Less Than 1 Month Left To Get Ready For Christmas

As I've mentioned before we are keeping our Christmas quite simple this year, particularly with gift giving.  The girls and I agreed to exchange small inexpensive gifts with each other and keep our meals smaller and less extravagant.  Nonetheless, I have every expectation that we will enjoy a very lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  We are truly blessed to have so much in our lives and for all of that I am truly, truly grateful.

With less than one month until the big day I am happy with where things are currently sitting.  In September I updated my Christmas card list, gathered up my cards I planned to send out and addressed all my envelopes complete with stamps and return address labels.  I had just enough stamps leftover from last year that I do not need to buy anymore as well as plenty of cards and labels in my stash.  Since then I've been working on drafting our annual letter, fine tuned it and printed it out on some pretty stationary I have in my paper stash.  All that is left to do is add the letters to the cards, sign the cards and get them all into the mail sometime the first week in December.

I got out my gift wrap bin and did some wrapping

Also in September I received a coupon as well as a sales flyer in my email from the Vanity Fair Outlet store.  They had faux fur throws on sale for $6.97 each so I picked up one for each of us for the coming winter.  They are really nice, come hanging on velvet hangers and retailed originally for $29.99.  I was super excited about them.  Then I realized they'd be perfect for the girls for Christmas gifts so I tucked them away with that thought in mind.  A couple weeks ago I pulled out my gift wrap bin and used gift boxes, tissue paper, gift labels and curling ribbon I already had on hand to wrap them up.  I plan on one more gift for each girl plus their usual stocking stuffers and that will pretty much be it for gifts this year.

September must've been my month to get Christmas things done because I made my co-worker gifts at the end of the month.  I had picked a big bucket of pears from our tree in the backyard.  There were far more than we could eat so I cut up most of them putting the pears into my slow cooker.  I used spices and sugar from my pantry to make a nice batch of pear butter that yielded six half pint jars.  I used lids and jars I already had on hand to can the pear butter, labels I had to put on the jars and then fabric circles I had cut from fabric scraps with pinking shears to cover the tops of each jar.  A homemade gift tag filled out for each one will be attached and I'll give these out to my boss and four team members.  For the rest of my co-workers I plan to take in a big platter of cookies and some fudge to share with the group.

I use the recipe on the back of the Kraft marshmallow creme
jar to make my fudge.  Turns out perfect every time.

I've amassed quite a collection of tins and boxes perfect for giving food gifts.  I'd really like to use some of those up as they take up a lot of space in the closet so this year our friends and family will be receiving a tin filled with homemade fudge and cookies made in our kitchen.  I've got plenty of waxed paper, ribbon, bows, treat bags and gift tags to spruce it all up and I think they will be very much enjoyed.  Simple and nice as well as very tasty.  Plus we get the joy of baking cookies and making fudge which we really do enjoy.

Our Christmas Eve dinner will be the same as we have every year.  Clam chowder, garlic cheddar biscuits and a big green salad.  It is our traditional meal.  Instead of a roast or expensive steaks this year on Christmas Day the girls and I have decided a simple Chicken Alfredo with some pasta would be perfect and that is what we will have.  It will be delicious and satisfying I'm sure.  I will steam some broccoli and make another fresh salad to go with it.  I do plan to stay Keto through the holidays, but my girls will still be enjoying their favorites.

Pretty much everything we need for baking and making fudge as well as our holiday meals I already have in my freezer or pantry.  I'll make a grocery run for fresh produce and dairy, but for the most part we are well set in the food department.  We aren't planning to do much entertaining in December, however that can always change and usually does, but I've got plenty of snack type foods like cheese and crackers, chips and salsa, that sort of thing on hand so no worries there.  We'll be ready for pretty much anything.

My gift wrap bin is FULL of stuff to use up

Where are you at with your holiday preparations?  How are you planning to celebrate?  What is on the menu at your house?  Do you do a lot of holiday baking?