Monday Musings, November 18

Hi Friends! I hope you had a great week!

I ordered a new dishwasher (Merry Christmas to me!) which should be delivered this week. I am a little ashamed to admit how the lack of a dishwasher really hampered my pre-holiday baking. But, I’ve chipped away at other ‘non-kitchen’ to-dos in preparation for the holidays.

My Holiday Planner is really helping me stay on track with what I need to do so that I am less stressed and more organized come holiday crunch time. It prompted me to check my wrapping paper inventory, which for the first time in the history of me, needed replenishing so I boogied out yesterday to take advantage of Hallmark’s sale.

I’ve also purchased a few gifts and put out feelers for gift ideas. Since we will be gone for much of December (I’m coming your way, NYC and Spain!) and we will be enjoying our Thanksgiving meal on Wednesday instead of Thursday next week (we like to be contrarian that way! ?), everything is being moved up!

So, this week my plan is to get some food gifts made and some baking done (post dishwasher installation), as well as get some house cleaning accomplished and put some of my ‘everyday’ decor away in anticipation of decorating next Thursday and Friday. With this new home, I will be changing up some of my holiday decor, so want to get a head start on that too. We have a bunch of Magnolias in our yard, so I plan to incorporate some leaves on our mantle.

Have you started your holiday preparations?

Speaking of planning ahead to avoid stress over the holidays, my friend Gina wrote a great article on 7 Mindfulness Exercises to help you crush holiday stress to make the holidays more enjoyable.

Have a book lover on your gift list? Need some great gift ideas?

Do you love eggnog? Do you like Chai? Would you like to WIN a Kitchenaid K400 Blender? If you answered yes to any of these questions, pop over to this Chai Blender Eggnog Recipe post and comment on your must-have, wouldn’t be the holidays without, favorite holiday recipe.

My brother was in town over the weekend and I shared my spiced pickled cranberries with him…he went home with 2 jars. Oh, they are soooo good.

And, in all honesty, I don’t know what I enjoyed most…making these darling Scented Sachets or making this stop motion video. Heck, it is 2 weeks before Thanksgiving, I’ve got nothing else to do but make stop motion videos…right? Make sure you have your volume up!

These really easy to make Sachets will find themselves in a few stockings this year! Need some more diy gift ideas?