Prep

In the past week or so, I've been working bit by bit to get ready for the holidays, both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Just over a week from now, we'll be heading off for our first of 3 Thanksgivings, which will end with a rather big shindig at our house for Chris's side of the family over the holiday weekend.  And from there, it's just a hop, skip, and a jump to ho, ho, ho.

So I'm trying to be mindful to get what I can done early so I can enjoy more later (read: sitting on the couch with a hot beverage).  Actually, that's not totally true.  A lot of this isn't planned.  Sometimes, it's just an itch to get something - anything - done, and mostly it's just a wild, momentary panic that send me into a tailspin.  But it means things are happening, so if that's instigated by a mild (or moderate) freakout, so be it.

Yesterday, I bought a 20+ pound turkey.  That is HUGE.  I barely fit it in my freezer, and I honestly have no idea if it will fit in my oven.  There will be at least 25 people in my house wanting food, so I'd better be prepared (I pony up for turkey and stuffing, the rest is potluck).  Plus, it was on sale for like 8 bucks, so why not?  Despite the work and minor frustrations that can arise (no, no, everything runs smoothly and it's all a delight, I mean), I do enjoy this little tradition we've started.  It serves my dual purposes of getting this branch of my family tree together (an almost Sisyphean task given how big that branch is these days) and makes Thanksgiving significantly less of a forgotten, usurped holiday.  My cleaning/prep schedule is ready for Thanksgiving week, so on we go.

As far as Christmas, I just got my holiday postcards in the mail today.  We happened to have a decent family snapshot taken a few weeks ago, so I slapped that puppy on some cardstock and clicked buy.  I stumbled on the idea of using postcards last year to save on postage, and it worked out really well.  Now there's no telling when these will actually get addressed and sent, but step one: check.

I'm on a bit of a tear working on the shopping as well.  Several niece and nephew gifts have been purchased, and I have others picked out and all but bought.  Santa has been doing a good job of ticking off the kids' lists (if they ever stop adding things), but that's a work in progress almost to the day.  And blessedly, I am done, done, done with the hardest person on my list.  This is a huge relief.

Chris was off today and started putting the lights on the house, since the weather was lovely and he had the time before the storm of the holiday season makes work (and work hours) insane.  I made him promise not to light them yet, though.  I have some restraint.

Perhaps there will be some good couch time come December.  (I totally jinxed myself now, didn't I?)