Aging Fabulous

The Holidays are Beginning!

by Teri on November 19th, 2007

It is the most wonderful stressful time of the year. With…

Ha, really the Holidays are beginning. We do Thanksgiving in a big way and get right into Christmas with the shopping and decorating this upcoming weekend. I can almost feel the stress beginning.

Today I plan to finish up all my posts (few that there will be) and a few other work things, which I hope to have  done by noon. Then I am off to make dough for pie crusts at my parents house. I need eight pies (4 for my Thanksgiving, 2 for the Open Pantry - who feed the homeless and those less fortunate - and 2 that I am baking for friends as a little “Thank You”), and we have a process when it comes to making the dough. Today we make the dough, and put individual balls of crust in the fridge. Tomorrow, we will flatten them, and put those in big baggies and they go back into the fridge. Early Wednesday morning we will fill them and start baking. Next, I am off to get all the fresh stuff for Thanksgiving Dinner (I am serving 15) and hopefully get a few last minute things I need to make the table look pretty. Then it will be time to get the kids, shuffle back and forth between CCD and sports practices, and finally over to a friends for dinner.

Tomorrow, it will be time to roll out the dough, then shop for my little one. It is his eighth birthday on Friday, but we are celebrating on Thanksgiving night when an additional 16 people come over for dessert. Then I need to come home, wrap the gifts, and try to clean the house. Finally, I am meeting a few friends that night that are in town for the Holiday. I hope we just relax by a fire and chat.

Wednesday, my youngest is in a Thanksgiving play in the morning, and then the kids are out of school at 11:30. Just in time to help fill the pies back at my parents house - with my parents and 4 kids, plus my sister and 18 month old niece -fun! At some point, I will need to run and pick up the Turkey that I will cook and drop off the one that I have thawing in my fridge as we speak along with the 2 pies to the Open Pantry. Then it will be time for a quick pizza (our pre-Thanksgiving tradition) and final cleaning and setting of the table.

Thursday will be a day of great fun, and to remember that we are lucky to be here and pretty healthy. I love to enjoy a great meal with family and a few friends. That night, when everyone has left and the house is cleaned up, I need to go through all the sale flyers and plan my crazy Black Friday shopping.

Black Friday, I am sure I will make my way out early. It is a tradition that I also have with my mom and sis. It just really depends what I decide I have to have that is a tremendous deal to go out for at 5 AM. I am usually done by 10, and then go hide the gifts at my parents, and get home to start getting the tree and decorations out. We will enjoy leftovers and hopefully get much of the house decorated, except for the trees. I go overboard with decorating a bit, but I love it and it really gets us in the spirit. My goal is that we don’t need to use regular light in the house (except for the bathrooms and kitchen) as I will have enough glowing white lights strung through garland everywhere.

Saturday, we have a basketball tournament out of town all day, and Sunday will be the day we put up the two larger Christmas trees and decorate those. I have to have one in the living room and family room, but I might just pick up another for the dining room this year too. My kids each have small trees in their rooms as well. Caci’s tree is a purple glittery one that she decorates with all fun girly things. My two little boys have their own smaller one that they always make their own ornaments for. Justin will be 16, and I am not sure if he will be doing his tree this year. I was surprised last year when he wanted one and we actually decorated it with red lights and different colored candy canes, as those have been his favorite since he was a toddler. That is easy enough to do and looked really cute. I hope he gets into the spirit and joins in with us. Then… I will probably collapse, and get back to work on Monday.

You see why I say it is stressful, for at least the rest of this week, but I’ll enjoy it.

Who is as busy as me this week? Who is cooking? Are any of you crazy enough to be out early on Black Friday like me too?

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POSTED IN: Attitude, Family, Friends, Having Fun, Stress