HHP - 2018 - Week 12: Dining Space

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Holiday_Mom

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This Week's Household Checklist:

  • Clean/declutter the dining area. This will be fairly easy. I worked on this earlier in the plan. Done.
  • Work off Thanksgiving Week cleaning plan.
This Week's Holiday Prep Checklist:

  • Deliver the rest of the Thanksgiving gift bags. Done
  • Work off Thanksgiving Week Food Preparation plan

Still to do:

  • Keep working on gift list.
  • Make a shopping plan for Black Friday.
  • Clean out shelf to make room for Crock Pot. Done
 
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Lori K

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My goals for this week:
  • Swap out the dining room chair pads -- I've purchased new, but have not placed them and discarded the old ones. This will also involve thoroughly cleaning the chairs (rubber backing on old pads has dried and stuck to the wood) and checking to make sure all the chair joings are still glued tight.
  • Wash the crystal in the china cabinet, so it is ready for the holidays.
  • While the crystal is out of the hutch, clean the shelves and glass-front doors.
  • Eliminate clutter on the ledges between dining and kitchen, and at the stairwell to the lower level.
  • Floors.
  • I'm not hosting, but need to take a charcuterie tray to our family Thanksgiving. Need to double-check that I have everything I need on hand.
  • Begin thinking about Friday and Saturday plans for Black Friday shopping and beginning Christmas decor.
 
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Holiday_Mom

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Hi Lori, it's good to see you here. :)

The cleaning and food prep for Thanksgiving is coming along. I am so glad that I have a Thanksgiving specific plan. It's keeping me sane. I did my last trip to the grocery store for Thursday's meal earlier this evening. It was so nice and peaceful.

I am working on a shopping plan for Friday. I keep a lot of my lists online and use my phone to retrieve them when I'm out shopping. However, the phone has been acting up lately. It will turn on when it feels like it and not when I want it to go on. I think that I will print off my list and keep it with me on Friday in case the phone won't work when I'm out.
 

Cindylouwho

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Hi all!
I'm all in on the shopping this week. SOOOOOO surreal being in the mall yesterday. All the Black Friday deals are ON -- but while the mall had a regular crowd it was nowhere near Black Friday levels. So calm! It was like waking up early Christmas morning and seeing all the presents when no one else is up yet. I've gotten most of my shopping done at Black Friday prices before Black Friday even starts! So strange. I will do my Christmas Shopping this way from here on out. I had NO idea it was like this. (Or is it just this year?)

Rats -- my alarm just went off. Have to get DS off to school. Back later with more of an update.
 

Holiday_Mom

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Ok, this week was a blur! So much has happened, all on the good side of things. Thanksgiving went off as best as could be. Having food prepared ahead and pulled from the freezer was a blessing this week. Thanksgiving snuck up on me with all the college visits this fall and the fact that Thanksgiving is the earliest that it can be. Dh had a few work issues that he got called on so I did the turkey and cooking mostly on my own. Dh popped into help when he could. My children helped with the cleaning. Considering what we were dealing with, I was happy with the overall day. :)

I am a woman on a mission when I do Black Friday shopping. :D I shop only the things that are on sale. If it isn't on sale, then I'll pick it up later when the lines aren't so long. If I can get the Black Friday sale price before Black Friday, I will buy it online but I do prefer shopping in person on Black Friday to have the item in my hand. Last year I was able to do a lot of online shopping with the Black Friday prices before Black Friday. This year, the items I wanted at the price I wanted weren't available until Black Friday. The one exception was Old Navy. Their sale started on Wednesday.

Friday morning we started our shopping at 5 am and were back by 10 am. I bought most of what I wanted in the stores. What I couldn't find in the stores was bought online over the course of the day. (I took breaks from online shopping to spend time hanging out with the children.) I finally finished up at 9:30 pm. There were a few items that were shown as the last item available. I am hoping that I do get them.

I did some more shopping on Saturday. I am about 95% done shopping for our immediate family. I have a few things to get that weren't on sale and I am sure there will be last minute gifts for people that I forgot. :rolleyes:
 

Cindylouwho

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Posting this over a week later. I fell off the board last week -- just too much going on.

Holiday_Mom -- I hear you. I'm going to give a big ditto on your recap of Black Friday. Anything I wasn't sure about I didn't wait for. I had the same strategy. But you were very good -- you got home and kept going. Good job! Wish I had it in me for that. I got home and crashed. Was at the mall by 5 and out by.....11 I think? Home by 1.

Thanksgiving Dinner was delicious (prob one of the best I've pulled off) but honestly, the company was lacking. Not having DD there (she had a fantastic trip and I was SO happy for her) changed the dynamic and we had a relative over that was kind of sour grapes. I've prided myself on being smart enough to lock all of my relatives out on the holidays so that our family can enjoy the holidays in peace. Terrible isn't it? But see what happens when I unlock the gate? I guess I ended up the evening feeling like I went to an awful lot of trouble to make that meal (and really it was delicious) yet I wasn't enjoying the company -- I wanted to be away. DS was awesome though and he came in and joined me. I love that kid. But next year I'm going to have to change up my plan. Perhaps make more dishes in advance so I'm not in the kitchen as long when Sour Grapes is around. Perhaps go out of town. Perhaps cook the whole thing in advance and then be GONE for the whole day --maybe hiking or something -- and then come home for the meal. Whatever it is I have got to change it. So i'm noting it here so that I'll read it next year. Sour Grapes will be with us at Christmas too, so I'm already trying to figure it out.
 

Holiday_Mom

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(((Hugs)))) My oldest is in college but she's been home for the holidays. However, this year she wasn't able to make our family vacation and it just seemed odd all week long. I was an interesting situation to go through. I missed sharing things with her but I couldn't be moping around because it was everyone else's vacation too. So I took time each day to journal out my feelings and then put on the brave face the rest of the week. It's all part of the letting go process I guess.

Isn't it amazing how dynamics can change at a meal with certain people? It sounds like you have a great son who loves his mom.

Ok, so this may sound crazy and like a lot of extra work but can you do a special meal with your dh and chlldren before Christmas and without Sour Grapes? For instance, could you do a Christmas brunch on Sunday before Christmas? It would give you the opportunity to spend some quality time with just you guys and you can have happy memories of that time. Then on Christmas Day, when Sour Grapes arrives, since you've already had that special family time, you may not feel like Christmas was ruined.
 
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