2023 - HHP - Week 16 - Nearly There

[Holiday_Mom]

We are just about there! One week from today is Christmas Eve!

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

We're nearly there: it's Nearly There Week at the House and Holidays Plan! Christmas parties, cooking and a growing sense of excitement mark these days before Christmas.

Around the house, only minimum maintenance is needed this week.

The week's holiday prep checklist includes the last few chores to get ready for the big day.

Are you ready? Welcome to a clean and organized home for the holiday season!

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 doing this week?

 

[Holiday_Mom]

I have a lot of loose ends to tie up this week.

Household ​

• Do a final pre-holiday whole-house clean.
• Make a minimum maintenance plan.
• Delegate chores to family members.

Holiday Prep ​

• Make cookies.
• Make stollen
• Start or add to an ornament journal.
• Start a holiday journal.
• Wrap gifts.

Still to do

• Eat from the freezer.
• Finalize Christmas menus.
• Update address book.

 

[luludou]

We are going to dd's so pack and bring a folding table, wine, champagne (have a bottle here since last Christmas was a gift), tourtière, desserts. Dh will make a pea soup on Friday to take there. blow up mattress, pillows.
Prep gift cards for dd & ds since they did not give me any ideas they are getting money to get whatever they want.
General clean up.
And working until Thursday at 4:00.

 

[Cindylouwho]

It's coming together!

HOUSE:

• Maintain the house -- asking everyone to pick up something daily as they go through the house.
• The outside Xmas Lights are still on the ground where DH left them mid-project.. It's really just a small tree. Need a new plan for this next year. I think it bothers me more to have it unfinished than if it hadn't been started?

HOLIDAY:

• Gifts --Shopping done. Wrapping underway. Might need a couple more stuffers. Is everyone as shocked as I am as to the cost of a candy bar these days? Just incredible!
• Cookie doughs started. Dried mixes measured and placed in ziploc bags ready to go.
• Last minute schedule re-arranging going on to make it all work.
• DS flies in this week. Yay!

OTHER PROJECT:

• I have another less pleasant written project going on (too complicated to detail here) that I'm working on. It is due by the end of the year so I'm working on it now. I have a YouTube Christmas fire going on in front of me and it is very pleasant. So I'm going to focus and try to get this done in front of my little white winter wonderland fire as I'm squirreled away in my room so I can focus. (So what do I do? I log in here!) . But now seriously I need to get things done! Hope everyone is on track!

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Things are getting done! Christmas stollen and cookies are baked. Cookies just need to be iced.

Christmas Eve dinner plans and Christmas dinner plans have evolved over the week. Dh and I will host our children and dd4's boyfriend for Christmas Eve. Christmas dinner will be at my parent's house. We will bring the ham, drinks and dessert. We have the food in order but I will need to run out on Saturday morning for produce.

Almost all gifts are wrapped. I have one more that I'm still working on. There has been a slight change in Christmas Day plans and I want to get some more gift shopping done. Originally, we were just going to see my parents over Christmas but now two of my brother's and their family will be there. I'm not sure what gifts I want to pick up yet. In the past, I've bought gifts thinking I'd see them but never did and then the gifts sat there wrapped until either Easter or the summer.

Is everyone as shocked as I am as to the cost of a candy bar these days? Just incredible!

Yes! Dh asked our dd to pick up a small bag of Lindt chocolates. Last time I remember they were about $4. Now they are $7.50. The bag has 12 pieces of candy. Hershey Kisses are $5.29 for a regular size bag at the grocery store. However, at Walmart and Aldi, the same exact bag is $3.96. Guess where we're getting chocolate if we want it? Soda is another item that is gone up in price real crazy. We like to have some on hand for guests. A 12 pack retails for $9.50! We found a grocery store selling it with their digital coupon for $4 a 12 pack.

 

[happy2bme]

I have been down this week with the flu, haven't had it in 12 years. Had to go to the ER last night, it was so bad. I'm very thankful for this plan because being sick didn't set me back at all as I had just about everything done and ready for Christmas.
Only a small amount of baking got done so far and that is ok, we can do more if we want for New Year's.

The only task to work on is making a minimum maintenance plan.

 

[luludou]

Mel get well soon, I don't reply much on FB because everyone can see but I am sending you healing vibes and very glad Kelsey is there to help you... I was sick like that last year and I felt the same... what we have already done with the plan is a godsend.

 

[Holiday_Mom]

I have been down this week with the flu, haven't had it in 12 years. Had to go to the ER last night, it was so bad. I'm very thankful for this plan because being sick didn't set me back at all as I had just about everything done and ready for Christmas.
Only a small amount of baking got done so far and that is ok, we can do more if we want for New Year's.

The only task to work on is making a minimum maintenance plan.

Oh no! I'm so sorry, Mel. I hope you feel better soon. It's good that you can just rest knowing that all the important stuff has been done.

I am on track with everything. Today we are working on house cleaning and making some last minute cookies we were just asked to bring for a dinner on Tuesday.

 

[Myron's Mom]

I have been down this week with the flu, haven't had it in 12 years. Had to go to the ER last night, it was so bad. I'm very thankful for this plan because being sick didn't set me back at all as I had just about everything done and ready for Christmas.
Only a small amount of baking got done so far and that is ok, we can do more if we want for New Year's.

The only task to work on is making a minimum maintenance plan.

I’m sorry to hear you are sick! Hope you are feeling better by the time you have your holiday celebration.

 

[Cindylouwho]

I have been down this week with the flu, haven't had it in 12 years. Had to go to the ER last night, it was so bad. I'm very thankful for this plan because being sick didn't set me back at all as I had just about everything done and ready for Christmas.
Only a small amount of baking got done so far and that is ok, we can do more if we want for New Year's.

The only task to work on is making a minimum maintenance plan.

Oh no! Sorry to hear that! I came down with a cold (not nearly as bad as the flu). I got run down and it's so easy to catch things with everyone coming in from afar. Ugh! I hope you are better soon. I'm over here thinking the same thing -- thank goodness for the Plan. I'm still on track. Our cookies aren't baked either. The dry mixes were prepped but we'll push them out to New Years. You must be exhausted. Last year we moved Christmas entirely to the following day so DD could finish her college paper. And it was wonderful! Allowed us to slow down. Kinda want to do it again!