White Christmas
Are you ready to create and ENJOY the most peaceful and calm holiday season EVER?
Grab a cup of tea or coffee or hot chocolate a pen or pencil and a note book and let’s get started!
Are you hosting a party or dinner this year? Planning everything out now will make it stress free (mostly!) I suggest having everyone bring something to contribute. This takes a lot of the pressure off you to make and provide everything. Let’s start with a list of guests. Leave enough room to note next to each guest what they will be bringing to your get together. How will you invite everyone? Text? Phone call? Person to person? Give plenty of time for people to respond! This is a good time to make a separate list of people you will be gifting items to. School teachers, neighbors etc. Decide what you’ll be doing for those people and add the necessary items to the appropriate list.
Once you have your guest list compiled, you’ll want to make your menu. (Time to move to the next page in your notebook!) What are you planning? Dinner? A party? Tapas? (appetizers and finger foods) IF you are planning a dinner here is a suggested list: Drinks, Appetizers, Salads, Soups, Bread, Main (meat) Sides (vegetables) Condiments (Cranberry sauce, gravy, pickles, butter, etc)and Desserts . Put your own name on your guest list and note what items you will be making. Some people are more than happy to “fill in the holes” in your menu. Assign them an item or two from your list.
As your guests respond note next to their name what they will bring. If you are using paper products and would like people to contribute those items, add those to your list.
Now, let’s get our kitchen and pantry ready! (Let’s start another page/list. Label this one Groceries). First, let’s take an hour or so and organize, clean out the pantry. Throw out anything expired. Group like items. Take note of basic baking supplies. Things like flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, extracts etc. are all items that get used frequently in holiday baking. You’ll want to go through your spices as well. Most spices aren’t at their peak even when newly purchased so if they’ve been in your cabinet for the past year you’ll want to toss them and get “fresh” ones. Your baked goods will taste far better. Trust me!
It’s time to gather the recipes you’ll be making. Print off any you’ve found online and put them with a printed copy of any you already have. (You’ll keep these in your notebook.). Look over each recipe and note any ingredients you don’t have on hand. Add those ingredients to your grocery list. This grocery list is your master list. You might decide to get all of your necessary items at one time or add several to your regular grocery list each time you go to the store. Just remember to mark off what you’ve picked up as you go!
Now might be a good time to note any paper products you may need. Cupcake liners, parchment paper, aluminum foil, cling wrap etc. You might consider adding holiday containers such as cellophane bags, treat boxes etc. These will come in handy if you are making any food gifts for teachers, neighbors etc. Will you be using paper products for your get together? Add those items to the list!
Finally, (for this week) will you be ordering anything from a vendor? Turkey? Specialty baked goods? Gifts? Are there any items you need to order from Amazon or other online source? Get those things done this week!
Next week, I’ll have some gifting ideas for you along with some recipes for food gifts.
You are well on your way to having the calmest holiday season EVER! 😉
Have a great week!
~Sue❤️