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Let's Look

Let’s Look: How We Prep for the Holidays

Hello all! Happy Wednesday! I hope you are having a great week as we made it to hump day! I don’t know about you, but it is full on fall here, we have had rainy days, leaves falling and some sunshine peaking through, but the changing weather is getting me excited for the next few months.

Cool crisp fall mornings

This year has been flying by, I can’t believe we are already at the second week of October. It’s time for another Let’s Look, where we share different parts of our lives. Each month, I link up with  Shay and Erika to share my thoughts on different topics. 

Here’s what we have covered so far this year:

In January, we talked about How We Clean Our Closets.

In February, the topic was Things We Do Every Day

In March, it was all about what’s in our Grocery Carts

In April, we chatted about our Quiet and Prayer Time.

In May, we talked about Summer Staples.

In June, we shared our Summer Schedules.

In July, we chatted about our favorite TV Shows and Podcasts.

In August, we learned about our Pantry Staples

In September, we shared Easy Weeknight Meals

This month, the topic is how we prep for the holidays. I love all the seasons, summer is by far my favorite, but I do enjoy the “Ber” months…September, October, November and December. There is so much to look forward to, from the holidays, traditions, extra family time, and festivities. 

Fall, one of my favorite times of the year

As we get closer to the holiday months, I’m sharing how I prep for all the fun and I hope you will share some of your holiday prep hacks too! I don’t have my own home or family yet, so how I prepare may look a little different.

I always like to prep for the holiday seasons, by creating bucket lists, by writing a bucket or goal list, this ensures that things that I want or hope to get done, get accomplished. Some are big activities and others are little outings or things I want to cook or bake. For example, my fall bucket list includes celebrating Halloween, Thanksgiving, watching festive movies, enjoying holiday treats and Halloween activities.

I don’t know how I will celebrate Halloween on the actual holiday, but I do plan on making some festive treats, decorating and enjoying some Halloween movies. 

Some fall treats from last year

As far as Thanksgiving goes, we typically enjoy the holiday with family and then we have our own Thanksgiving dinner the weekend after. Preparations for Thanksgiving looks like figuring out what traditional dishes will be made, baking pies, and doing some decorating around the house. These are subtle ways to celebrate the holiday. There’s so much cooking and baking that goes into Thanksgiving that it is nice to just enjoy the time with family. 

A delicious, Thanksgiving spread!

Christmas always comes with the most prep. Once again, I make a Christmas bucket list of things I want to do around the Christmas season, from ice skating, baking cookies, shopping, looking at lights, and decorating. I like to make the most out of the Christmas season.

Prep for Christmas starts with decorating the day after Thanksgiving, it’s a tradition we have been doing for years and it’s always one of my favorite things.

I will also make a master list of people I want to buy for and set a budget. I keep a running list in my phone of who I need to buy for, what the gift is, the status of it, and how much I spent. Once all the gifts have arrived, I take time to wrap them all and watch a holiday movie. This method always keeps me organized.

I love to bake cookies around the holidays and one of the ways that I prep is by making one or two types of cookies a week leading up to Christmas. I will share some with family after I bake them and then store the rest for the holidays. This method ensures that I get all my baking done, but I’m not stressed getting it done.

After all the prep is done, it’s time to enjoy the holidays and relax. There’s only so much prep you can do, what matters is the end result and spending time with family and loved one around the holidays. They will be here before we know it, so I want to know what hacks you have to make the holidays smoother? Let me know in the comments below! Happy Holiday Prepping!

Categories
Fabulous living

Peace and Joy this Christmas Season

Hi everyone! 

Can you believe Christmas is this week, heck even hours away?! 

Every year, I feel like Christmas always creeps up on me. I started my ordering before Thanksgiving, but I still feel like I got everything done just in time. This Christmas season certainly was different, but it was still special. I still got to do many Christmas traditions and make memories. From listening to Christmas music, enjoying hot coco, seeing Christmas lights, and watching movies. 

My goal was to do all of my shopping by supporting small businesses, in the end I only got about half of my gifts from small businesses, although, I was happy to support what I could, there was certain things on my list that I couldn’t get locally. Although, I wasn’t able to get everything from small businesses, I was glad I could get a lot of my stuff from local spots.

All my gifts wrapped for Christmas

Some of my favorite memories this past month has been the little moments, driving around to see Christmas lights, wrapping presents while watching a Christmas movie, burning a Christmas candle while decorating my spaces for Christmas. I also loved spending extra time with my family and creating memories. I love gift giving too, I love to take time and pick out things I think my friends and family will like or enjoy. Plus, there is no better feeling than seeing someone open the gift you got them. 

Christmas flowers to brighten up the mood

Although, I will be working a lot over the holidays, I still will be able to see my family and celebrate with them, but it will be different. Even with different times, I think it’s so important to cherish family time, since I know there may be a time where I won’t be able to be home for the holidays. 

I will be back next week, to recap 2020, but until then, I hope you enjoy the holiday week, although, this year looks different, I know it will be still be memorable and enjoyable.

I hope you and yours has a very Merry Christmas!