HGP 2015 - Week 7 - Guest Rooms

[HouseElf]

Guest rooms ready for holiday guests? They will be, after we tackle them during Week Seven of the Holiday Grand Plan: Guest Room Week!

This week, we deep-clean, organize and prepare for overnight guests.

In holiday prep, we keep plugging away on gifts, whether to-make or to-buy. Decor alert: Halloween is coming!

Ready? Let's get organized with Guest Room Week in the Holiday Grand Plan!

 

[HouseElf]

Even though I do not have a room dedicated to guests, it's a great idea to prepare for planned guests and for the unexpected overnights during the holidays or throughout the winter (stranded friends family or neighbours - winter power outages, ice storms...).

In Canada we have our Thanksgiving before Halloween (tomorrow is our Thanksgiving!) My decor is simple harvest, straw bales (that after Halloween mulch my garden) - corn stalks, grain wreath on door, mums and a scarecrow with pumpkins. These could easily be left up for Halloween; just carve those pumpkins into jack o'lanterns!

Roasted our Pie pumpkins, and pureed. 6 cups of pumpkin for pumpkin coffee cake, pumpkin bread pudding, and pumpkin pie/custards.

All my side dishes are done for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner , and the stuffing is cooling - will stuff the turkey tomorrow before we put it in the oven to roast. Wonderful fall weekend here!

 

[CheeryChick]

Wishing a very happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian friends!

 

[AuntJamelle]

Yes happy Thanksgiving to our friends "up north"!

I will be using this week as a Catch Up week as we don't have a guest room setup right now. Eventually either the front playroom or one of the downstairs bedrooms will be turned into a guest room, but not this year!!!

Apple picking/canning consumed my weekend so I still have the majority of my list for DS room to tackle still! So much to do, so little time! And I still have a decent amount of apples left to can!

But we now have a supply of applesauce that should last 2 years! And I did a batch of cinnamon spiced chunky apple butter too - yum!

 

[CheeryChick]

This week I'm planning to get caught up on my leftover tasks from last week (Week 6) and jump into everything for Week 7.

Week 6 (Doing our exercise room and laundry room)
[ ] Restock all laundry and cleaning supplies.
[ ] Vacuum or mop floors in both rooms.
[ ] Wash and polish laundry room cabinets.
[ ] Dust above laundry room cabinets.
[ ] Organize books on library shelves and remove any clutter.
[ ] Wipe down washer and dryer.
[ ] Clean under dryer (remove any lint).
[ ] Wash windows.
[ ] Wash ceiling fan and globes for lights; replace any burnt-out lights. **Upstairs hallway!

Week 7 Guest Room
[X] Wash windows.
[X] Vacuum and dust.
[X] Wash bed linens.
[X] Add warm blankets to the bed. **I need to plug in the heating blanket and mattress pad.
[X] Wash pillows.
[X] Remove clutter.
[X] Wash ceiling fan and globes for lights; replace any burnt-out lights.
[X] Decorate for the season.
[ ] Make a "goody basket" for the guest bathroom.
[ ] Deep clean guest bathroom.

[X] Buy two canned food items from the Thanksgiving menu. **Picked up boxed turkey dressing (DH prefers this to the traditional stuffing as he has special dietary needs -- but I do make the traditional stuffing, too), and the pineapple and cherries for the ham (I do an "old-fashioned" ham with a bourbon glaze...it's divine).

[X] Make a holiday meal for the freezer. **Yesterday, I made three pans of enchiladas and three 1-pound bags of pre-cooked lean ground beef, two bags of Mississippi Chicken, and one bag of Garlic Parmesan Chicken. I think I'm caught up on the "stock the freezer" chores!
[ ] Make one batch of holiday goodies.

 

[AuntJamelle]

That ham looks AMAZING!!!

Not much progress to report here unfortunately! I did get a batch of Peanut Butter White Chocolate Oatmeal cookies in the freezer, but no cleaning yet.

Spent my day off yesterday deep cleaning our RV in prep for the Halloween camping trip. Got everything cleaned but the big job of shampooing the furniture and carpet - that will have to be another day!

Freezer cooking planned for Saturday + food prep for party we are going to that night.

 

[CheeryChick]

The ham recipe is one of my most-favorite Pinterest finds, Bourbon Baked Ham. We did it last year for the first time and it was a HIT. While the recipe calls for a spiral ham, I just double the glaze recipe and put it over a large baking ham. I slice the top into 1.5" diagonal squares, sort of like this.

Then I attach the pineapple rings and maraschino cherries with toothpicks. I do the center rows first and then the ends. The ham is baked in a countertop roasting pan and I use a turkey baster (I have two, one for the turkey and one for the ham) to baste it once in awhile with the glaze. I actually put it into the roaster before I do the pineapple and cherries because it's just easier.

 

[luludou]

I do the same thing you do CC for the ham except I don't slice it but it is delicious!

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

That ham is making my mouth water, looks amazing.

Not much done here this week, real life decided to show up. It is about this time every year that I fall off the cleaning wagon, but I am determined this year to just keep plugging along and get what I can done.

 

[HouseElf]

Thanksgiving was wonderful! Perfect fall weather the entire weekend.
Made a good dent on fall chores and finished plans for winter guests.

I emptied my food bank box, and started a new one for Christmas.

 

[AuntJamelle]

Glad to hear that Tam!!!

I did finally get a significant amount of catch up work done in DS room! Cleaned the fan, window, put seldom used toys in storage, organized the rest! Got last of summer clothes in storage and organized the rest in both closet and dresser!

Should be set now in his room!

 

[Cindylouwho]

That ham looks AMAZING!!!

I did get a batch of Peanut Butter White Chocolate Oatmeal cookies in the freezer....

I'll be right over!