HGP 2014, week 2 Living Room/Question Week

[HouseElf]

By Cynthia Ewer, Author of
Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Organized


Week Two? It's all about questions during Question Week in the Holiday Grand Plan.

During this week, we'll continue making lists and planning our holiday.

We'll get in touch with our values through important questions.

In the cleaning component, we tackle the living room, decluttering and deep-cleaning to prepare for holiday entertaining.

Ready? Let's get organized with the Holiday Grand Plan!


Cleaning/Organizing Area:

Living Room



Holiday Prep:

• Buy extra flour, sugar, shortening, etc.
• Make one extra meal for the freezer labeled HOLIDAY MEAL. This should be large enough to feed the family plus two people.

(Find recipes and ideas for freezer cooking at OrganizedHome.Com's Freezer Cooking Guide.)

Browse Week:

• Develop ideas for gifts, decorations.
• Order Christmas cards and address labels.
• For your friends of other religions take the time to find out what their major holiday is and look for an appropriate card to send to them at that time.
• Divide gift responsibilities with other family members.

Ask these questions:

1. Do I see Christmas time primarily as a time for entertaining friends and renewing long lost acquaintances or as a time for family?
2. How much emphasis do our Christmas activities place on the spiritual side of Christmas?
3. How involved is my family in the Christmas preparation?
4. What activities are particularly important to our family at Christmas? To myself?
5. Why do we observe the traditions we do in our house?
6. How important is an elaborately decorated house, homemade gifts or food, to my feelings about Christmas?
7. What would my ideal Christmas be like?

 

[HouseElf]

We have a small living room/ parlour - completed most takes for cleaning this space today. Just need to get the steam cleaner out and do the chairs and cushions!

For my freezer meal, I am prepping heads of cauliflower, and tomatoes for winter soups and Chili this afternoon. Will place in freezer bags and just pop into slow cooker before work as the holidays approach.

Divided the boys gift list, DH will purchase and help wrap the electronics and games - my job will be to stuff stockings and purchase pj's. I will pick out the cards and address, Jim will insert gift cards for nieces and nephews - signing as he goes we have put down a date of November 28 on the calendar to mail.

Made a list of people that will want updated photos of the boys, and put those numbers down to carry over (picture day is this Friday) - we also set a date for a family photo with pup for Thanksgiving weekend.

Had created a list of flours and ingredients needed for holiday baking, and will keep an eye on prices for sales.

So far things are going well!

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

Gosh Tam you are on a roll.
I did my loungeroom last week and was going to start the porches this week, but, you guessed it it is raining. Maybe I don't need the porches done.
I will work on the dining room today and see how I go.

I have created a baking list and one for special foods, and have divided that between my grocery lists. I have looked through my address book and revised any addresses, so I think I am good to go when it comes time to write Christmas cards.

I think I am in pretty good shape so far.

 

[AuntJamelle]

Well, I'm probably going to focus more on Holiday Prep than cleaning again this week as we are still in apartment and will hopefully be moving well before Christmas.

I think I will vacuum under couch cushions and get all the toys from underneath/behind couch though! We're living so minimally in apartment there is not much clutter and not even much to dust!

Holiday Prep Tasks:

[ ] Decorate for Fall - Not much I can do here as apartment/4 year old doesn't lend itself to much decor. I think the main thing will be to swap out the one candle I have a place for - goodbye lemon pound cake - hello pumpkin!

[/] Buy extra flour/sugar/items from Master Holiday Grocery List - I did buy several items from long term section of master grocery list this weekend and will do the same this coming weekend.

Got another frozen 5lb chicken, tomato sauce, tomato paste, jumbo pasta shells, etc.

[X] Make one extra meal for the freezer - In order to use groceries I had on hand I made things from the Appetizer section of my Master Make Ahead Meals list for this holiday season

- Sausage Bread
- Pepperoni Bread
- PW Cheddar Puffs

[ ] Divide remaining gifts into 8 groups - plan when to buy each group...Still working on this task...

[ ] Designate a Christmas 2014 receipts folder/location - I spotted a manila envelope I can use for this - but need to label it and figure out best place to keep it. Or maybe that is too big and I'll figure out something I can keep in purse instead...

[X] Begin purchasing stocking stuffers, 1-2 per weekly trip to grocery store that carries these types of items - Bought one of those echo microphones for DS stocking

[/] Develop ideas for any remaining gifts/decorations - In progress

[ ] Order address labels - There are usually deals on these every year that surface on the deals blogs I follow. Think I will setup a auto reminder on my calendar to prompt me to keep checking for now...

[ ] Decide on Christmas photo "theme" for DS and make list of steps needed for photo shoot

I'm also continuing to push as hard as I can on things I am crafting for gifts, stocking stuffers, etc.

 

[Winged One]

I AM doing a lot of questioning this week alright.

But I am swopping the entryway for living room, as I have given myself a bad cut on my finger so cleaning is off the agenda but hall etc are practically done. I am taking the 2 days doc signed me off, though, and looking after myself for a change.

Back to work tomorrow though.

 

[DawnSu]

My living room is almost finished. As I sniff & cough. I will finish with curtains & windows. Then off to my garage sale items. I didn't get to have it last weekend. So am planning this weekend.

 

[kakelady]

I'm SOOO late.. I'm gonna end up doing a combo again this year... Bought the house that we have lived in for 10 years, and started remodeling... backwards. First we bought new furniture.. now we are redoing all the reno on the house... now throw on Christmas prep :/ Eeek! But I'm having FUN!!!! BTW we bought the furniture before we knew we were buying the house.
But we are in the middle of refinishing the kitchen cabinets, and most of the kitchen is living in the living room
And for my Anniversary Hubz got me a compound miter saw.. My house is in trouble.. But that opens up a whole realm of things for my Christmas list. But it also makes my weekly lists longer of stuff to do before Christmas.. Must remember, there's always next year

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

Kakelady, I like that your kitchen is in your loungeroom. I am sure it makes food prep very interesting.

 

[AuntJamelle]

I've spent some time planning my next couple of "waves" of freezer cooking, making sure I add the necessary ingredients to that weeks grocery list.

This weekend I'll be making...

Chicken Pie with Corn Bread Topping (1 for freezer 1 for our dinner that night)
Veggie Pasta Shells
Carrot Cake Cookie Dough
PW Cheddar Puffs (another batch)
PW Fluffy New Potatoes (some to eat and some to freeze)
Sausage Bread (1)
Ham and Cheese Bread (1)
Chicken Bacon Ranch Bread (1)

The breads are super easy since I just get a package of 3 frozen loaves of bread dough, thaw it, stretch it out and fill it with ingredients before rolling back up and freezing again.

I may not get through all of these this weekend, but if I break it up over the two days I should get through most of it.

The following weekend I plan to make lasagna and manicotti, once again planning to make some lasagna for our dinner one weekend night and freezing the rest.

 

[Cathymac2]

I have decided to wait until after the wedding I am coordinating next Saturday to do any cleaning. Several things have happened to upset the apple cart anyway. We ended up getting new to us bedroom furniture for the boys' room. However since the bed was a king and their room is not, we switched beds with them. So....lots of cleaning was done in two bedrooms as a result. So I swapped weeks!

I am working on the questions, however. I find the answers have changed very little over the years!

 

[AuntJamelle]

How fun on the new furniture, Cathymac2! All the cleaning is less fun, I'm sure!

I managed to get a batch of PW Fluffy New Potatoes in the freezer by yesterday afternoon and am just getting started on a freezer cooking session this morning - chicken is boiling as we speak!

 

[HouseElf]

It's a great fall day here - went from being to hot and muggy, to wow fall!

I have a running list of needed items for the house (like a basket for under the living room end table for blankets, a lamp for the dining room sideboard...) and a 'honey-do' list stuck to the fridge. Stuff is going to get done!

Thinking I may replace my curtains with insulated drapes, the winters are so cold here and it does not look like a nice one coming! Love snow, but the bitter damp cold of last winter has me reaching for was to keep it out and the warmth in!

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

Tam, I think you have to do what ever you can to keep the house warm. Insulated drapes are a good way. Also door sausages to stop draughts help. I like your idea of the baskets for the blankets, sounds cosy.