When to take down your Christmas tree is a very personal decision. Bringing it up in mixed company (me and my husband Roger,) is sure to bring up “issues” in our marriage. (Suffice to say; before we were married, my tree was down on December 26th. WE now leave it up until New Year’s Day. Sigh.)
So I’m going to leave it up to each household as to when “undecorating” is done. I just want you to have the “stuff” ready to go when you do want to pack it all away.
Project #1 Put Away the Paper
Today’s task is to put away all the paper-related parts of the holiday.
Wrap it Up I am a box and ribbon saver. So sue me. I feel that I’m helping the environment, and have a secret thrill to see how many times I can use the fluffy Santa bag before it looks trashy. The key to being able to reuse each year is packing them up well. Before you destroy those great sturdy boxes that all your presents were shipped in, keep the best of them to store your Christmas boxes, wrap, bags, tissue and ribbon. I’ve even created some cute labels for you to print out and put on your boxes to make them easy to find next December. Go to my Facebook Author page at http://www.facebook.com/kathilipp.author to download the free labels. You’ll thank me next year.
Leave Notes to Your Future Self If you’ve purchased your Christmas cards this year (50% off!) for next year, put their exact location on your calendar (wall calendar, Outlook, Google Calendar, etc.) so you don’t forget and then have to go buy more December 15th – only to find them on the 20th…
I put a note on my calendar for October 1 that reads, “Don’t buy any Christmas Wrapping – You Have ENOUGH!!!)
3. Update Your Christmas Card List NOW! While you know where all those envelopes bearing return address are. Don’t wait – seize the after Christmas day!
So tell me where you fall on the wrapping paper scale in the comments below:
A. “I always run out about December 20th.”
B. “Everyone in my family could come and wrap their gifts for the next five years and I would still have paper left over to wrap gifts for the next couple of years…”
C. “Doesn’t matter. Every year I lay in a new supply on December 26th!”
Now go have fun!
Are you ready to be Clutter Free? Start the 21-Day Clutter Free challenge! Sign up now!
In January, I’m launching my new book: Clutter Free: Quick and Easy Steps to Simplifying Your Space and you could be a part of our launch team!
If you struggle with clutter, and want some practical and real ways to deal with it once and for all, I would love to consider you for the team. We will be starting great guns right after Christmas with a 21 Day project that launch team members will get a sneak peek at before the rest of the world – and of course, you’ll get the book ahead of publication as well.
We are looking for women who have some (not necessarily all) of the following:
An active presence on social media
A blog
A sphere of influence (part of a MOPS group, Lead a group, Women’s Ministry Leaders, etc.)
But here are a few things we are definitely looking for:
Women who struggle to keep their clutter under control
Willingness to share your feedback about the book on BN.com Amazon and other retail outlets
Participate in our 21 Days to Kicking Out Clutter in 2015
Reading though the book for quotes and ideas to highlight in social media
Share some before and after photos
Willingness to cheer others on!
Share ideas on how to spread the Clutter Free message.
If you are interested just take a moment to fill out the application below:
Yikes! It’s almost time to cook the holiday turkey!
Do you have turkey-phobia?
It can seem like a daunting task to make the perfect turkey, but I promise you, it isn’t. Try my turkey recipe and follow my instructions, and you’ll have a table full of guests licking their fingers and begging for more. But beware, this turkey is so good, there may not be any leftovers for turkey sandwiches.
In a large garbage bag, combine the all the ingredients.
Wash and dry your turkey. Make sure you have removed the innards. Place the turkey, breast down, into the brine. Make sure that the cavity gets filled. Place the bag in a roasting pan and in the refrigerator overnight, turning once.
Remove the turkey carefully draining off the excess brine and pat dry. Discard excess brine.
Cook the turkey as desired reserving the drippings for gravy. Keep in mind that brined turkeys cook 20 to 30 minutes faster so watch the temperature gauge.
Are you tired of feeling tied to your everyday way of living?
Are you trying to do something new in your life, but are scared to take the next step?
Boy, have I got something special for you today.
Today on Focus on the Family, my coauthor Cheri and I are talking with Jim Daly about the struggle each of us go through to fight perfectionism and live the life that God designed us to live.
And here is the the free download that we talked about – how to discover which of the four perfectionist bullies is beating you up and what to do about it:
Cheri gets real and honest about her struggles with perfectionism (talking about stuff even I didn’t know) and what it led her to. You won’t want to miss this powerful couple of days.
I have vanilla on my oatmeal every single morning. The problem? I can absolutely tell the difference between vanilla extract and imitation vanilla. And the real stuff? It’s not cheap. At our grocery store, the good stuff is $3 an ounce. Our family joke was that it would be cheaper for us to take a Baja cruise and get of in Ensanada to buy cheap vanilla than for me to get it at Costco.
So when I saw recipes floating around the web for homemade extract, I gave it a try. It is super easy (the hardest part is waiting the six weeks for the beans to masticate in the vodka.
Want to make this cheaper (and oh so delicious) version?
(This will open up the beans and let all the good “vanilla dust” soak into the vodka.)
2. Put the cut vanilla beans in the vodka bottle. Replace the lid and shake the bottle. Store the vodka bottle in a cool, dark place and shake the bottle once a week for the next six weeks.
Add a cute label. (Anything can be elevated with a cute label.) This is an Avery kit with all sorts of pre-designed labels. All you have to do is add your verbiage and you are good to go!
The world’s cutest gift. With a personalized label:
Lipp Private Reserve
Vanilla Extract
Bottled 2014
Delicious and about 10% of the cost of store bought vanilla.
I’ve given vanilla extract to all of my kids and they have all demanded refills!
Is it possible to avoid conflict during the Holidays? I think so!
But the time to start thinking about it is now – not when you start threatening your husband with a spontaneous trip to your moms house because you just can’t stand his mom anymore.
All of these strategies, (bathed in prayer and a whole lot of grace and some extra dark chocolate thrown in for good measure,) will help this be the most peaceful holiday season since the time you and your husband got snowed in and couldn’t travel to be with family.
Here are a few tips:
Have the conflict early. Most of the conflict that families experience is because we are trying to avoid conflict early on. We hope that things will “Just work out.” And that everyone will, “Just be cool.” If there is a hard conversation that needs to be had about how your father-in-law talks to your kids, or how much your adult daughter drinks at the family gathering, the time to have those hard conversations is November 5th – not November 27th.
Take the “Plans” approach. My stepdaughter, Amanda, just got engaged this week. We could not be more thrilled and it’s kind of hard to contain our excitement about planning. So when she called me to talk wedding plans, I said, “Hey, if you don’t want to get together and talk weddings, I totally understand. You’ve got a lot of people you’re trying to please.” Then she told me something that made my burst with pride. She said, “Actually, I’m doing the same thing you and dad do. I’m saying, ‘Here are the plans I’ve made. If you’re able to join us for ________, that’s great. If not, we totally understand.’ She said that it’s taken so much of the pressure off of trying to make everyone happy, and giving people a choice.
I love it. She is behaving in a totally healthy way, not giving her control over to other people, and not feeling like she needs to control others either.
Know the Rule of Three. In engineering, there is an old saying; “You can have it better, cheaper, and faster. Pick two out of three.” And it’s true. How could you have a product delivered with better quality, made cheaper, and ahead of schedule? It might be possible, but you’ll kill the engineer in the process.
Roger and I have adopted a similar motto for family celebrations; “You can celebrate on the right day, you can have the whole family together, or you can have people be happy about it. Pick two out of three.”
With blended families and in-law relationships (heck, even if your son is dating a girl!), holidays not only put stress on you and husband, but on your kids as well. They are charged with keeping loyalties, keeping the peace, and keeping things from blowing up.
We realized early on in our marriage that there were two things that were important: Having everyone together, and everyone being as happy (as possible) about it. The date? That really didn’t matter to either of us. Often, we celebrate on a different date. We are having Thanksgiving on the actual day this year, but we are celebrating Christmas on the 26th when all the kids can be here. On the 25th? Church and then jammies all day.
Budget. If money is one of the biggest stressors, then the weeks leading up to Christmas are the Hot Zone times on the calendar for conflict. Come up with your budget now so that everyone’s expectations will line up.
Ask. Ask your family what traditions are important, and which ones have run their course. All the kids love the Starbucks and Christmas light night, but are over the matching pajamas on Christmas morning? Kill the PJs and keep the lights.
When to take down your Christmas tree is a very personal decision. Bringing it up in mixed company (me and my husband Roger,) is sure to bring up “issues” in our marriage. (Suffice to say; before we were married, my tree was down on December 26th. WE now leave it up until New Year’s Day. Sigh.)
Today’s task is to put away all the paper-related parts of the holiday.
1. Cut the beans lengthwise down the middle.
2. Put the cut vanilla beans in the vodka bottle. Replace the lid and shake the bottle. Store the vodka bottle in a cool, dark place and shake the bottle once a week for the next six weeks.
If giving as gifts, you can order 
Add a cute label. (Anything can be elevated with a cute label.) This is an Avery kit with all sorts of pre-designed labels. All you have to do is add your verbiage and you are good to go!
The world’s cutest gift. With a personalized label:
