to see what you do to make your wrapping special or how you save money on wrapping for Christmas. Send me a picture of your how you make your packages special, and if I feature your pic on the blog, I will send you one of my books as a thank you! Send the pics to info@kathilipp.com
by kathilipp | Nov 28, 2012 | Christmas, Home |
My life was so simple. Then I married Roger.
You see, my whole family lives within a two hour drive of my home. We get together for holidays and exchange gifts like the Norman Rockwell painting says we are supposed to do.
Then I had to marry a southern boy.
When Roger was looking for his first grown-up job, as a senior at Purdue University, he told God his requirements. “God, I will go anywhere except California.” Yeah. That’s a good idea. Tell God what you won’t do.
So twenty-five years ago Roger got a job in Cupertino with HP and he has been a California boy ever since.
The only problem is that he left a whole family who all live in Georgia, and who all celebrate Christmas. And somehow, each year I forget that their gifts require an extra step or two.
So today, your project is to get your plan together for any out of town gifts. There are three approaches you can take:
- Order all your gifts online and have them shipped from the company.
- Buy gifts and ship them out from home.
- Make sure you’ve married a local boy or stop talking to out of state relatives and friends.
Let me know what approach you subscribe to, as well as any tips you have for gift giving for out of towners. I would love some fresh thoughts about what to do for my mother-in-law.
And here is a great suggestion from reader Kim Ward: “Kathi, with our family far away we use Wishlist.com to help organize our giving. The girls were asking each set of Grandparents for the Thing Most Wanted and that resulted in duplicate items that needed to be exchanged and sore feelings for Grandparents not getting the crazy reaction they were hoping for. Wishlist.com allows you to post ideas from any website easily or create your own manually. Then family can select what they like, ‘reserve’ it and link to the item to buy it immediately if you want. It will also send you an e-mail reminder of what you’ve reserved.”
Later in the projects, my husband Roger – the shipping guru (if you’ve ever ordered something from our store, he’s probably the one who sen it,) will be sharing all of his mailing tips for getting those gifts to Grandmother’s house.
by kathilipp | Nov 27, 2012 | Christmas, Home |
Today is a day to get caught up on a Project you haven’t had time to complete or get started on something that needs to be done. So if you need to finish up ordering Christmas cards, creating your binder, or some other previous Project, here is your guilt-free chance to get it done. If you are all caught up, here are a few ways to spend your time:
- Pull out your gift wrap from last Christmas
- Address Christmas cards
- Wrap gifts
- Clear your space for your tree and decorations
- Decorate
You can do it. I’m so proud of you!
by kathilipp | Nov 26, 2012 | Christmas, Home |
by kathilipp | Nov 25, 2012 | Christmas, Home |
Yes – we sprinkle these “Ketchup” Days throughout The Christmas Project sot that you can get to those things that either took more time to complete, or maybe, you had other things going on that day. It happens. The is a project for real people.
Oh – and a bonus, on the tabs of my Facebook Page there are a ton of free downloads, including today’s goody: 21 Ways to Connect with Your Kids Indoors
(You’ll be happy to have that list the first time your kids – or grandkids – say “I’m bored…”)
If you’ve missed any of the Projects, here are the links to all of them so far:
Project #1 Create Your Holiday Mission Statement
Project #2 Put Your Christmas Binder Together
Project #3 Pick Your Photo for Your Holiday Cards
Project #4 Get Your Christmas Card List Together
Project #5 Make Your Plans for the Next Few Weeks
Project #6 Get Your Christmas Gift List Together
