2022 - HHP - Week 16 - Nearly There

[Holiday_Mom]

Week 1 - Planning and Paperwork
Week 2 - Calendar and Creativity
Week 3 - Me & Mine
Week 4 - Close to Home
Week 5 - House Room
Week 6 - Wardrobe
Week 7 - Bed & Bath
Week 8 - Family Space
Week 9 - Public Space
Week 10 - Cooking Space
Week 11 - Food Storage
Week 12 - Dining Space
Week 13 - Entryway
Week 14 - Storage
Week 15 - Final Clean
Week 16 - Nearly There
Week 17 - Celebration
Week 18 - New Year’s

This Week's Focus: Nearly There
With the season nearly upon us, it's time to rely on minimum maintenance to keep the house up to snuff during busy times.

This Week's Household Checklist

• Make a minimum maintenance plan. It's the organized solution for busy times: a rock-bottom chore checklist of must-do household chores. Does your household have one? Create a minimum maintenance checklist and post it publicly.
• Delegate chores to family members. Encourage family members to pitch in and share the work. Delegate, delegate, delegate--to keep a clean and organized home throughout the Christmas season and around the year.

This Week's Holiday Prep Checklist

• Decorate and wrap baked goods. Finish holiday baking this week. Ice the sugar cookies, assemble the goodie trays and wrap for giving. Stowed away in the freezer, they're a quick solution to the "emergency gift" problem.
• Record a special holiday message for the answering machine. Whether you sing a carol as a family, or record a message from "Santa", share the season with callers with a custom message!
• Start or add to an ornament journal. Many families give children collections of holiday ornaments; add meaning to the gift with a simple journal page recording who-what-where of each ornament.
• Make a Christmas morning basket. Think ahead: what will you need when opening gifts on Christmas morning? Include a notepad, pen, scissors, box cutter and plastic garbage bags. Throw in a pair of pliers and some wire cutters to release those pesky over-packaged toys. Set aside in a pretty basket to cut chaos on Christmas morning.
• Help children write letters to Santa. (And keep them! Misspellings and all, you'll treasure them in later years).
• Start a holiday journal. A simple holiday journal page in your Christmas planner can mean the difference between a memory treasured and a memory lost. Record the season's high points as they happen!

What are you planning this week?

 

[Holiday_Mom]

It's another busy week with Christmas concert preparations Monday-Wednesday and then the concert on Thursday. I'll be using any time I can find to work on things this week.

This Week's Household Checklist

• Keep up with household cleaning.

This Week's Holiday Prep Checklist

• Bake cookies and decorate them.
• Make ornaments.
• Prep gifts for service people.
• Finish wrapping work gifts for Tuesday.
• Send out Christmas Cards.

 

[happy2bme]

HOUSEHOLD CHECKLIST:
make minimum maintenance plan - done

HOLIDAY PREP CHECKLIST:
finish baking - done
purchase large gift bag - done
get gifts ready for massage therapist & hairdresser - done

 

[Cindylouwho]

Quick update -
Living room is painted as of 2 days ago. Kid 1 flew in that night. Tree and lights just went up. Tree decor eating for Kid 2 who flies in tonight. Most gifts are purchased. Scrambling for last minute groceries and smaller things cuz snow is going to shut us down starting Sunday. I've already lost a week earlier this month due to snow. What a weird year this is! But I'm calm. Back later to see how the rest of you are doing. Good luck all!!

 

[Holiday_Mom]

It really helps having Christmas on Sunday this year. I keep thinking I have less time than I do. I am peaceful with where I am and what I have left to do. As I'm writing a bunch of things are coming to mind that I better write here before I forget:

Still to do:

• Some gifts ordered a few weeks ago are still sitting in facilities waiting to be picked up by the post office. I got a notification that another gift that was back ordered was being prepped to send today. Those gifts will be wrapped when they arrive.
• There are some gifts that I picked up last week that I haven't had a chance to wrap that need to be done.
• I have a gift bag for a co-worker that needs to be dropped off. I need to plan a day and time to do that.
• A cemetery visit was promised. I need to plan a day and time for that too.
• I need to prep the cookie tray and gift bags for the Saturday Christmas party.
• There is talk about a possible snow storm on the East Coast at the end of next week. I will be paying attention to that. If that is the case, then I need to
  • review recipes for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day,
  • double check on ingredients
  • buy the ingredients early in the week.

By this point of the month, I tend to focus on me and what I want to get done for me. This has helped me immensely with dealing with feelings of resentment of doing for others all the time.

• I need to finish up the cards this weekend.
• I have fresh greens from our yard that I'd like to get arranged.
• There are two baked goods that I would like to do yet. If not this weekend, then during the week they'll get done. They are favorites of mine and also time consuming, but they make me happy.

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Scrambling for last minute groceries and smaller things cuz snow is going to shut us down starting Sunday.

I think we may be dealing with that same scenario next Thursday/Friday. I'm really going have to sit down and plan out next week.

 

[Cindylouwho]

.........It really helps having Christmas on Sunday this year. I keep thinking I have less time than I do. I am peaceful with where I am and what I have left to do. .....


.........By this point of the month, I tend to focus on me and what I want to get done for me. This has helped me immensely with dealing with feelings of resentment of doing for others all the time. .......

I'm on a similar train of thought .... glad Christmas is on Sunday, it is giving me a bit of cushion. Also agree with your comment on self-care. I have learned to take care of "me" too rather than trusting others to do it for me. I think doing that allows me to be a calmer and better person.