Monday Musings, November 30
Good Morning my friends.
I trust those of you in the U.S. had an enjoyable Thanksgiving and those of you everywhere else had a lovely weekend!
As difficult as it was, our family made a last-minute decision that our two children would not come home for Thanksgiving. Both of my children are in school and my son has 3 other roommates. We decided the risk was just too great for such a short visit.
That being said, Thanksgiving was still lovely. We had an hour-long zoom ‘dinner’ with my children, as well as my brother and his family. Lots of laughter, gratitude and stories, which is what Thanksgiving is all about anyway.
This reminds me, my friend Kathleen from The Fresh Cooky (who by the way is one of my favorite people with some of the best recipes!) shared a gratitude game that they played. While it was great for Thanksgiving, it can surely be played anytime! Here’s how it is played: Everyone gets out their phones, goes to their photos and picks out one photo per month since January that they can be thankful for, sharing it with everyone. The conversations were so fun in the memories we shared! It was so fun and even our kids got into it! We still have so much to be thankful for!
So, with Thanksgiving in the rearview window, we have already laid the groundwork for Christmas. We will be getting them home early and they will have quarantined before they come home. By the time Christmas day rolls around, our goal is that we can all be gathered together to enjoy some much-needed family time.
Are you familiar with the children’s book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie“? If so, you will appreciate my day yesterday which resulted in five Christmas Money Gift Envelopes! The good news…if you need Gift Envelopes, they are all made for you! Just pop on over to see all the designs.
With tomorrow being December 1, we will begin placing the pieces on our Advent Calendar. We have had a 24-year debate in our home on the correct placement of the ornaments on this Advent Calendar that my mom embroidered after our first was born. On one side of the debate were my children and me, who believe the calendar should count down showing how many days are left until Christmas, but Terry thinks you start at #1 on the first day of December.
In Terry’s defense, our advent calendar, which is a family treasure lovingly made by my mom, has the ’25’ at the top of the tree. Terry thinks that when you reach the top of the tree, it should be Christmas. I put this debate to our readers last year, who overwhelmingly agreed with Terry…which pretty much broke my heart. But, being an honorable person, this year I will cede to him and we will start with putting the first ornament on the number 1!
I pulled out one of my all-time favorite Christmas projects from the attic this weekend.
And I made more Amaretti Cookies! These are so easy that they make baking them as gifts a no brainer.
Some of our other favorite Christmas cookies are these Ginger Cookies, these Molasses Cookies, and these Chocolate Cookies.
And Terry reminded me last night that we need to make our favorite Rosemary Walnuts…soon!
Did you make turkey stock with your turkey carcass? I did and today I will can it for future use. I will use the same method I use for canning all my stocks and broths.
My mom has requested that I make 12 of these gift bags for her to tuck her mini loaves of bread in. For what it’s worth, I am now bleaching these canvas bags. You can see the difference that bleaching makes on the bag in this image.
I’m not rushing anything, but…if you think you’d like to do a little decluttering when the calendar turns over to 2021, sign up for 6 weekly prompts to help you declutter each room in your home. You can sign up now, but the emails will begin on January 8, 2021.
If you missed my email this past Friday, I shared an assortment of gift guides as well as some of my favorite online deals
Phew, that was a lot today! I have so much more I want to share, but it will just have to wait until next week. Sometimes I am not so great at knowing when to say when!
I am off to do more Christmas decorating and to get a package in the mail!
Wishing you day of joy and peace.
Hugs,
