I touched briefly on the world of resolutions last week, and it got me thinking about how you need to commit to those resolutions. If you want it to work you have to do it all year round, right? That train of thought lead me to an interesting tid-bit I heard on the radio recently. A famous financial guru said that to plan for holidays next year take a good look at what you spent this year. That way, you can divide the amount up by 8-10 months (less or more, depending on how early or late you like to start your shopping) and then viola! You'll have a planned holiday spending account. It's fantastic advice! Probably not going to be followed by a great and many of us though.
Not entirely wasted though because it did inspire me for this week's blog post! (As you recall, I resolved to be better prepared for such things.)
I'll admit, I have a lot of photos to recap the holidays with, but rather than focus on looking back, we'll focus on the planning portion. Starting with Christmas Eve Dinner.
This required a lot of planning (read: pinterest)
We had a few discussions, agreed on key meal points of interest, and then researched recipes. (If I were smart, I'd have logged what we spent on this dinner as a template for a budget in coming years - but I did not do such a genius thing.) Anywho - lists later - Christmas Eve Dinner was ready to roll!
2014's menu was: Everything Mini.
Cornish Game Hens, with individual little heirloom tomato salads, teeny potatoes and single servings of french onion soup with individual Creme Brulee for dessert.
Did you know that part of the planning process to make French Onion Soup is to cut up lots of onions? Yup. Onions. The kind that make your eyes burn and cry. I wasn't going to let them beat me, so here's how I handled that situation.
First, I put on the lower bandanna, like a cowboy. Then, sunglasses. To cover the opening over the sunglasses, I used a hair band. To cover the sides, you see the 2nd bandanna tied under my nose. Then I put the cutting board under the oven fan and chopped.
Guess what happened? Complete and total success!! ZERO irritation to the ol' eyeballs.
Me: 1 Onions: 0
French Onion Soup Process:
Next up: The Birds.
Prepping Cornish game hens was fun, they were so adorable! And not in a way that made me feel guilty, but in a weird way that made me more excited about eating them.
The recipe we used called for a sprig of rosemary and a lemon wedge in each bird, and it was FANTASTIC! I'd recommend it to anyone, the flavors really permeated through.
All of the hard work and prepping lead to this delicious dinner spread
~ah~ Ze Holidays.
Prep doesn't begin and end with dinner, however. Prep also included gifting! I have a pretty big family, and we're always trying to come up with something new to give to each of them. This year, I opted for a mix bag - literally. I really wanted to give everyone a giant reusable bag, because they're handy and pretty and easy to come by. So I picked up 10 of those, and filled each one with tasty munchies. S'mores snackies & Cuties wreaths.
Cuties wreaths was another pintrest find, and they're as easy as they are difficult...
First, you need some cellophane wrap. The best way I can describe what you do next is to make a tube.
Tape is your friend in this process
Theoretically, you could make one of these much larger. Mine only included 5, but I imagine that the bending is the hardest part no matter how many you are using.
I just kept shimmying, and had a lot more on the ends than I needed - which I just cut off at the end.
Then, add a little ribbon to pretty them up, and you're set!
There you have it, perhaps some 2015 plans for you guys to prep for this year.
But the holidays are over, even though winter isn't. So what better to do than plan for a cozy pleasant winter? There's no better way to enjoy winter than with a cozy fire. The air outside smells fantastic and the seats just in front of the flames are toasty and warm! On a very cold night here recently, we decided to do just that. Our little Peggy, as you know joined the family in February, had never seen a fire. (Well, as far as we know.) Here's the thing though: she LOVED it.
I love this photo makes it look like she's up to no good:
Peggy's not the only one who enjoys a cozy fire night
(Okay so technically this was still 2014 but fires are still just as fun now)
For my last bit of both planning and recapping: FRIENDMAS!
A yearly tradition for myself and some of my closest friends, this year's Friendmas actually occurred after Christmas, in fact, not even in December. Thanks to concerted efforts and planning, we had to pick a date when everyone would be in town and able to gather together, so, January 3rd it was. We all really enjoyed elongating the holidays a little. I don't have a lot of pictures of Friendmas, but here's what I do have.
Delicious "Merry Friendmas" chocolate almond cake. Sure, the decoration melted a little, but it's the thought that counts.
This radtastical T-shirt that my best friend procured for me
And lastly, these awesome prank gift boxes. The best part is that Dylan and I both completely fell for it. Bonus points too, because next year, I am dead set on getting some of these for my 10+ family gifts next Christmas. Hee hee.
I absolutely sniffed mine when I opened this.
There we have it folks, planning pays off.
See you guys later!
