Happy Christmas Week! I hope you are healthy and enjoying this special time of year with people you love. If you aren’t, I am truly sorry to hear it. We’ve had more than a few difficult Christmases over the years for a variety of reasons and it always brings with it a lot of emotions. Here are a few posts that might encourage you if you are in that place this year:
- When Christmas Isn’t as It Should Be
- The Reality of Holiday Overwhelm for Highly Sensitive Children
- Saying “No” to Holiday Pressures
This week I don’t have any big homemaking goals. Here is what is on my agenda.
Goal 1 – Keep the house reasonably clean and picked up
Goal 2 – Make yummy foods for Caroline and David so they have a good Christmas
Goal 3 – Focus on what is really important so I’m not grumpy or impatient because I can’t make things the way I wish they could be
What are you hoping to do this week? Do your celebrations last all week or is it just one or two big days? Let me know in the comments!
Artwork: “Cinderella” by Warwick Goble
Evidence of His Love – Streams in the Desert
Merry Christmas!
We are having low-key celebrations with family spread out over the week. I got the biggest item on my holiday baking list done today. I still have many presents to wrap, which won’t happen until the tape is returned by whichever child made off with it.
Merry Christmas, Peggy!
I hope your celebrations are going well and the tape bandit returned his/her contraband. LOL!
Sallie
The week is halfway over because our Christmas celebrations started on Monday……
We leave early Friday for the in-laws, so my goal for tomorrow is to have the house and our life in general ready for that.
I’m off to read when Christmas isn’t as it should be, our dog has cancer, and so everyone is super touchy right now, and emotional.
Hi Ticia,
I’m so sorry to hear about your dog. I can imagine that is emotionally draining for your family.
Have safe travels and a good time with your extended family!
Sallie
Happy Friday after Christmas! I can imagine some of you still have Christmas celebrations going on this weekend and leading up to the New Year. I hope they are happy and healthy ones.
The week between Christmas and New Year’s often seems like a puttering around the house kind of week to me. Putting Christmas gifts away, cleaning out things that have been replaced, etc. makes for a time of little organizing bursts around our home. Caroline and David gave me a new bathrobe and three new sets of pajamas (my request for all) so I happily threw out all the old ones. I’m thankful to have pretty new things.
In fact, one of my to do things for the coming year is to make a tickler list of all the things in our house that need to be replaced and try to tick off one thing each week. Whether it is a spatula or a sweater, hand towels or shoes, or whatever – keep a list and feel good about making progress.
So how did I do on my goals this week?
Goal 1 was to keep the house reasonably clean and picked up. Done!
Goal 2 was make yummy foods for Caroline and David so they have a good Christmas. I still have some things to make for them this week, but we’re all happy with the food choices we made during the holiday so we’ll say Done!
Goal 3 was to focus on what is really important so I’m not grumpy or impatient because I can’t make things the way I wish they could be. We had a good Christmas with lowered expectations since we had been sick. So we’ll say this is Done!
I enjoyed reading about your goals and Christmas gifts! I got a new armoire from my husband. My old one was falling apart. I have cleaned out the old and organized my new one. It feels good to be organized. I am thankful for this time off to spend time with family, cook for them, and putter around my house. I love being at home.
Hi Vivian,
An armoire sounds like a wonderful Christmas gift! I, too, love the feeling of being organized and puttering around my home.
I hope the rest of your time off is restful and enjoyable!
Sallie
Hi Sallie,
I hope you and Caroline are continuing to be on the mend.
My goals this week were remarkably similar to yours, although I guess that makes sense given that it’s the Christmas season!
1. Get the house picked up and presents put away – not just out of sight but in permanent places.
2. Do “Round Two” of Christmas baking. We had made a couple of things when I came down with a crazy cough for several days that threw my back out so we still have ingredients for things waiting to be baked:).
3. Get out some games and puzzles and really enjoy some simple time together between Christmas and New Year’s.
I got Goals 1 and 2 accomplished and then things got a little busy so we’re looking forward to the games in the next couple of days. We have a couple of new ones and then one from last year that we haven’t really given as much attention to as I’d thought we might.
Also, I can’t see where it is now but I enjoyed the beautiful Christmas message you put out a few days ago with the pictures to words – what blessing:).
Hi Erin,
It sounds like you had a lovely Christmas overall. Coughing is no fun! I hope you recover fully soon.
Do you have any game recommendations? We purchased a family version of Trivial Pursuit that has cards for both kids and adults. We’ve only played it once so far, but it was fun. I loved the original, but haven’t played in many years.
I’m glad you enjoyed the Christmas message. It was in the sidebar, but I took it out since Christmas was past. It is a video I made last year. You can find it in the post I’ll link to below. I didn’t have the time or energy to make a new one this year so I used the one from last year again. I was very happy with how it turned out since it was a new-to-me thing.
https://sallieborrink.com/my-christmas-greetings-to-you/
Happy New Year!
Sallie
Oh, I used to love Trivial Pursuit and haven’t though about it in a long time – that’s a good thought.
As for game recommendations, we have enjoyed “Wordsmithery”, “Anomia”, “Rollick” and “Name 5” the last while. “Name 5” is more of a light party game but we’ve had fun even if there are just a few of us. “Rollick” is just an absolutely crazy fun game if you’re comfortable acting things out!
Honestly, the most enjoyable game for me recently has been “Clue”. We’ve just gotten back from visiting grandparents and cousins and I found it to be a really interesting game for a range of ages. I remember it from my childhood and enjoyed showing my 10 year old nephew.
I also really like co-operative games from Family Pastimes, which is a wonderful small family company in Ontario.
Hi Erin,
That’s interesting you mentioned “Clue” because we were discussing that with Caroline, but haven’t played it yet. I still have my game from when I was young. We were looking at new ones at Barnes and Noble, but all the new games are just so… I don’t know. All the computer generated graphics and such just lack something. But we should pull out “Clue” and play it.
I haven’t heard of any of the other games so I will have to check those out!
Sallie
Our trip up to the in-laws went well, so that was good.
I’m glad you had a good trip!