My “Secret Subject” is:
How early do you get ready for Christmas? Baking? Shopping? Travel Plans? Or are you a last minute person?
It was submitted by: https://batteredhope.blogspot.com (Thank you for this awesome subject!!)
You guys!!! It is November 3rd, and this was the perfect subject for me. I am so not ready for Christmas. I basically have no gifts yet. This is very BAD. Bad for me, bad for my budget, bad for the people I am giving gifts to. That being said... I am so ready for Christmas. Yes, I know, I know.... Thanksgiving has not even happened yet. I cannot help it. I am ready. Honestly, I would totally decorate the tree right NOW, if it were not still in the attic.
I am one of those people, who waits until the day after Thanksgiving to decorate. It is just what I do. I don't take things down until the end of the first week of January, so I feel like we get a adequate amount of time with the decorations. Last year, I was feeling so bummed out, that I decorated early, to cheer myself up. I seriously think I will be doing some decorating early this year as well. I am planning on starting slowly. I plan on taking down our Fall Window decorations early. I think I will do that around the beginning of the third week of November. So, our windows will be festive early. Along with the windows, I will also put up our door decor and our Christmas flowers (outside). I will hold off for nick knacks and our tree.
I also want to do so much more holiday baking this year. Gigi is really into it, and that really makes me into it more than ever. I definitely want to bake cookies a few times. I am also thinking we need to try our hand at a holiday cake and some pies. I just bought the stuff to make some Rice Krispies Treats, and I plan on making them festive. Well, some of them. I will leave a few plain for myself. I am a purist with my RKTs.
We are ones to travel in general, and especially not at holidays. That is mostly because it isn't in the budget. The fact that I am forbidden to travel from my doctor, does not help matters. To be honest, if I could, I would absolutely be some who travels at holidays. I miss my family, and it only gets worse during the holidays.
Normally, I would be nearly done with all my shopping by now. The last few years, I have totally slacked off and failed in the gift buying arena. Well, this is the last year of that. Starting this January, I will be back on track. I will start preparing for next Christmas starting in January. I actually did some shopping for Christmas already, but then I undid the progress, by giving Gigi the gifts I bought. I panicked. I planned to give her Legos for Christmas, and then got worried she would hate them. So, I tested the water and gave her the ones I had bought. The good news, she loves them and so does Chad. The bad news, I now have no gifts bought already. The other good news, it makes knowing what to buy for her easy.
As I have mentioned before, I don't really have many traditions, but I am determined to make traditions for Gigi to enjoy. We are slowly creating them. We love to go to Bass Pro Shop, and get pictures with Santa. We love attending our town's parade. We love decorating a gingerbread house. We love decorating cookies at our in law's house. I am hoping to add at least two more traditions this year. I want one of them to be baking related. I also want to create a Christmas Eve tradition. I am still plotting it. Thankfully, I have a few weeks to come up with a plan. I am open to suggestions.
So, tell me.... Christmas. Do you celebrate? Do you have traditions? What is your approach to decorating? Don't celebrate it... What do you do this time of year? Give me the details.
I hope you all survive the time change this weekend unscathed. Hopefully, we all have an amazing weekend. Don't forget to check out the links to all the other Secret Subject Swap posts!! I will meet you there, as soon as I refill my coffee cup!!
Yesterday I was at Starbucks and was kind of shocked to see the red cups and all the holiday beverages and pastries. As pretty as they were (Christmas tree shaped brownies, decorated gingerbread man cookies, so cute) I am not ready yet!
ReplyDeleteWe only just got home from fall vacation, and I want to hold on to fall a little longer, especially as the weather has been pretty nice and warm.
That being said I do love the holiday season, and I am looking forward to another Elf on the Shelf season (who knows, probably the last one?). I'll do another advent calendar for the family (my parents included, so we'll take turns), apart from that - with all the hockey practice and tournaments going on - I'm not sure how much time we'll have for other activities like meeting (Harley) Santas, visiting the Coca-Cola Christmas truck.
It goes without saying that I have zero gifts yet, and that'll probably be the case until very late in December. We're not doing a huge gifts exchange, and I am more than OK with that!
I hope you'll be able to enjoy the season in as good as possible health! Everything else will fall into place. Baking cookies together is such a cool thing to do and will make for life-long memories. More than any box of LEGOs. Just saying.
I know you don't have holiday traditions but I love that you're making them. Gigi will remember them with a smile.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got my question, and I appreciate everything you said. I can relate. I am usually ready for Christmas by October except for decorating and some baking. All the gifts are wrapped, stocking stuffers bought, menu figured out, so there's not much left to do. I plan for it all year and love the season to the max.
ReplyDeleteI wait until after Thanksgiving to start in on Christmas. I used to not even buy gifts ahead of time, but that's bad for the budget so I've had to let that go.
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