I totally understand. I worked so hard trying to prepare ahead of time for Christmas. The biggest issue was the food that needed to be gluten, dairy, soy, almond and some without meat. I cooked 2 different menus. I am still finding some of what I made can be eaten by family members with a special diet. I was expecting them for 3 days and there are here 6 days. If we do it this way again next year I will limit their # of days they can stay. I have non sustainable SVT and it raises it ugly head when I am anxious. I need to take better care of me.I really burnt my self out this year trying to do too much in less time than normal. This was our first year with having a child in marching band that performs at football games and competitions and it was a real eye opener. I will be starting my combined version of the HHP and HGP in the beginning of summer so I can tackle a lot of it before marching band starts backs up again. This was the first year where I had several bags of semi prepared meals in the freezer and will be doubling my efforts on that as those were great to have on hand.
Wrapping needs to start n Nov. I am going to plan a vacation day in Nov to get a jump start on wrapping and to finish any last minute cleaning that needs to be done before Thanksgiving.
I baked entirely too much. I received a new cookie recipe book and found several new recipes I plan on trying out the first half of the year. I am looking to replace some of the cookie recipes and I will be cutting back on how much I bake of each. For many years I gave out bags, platters and tins of cookies to family and friends and this year proved to be too much and this contributed to the burn out I had. I will still give cookies to certain family members but not the rest. I saw a Pioneer Woman recipe for white chocolate peppermint popcorn that can made up in minutes and can prove to be a good alternative.
I make and can a lot of jams and apple butter over the summer. I am thinking of making extras as gifts in lieu of the cookies. Still thinking about this .....
Christmas Eve - didn't have time to make waffles for breakfast. This was missed. Hosted a large ham sit down dinner with my good Christmas dinnerware (which has to be had washed) Because my oldest child had to work until 5 we didn't eat until 6 and a house full until 10/11. BY the time we finished cleaning up, getting gifts under the tree we were exhausted. We were going to do a buffet this year but since we had guest from out of town and were hosting other family members for the first time on Christmas eve we went with a formal sit down dinner and let them have a say in dinner. That was me trying to be too nice and accommodating to others before me and my immediate family. Will not do that again. Lesson learned the hard way on that one.
Christmas: breakfast - didn't happen either, my dad and his wife were suppose to come over for breakfast but couldn't come over until the afternoon and we hosted an informal dinner on Christmas day.
Between not eating right, not drinking enough water and over doing it I ended up sick the day after Christmas.
Next year I will make a breakfast casserole and a stuffed french bread to have ready for breakfast day and I will be making waffles for Christmas Eve.
Going to make things easy for me Christmas Eve/Day dinners:
Christmas Eve Buffet- will order lunch meat platter, a fruit platter and a veggie platter, make macaroni salad and potato salad. Will use paper plates, napkins, cups and plastic silverware.
Christmas Day Buffet (late lunch/early dinner): Hot roast beef sandwiches, meatballs sandwiches, coleslaw and anything that is left over from Christmas Eve.
We bought matching Christmas PJs. What I never thought to check was the tag on the actual PJs in the package to make sure they matched the size on the packaging. The PJs for my son were a little too small and didn't realize until Christmas Eve night that the the PJs size did NOT match the size on the packaging. Will do the matching PJs again but will just be more careful with checking the sizes.
My focus will be on our needs/wants and what works best for our family. I just can't afford to make myself sick again trying to accommodate everyone.
I totally understand. I worked so hard trying to prepare ahead of time for Christmas. The biggest issue was the food that needed to be gluten, dairy, soy, almond and some without meat. I cooked 2 different menus. I am still finding some of what I made can be eaten by family members with a special diet. I was expecting them for 3 days and there are here 6 days. If we do it this way again next year I will limit their # of days they can stay. I have non sustainable SVT and it raises it ugly head when I am anxious. I need to take better care of me.
Diedra, what a good point you raise. The charity that I am currently looking at only accepts donations at Christmas so maybe I re think things and donate in July. Thank you.I like to donate canned food to the food shelves for Christmas in July. I think they are over stocked at the Holidays.
I made an amazing baked french toast that I added fresh raspberries and white chocolate chunks on Christmas Eve for Christmas breakfast. It was lovely and very quick to prepare.Next year I will make a breakfast casserole and a stuffed french bread to have ready for breakfast day and I will be making waffles for Christmas Eve.
Going to make things easy for me Christmas Eve/Day dinners:
Beautiful. A lesson for us all.May we remember as 2019 winds down to be thankful for those in our lives. And make wise choices with our words, thoughts and actions.
We didn't make it to any lights either and I had zero self-care, need to work on that next year. I'd also like to work on supporting a local charity more next year.Adding,
Baking, once again I shared the baking with Mum and seemed to have the right balance. We made gingerbread, malteaser fudge, white coconut slice, snowballs, chocolate bark, fruit mince pies and decorated biscuits. We also made frozen peppermint pie. I bought ingredients for other items but did not use so will make those sometime in the new year.
Outings. Mum, DB and I had lunch one day which was nice. DrillDance team had dinner the Friday night before Christmas and we got a Santa photo taken, this was fun. We did not go for a drive and look at Christmas lights, there never seemed to be the right time, would like to do this next year.
Giving to others, Mum and I gave packs of socks, tissues, shampoo, tooth brush and paste, combs etc plus tinned foods to a local charity. They seemed to have already received a lot of goods so will look for a new charity to support.
Self care, Mum and I went to get our nails done the Thursday before Christmas and it was crazy busy and took nearly 2 hours. Need to schedule things like nails and hair earlier next year to avoid this.
I really burnt my self out this year trying to do too much in less time than normal. This was our first year with having a child in marching band that performs at football games and competitions and it was a real eye opener.
I totally understand. I worked so hard trying to prepare ahead of time for Christmas. The biggest issue was the food that needed to be gluten, dairy, soy, almond and some without meat. I cooked 2 different menus. I am still finding some of what I made can be eaten by family members with a special diet. I was expecting them for 3 days and there are here 6 days. If we do it this way again next year I will limit their # of days they can stay. I have non sustainable SVT and it raises it ugly head when I am anxious. I need to take better care of me.