HHP - Week Sixteen

House and Holiday Plan – Week Sixteen – Nearly There

Here’s what’s on the To-Do List for this week:

• Minimum household chores. Keep up with laundry and dishes, but don’t worry about heavy cleaning tasks. What’s on your bare minimum list?

• Decorate and wrap baked goods.

• Record a special holiday message for the answering machine.

• Make a Christmas morning basket. Set aside a pair of scissors, notepad and pen, some garbage bags, etc. in a pretty basket so you won’t have to go scurrying to find them in the midst of unwrrapping gifts.

• Help children write letters to Santa.

• Start a holiday journal. Have a place, whether in a special journal, a page in your planner, or a note on your phone, to keep track of the special memories you make this season. What helped you feel the magic of Christmas?

It’s a lot easier to keep a house clean when there are only two adults and no children in the home. Routines really help, and I’m grateful we have some good ones established. It doesn’t take too long to do a load or two of laundry, wipe down the bathroom, and load a dishwasher, and then there’s time to do some Christmas projects. You’ll have to wait until later to find out what they are! (Although, one of them is the Christmas Countdown posts; here’s today’s.

The cookie containers are getting filled and put into the freezer. I won’t be putting a new message on the answering machine or helping to write any Santa letters. However, I can validate the importance of the “Christmas morning basket.” Having the scissors, camera with batteries, and garbage bags all ready is a great idea.

This week our celebrating included the branch Christmas party, with delicious food, a fun craft (decorating ice cream cone trees), and a service project (filling goodie bags for the local shelter). Time to enjoy feeling the Christmas spirit!