Tag: holiday organizing

4 Basic Tips for Fighting Holiday Overwhelm

I love the holidays, but they can be overwhelming.  We’re busy enough on a regular day, but when we add the joy and pressure of the holidays, many of us leap straight to overwhelmed!  And I say “We”, because I’m there sometimes, too!

Sure, this time of year, even the mundane and day-to-day business of life can be elevated to something more meaningful if we put some thought into it.  On the other hand, completing big and impressive holiday prep tasks feels great, but not when we neglect ourselves and our lives to complete them.  “Hey kids, I finished your Christmas shopping on-line today, but I was so busy doing that, we have nothing to eat for dinner.”

So when we are feeling overwhelmed, at the holidays and any other time of year, we can benefit from taking a deep breath and returning to the basics.

Take Care of Yourself

Maintaining routines and taking care of our health is important any time of year.  But it becomes both more vital and more difficult around the holidays.  It’s more vital because more is asked of us, and who wants to get sick for Christmas?  It’s more difficult because there are so many conflicting demands on our time and efforts.

We traveled for Thanksgiving, and had a lovely time with family out-of-state.  And even though I know better than to neglect my routines, I….. over-ate, under-slept, didn’t exercise, and forgot to take my vitamins.  Not surprisingly, I hit the proverbial wall some time Saturday night, feeling blah but overwhelmed.

Today was a return to routines, with regular bedtimes, mealtimes and schedules, and I feel better already.  I also spent some time in the kitchen, making healthy meals and snacks for the next couple of days.

Make time for the daily habits that will maintain your health and wellness.

Take Care of Each Other.  We can get so caught up in the stress of the holidays that we lash out at the people who we are celebrating for, like our friends and family.  Remember Why we celebrate this time of year.

Take Care of your Home:

Even in the face of the busy holidays, we still have to do things like get dressed and go to work and take care of our families.  Just because I spent 2 hours on-line purchasing Christmas gifts last night instead of doing laundry doesn’t make the laundry any less important.  It just means I have more folding to do this morning, to make sure we have clothes for the week, uniforms for the high-schoolers, work clothes for me, etc. We still need to wash dishes, take out the garbage, sweep the floors, etc.  These few simple maintenance steps become even more important during this hectic time of year.

Take Care of your Business:

A radio commercial this morning called December a “wasted month”, professionally speaking.  Yikes!  Most of us can’t “phone it in” for an entire month, so remember to maintain your professional efforts this month, even though it’s so tempting to cut back and goof off, when all the world is a distraction.  My 11 years owning my own business have taught me is that my marketing efforts this month directly influence my success next month.  Stay the course this month, finish this year strong and start 2015 ahead of the game!

The Day the Decorations Come Down!

It’s that time of year again, When the Christmas decorations come down!  Do yourself a favor for next year, and try these 5 ideas today:

  1. Permanently purge the stuff you did not use this year. We have a pile of items we have not used for a couple of years, and most will go away permanently, via donations or recycling.
  2. Invest in quality storage containers. Stackable, sturdy plastic, bug proof.  A client had pests in her storage area over the summer, and her boxes and favorite decorations were destroyed.  Water and moisture, mice and termites are just some of the threats to your treasures.  We use 18 gal. Rubbermaid or Sterilite containers.  Clear containers are great, too, and allow us to see what is inside, but clear ones can be more expensive than comparably sized containers.  Also available are containers made specifically to store ornaments.
  3. Tag your ornaments.  We received an ornament from a friend tagged with a label listing the date, her name and a wish for us. I love that idea, and will tag a few more this year myself!  Next year and for years to come, we can remember where our favorite ornaments came from and appreciate our friends anew.  This will also help on that day far in the future when I distribute ornaments to my sons as they start their own homes and families.
  4. Last-In First-Out Box.  In a recent blog, I mentioned my Last-In First-Out box, and a few of you asked me about that.  Here is the explanation:  In one well-labeled container, I place all the things that I use for the duration of the Christmas Season.  For example, around December 1, we put up just a few things, like our nativity scene, heirloom advent calendars and table runners.  Those are the first-out decorations, and the extent of our decorations until mid-December.  They are also the last items to go back into storage.  So we keep those few things that we use for all 6 weeks in their own container.  That way, I only have to grab one container to get us started, that same one stays open in the laundry room (the entrance to the crawl space) as we put things away, too,  and is placed on top of the pile until next December.
  5. Make some notes about this year to review next year. Here are a few of mine:
    1. More Christmas cards next years.  I underestimated our numbers, and had to reorder cards and buy more stamps before I could mail my business New Years cards.
    2. I noted our menu for the various meals we hosted, and party ideas that worked or not.
    3. I listed gift giving challenges and successes.
    4. I added “Christmas photos” to my October list, to print them sooner.  I love the collage photo cards now available.  I can use great parts of a number of photos instead of relying / waiting for one perfect (yeah, right) family photo.
    5. I have a spreadsheet, too, for my holiday planning, but I make these Christmas notes in a notebook, and they are personal and reflective, more like a journal to keep from year to year.

So, while your memories are still fresh, take a few minutes now to reflect on and savor your holiday season.  And take a few more to make next year’s holiday season even better!

Get Baking for National Cookie Day!

toffee cookiesDid you know?  December 4th is National Cookie Day, so this week’s blog is all about Holiday Baking!  I carry wonderful memories of baking with my mom as a child, and now my kids and I do the same!

Before you bake the first cookie, examine your personal Christmas traditions and expectations.  Do your traditions add to or detract from your enjoyment of the holidays?  Do you have traditions that you love? Do you have any that are more trouble than they are worth?

An example:

My mom made frosted butter cookies every Christmas.  There was mixing, chilling and rolling of dough; frosting and sprinkles; assembly and display.  It was a lot of fun.

A few years ago, in addition to our annual favorites, I decided to add the butter cookies to our list.  Yikes, what a chore!  I quickly realized the secret is the time spent together in loving and creative ways, not the actual frosted butter cookies.  So we now stick with our specialties, I call and thank my mother, and I let others frost and sprinkle.

One meaningful family tradition that we keep is making lemon bars on Christmas Eve.  The story goes, I was making lemon bars on Christmas Eve many years ago when I realized I was in labor for our oldest son.  He loves that story, so the tradition stays.

After you examine your traditions, Create Your Plan!

Pick your cookies.  Keep the list reasonable, don’t go crazy.  Here are our favorites:

Look at your list, read all the directions and ask yourself some questions (my answers are listed, too):

When can I bake?

  • I realized  that baking on a weekday in addition to regular life is just too much, so  I’m sticking to weekends.
  • Then again, I can prep my cookie dough on weeknights when I am making dinner, ball it and freeze the balls, then bake them on the weekends.

For what events are the cookies needed? 

  • We give cookies as gifts, plus serve them at various parties.  The first party is December 16th.

What cookies freeze well?  Make those early.

  • Toffee cookies and biscotti.  So I will make those soon, bag them up and freeze them.

What dough requires chilling?

  • Magi’s turbans.  So I assemble that dough first on baking day and chill it while baking the others

What recipes tie up my pans for a long time?

  • toffee cookies tie up my cookies sheets for hours of cooling, so I make 4 pans all at once, and nothing else

What recipes use specialty pans (and free up the cookie sheets for other things)?

  • Peanut butter cup cookies require my mini muffin tins, so the cookie sheets are free for something else.  So I will probably make those on the same day as the biscotti or Magi’s turbans.

So, considering my answers, here is my plan:

  • Today      – toffee cookies (4 pans cooling on the counter right now)
  • 12/9           –      2 types of biscotti, peanut butter cup cookies
  • 12/15        – magi’s turbans and just-for-fun cookies
  • Oreo           truffles are optional for the day after Christmas for a late-in-December party

Other tips:

  • Share specialty spices, supplies or baking dishes with friends or family to defray baking costs.
  • Enlist Aid.  Most of our specialty cookies require some type of candy.  My sons are great about helping with assembly and un-wrapping, and we all enjoy the time spent together.
  • Assemble cookies all the way to placing the balls on cookie sheets.  Instead of baking them, put the cookie sheets in the freezer and freeze the balls.  Store them in a freezer bag, and when you want fresh cookies, make a dozen or two as needed.  No need to defrost, the frozen dough can go straight into the oven!
  • Don’t store peanut butter cookies or mint cookies with anything else, or everything will taste like peanut butter or mint.
  • Try a cookie exchange:  Plan an event with 5 or more friends.  Have each attendee bring many dozens of their specialty cookie, and then swap at the cookie exchange.  Everyone goes home with a variety of yummy homemade cookies, and you can concentrate on one type you make really well.

Enjoy your baking and have a great Christmas season.  As for me, I need to go clean out my freezer to make room for the first batches of cookies!