QUICK THINGS TO DO TODAY:
- Need to launder your slippers or fuzzy socks? With winter’s colder nights, I’ve been wearing either my pink slippers or my black plush slipper socks for several days now. Both pairs are in dire need of visiting the laundry.
- Do you use an Advent calendar with your children? Either the paper or wooden kind? Any supplies you need to get for your Advent calendar to be ready? Coins, stickers, chocolates?
- Know where your snow shovel is? Can you get it out when you need it, in case it snows in your area this month? Do you need to buy rock salt? Do you have an ice scraper in your car for your windshield and windows?
- How is your family newsletter coming along, if you write one? Is your holiday card writing and mailing going along according to your schedule?
- Made a plan for your family’s charity contributions and/or charity activities this season?
TODAY’S PROJECT: Decorating for the Holidays
Today I am removing the last vestiges of my fall and Thanksgiving decor: anything purple, green, brown or orange. Next I will swap in my holiday candles, red tablecloths, red beaded coasters, gold and green glittery tablerunners, Christmas kitchen towels, and a red vase or two.
In my family room and my living room, I’m trading brown plush throws and pillows for red throws, white throws, and crimson pillows.
I’ve hung five stockings by the fire (one for each of my kids and one for my roommate). I don’t think I’m interested in hanging stockings for my two dogs, I think that would be a little silly. I’ll definitely sneak them some extra dog treats over the holidays though!
Over the past week I burned up the last of my orange, vanilla and pumpkin-scented candles. I also got rid of a couple candle stubs out of my hurricanes. Today I’ll spend about fifteen minutes cleaning out candleholders and cleaning wax off my downstairs brick mantel. Then I’ll set out my red holiday candles. I can’t wait to see my home tonight glowing with festive candlelight and firelight.
I don’t put a lot of kitschy Christmas stuff out around to clutter up the house (It’s already cluttered enough with books and magazines!). I wouldn’t have a plush Santa or an elf sitting on the mantel, I refuse to get hooked on collectible Christmas villages, and I won’t have a wooden or plastic reindeer standing by the front door. I do use some garlands for the mantels (real, not artificial) when I find ones I like.
I use holiday colors when I set my table, decorate my couches, set out coasters for drinks to rest on, arrange candles, and choose houseplants and fresh flowers. Our bathrooms now have Target’s Method Home “Fresh Currant” hand washes, instead of this fall’s lemon verbena.
Tonight I’ll go shopping for a wreath made of fresh evergreens and put it on my front door. I’ll also start putting up Christmas lights in each window of the house – even the kitchen windows that you can’t see from the street. They’re there just for our own enjoyment.