The Weekly Ramble 11/25/23

I love this time of year as it such a great time marker. I can think back to past holiday seasons and assess what’s working as well as look forward to the new year and things to do differently.

Did you have a good Thanksgiving celebration? I love the Sat/Sun after Thanksgiving because it’s usually a time for resetting. Our company has gone, the leftovers are diminishing, and Christmas and New Year’s are on the horizon.

The holiday itself was a full one as I hosted my in-laws, sister-in-law, and nephew. My 15yo daughter and I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday in the kitchen prepping all the food.

In years past I’ve done a lot of Thanksgiving freezer prep, but this year I just didn’t want to worry about thawing things in time. Some years making it fresh is easier.

The meal was delicious and the leftovers were ample, so I feel like it was a good call.

A significant WIN of the day happened earlier when I asked Bryan to build me an extension to the dining room table so we weren’t crammed or forced to use janky folding tables. He didn’t love the project, but he loves me so he did it, reusing old wood from shelving in the old house, with a warning that I better have a tablecloth to cover it.

I knew that my mother-in-law had brought me one that was way too big for our table last year. Like several feet too long.

Turns out that with the extension it is a PERFECT FIT! The tablecloth was just a year too early.

Wins & Learns

One thing I recommend you do tonight or tomorrow is revisit your menu and make notes of what you made, what worked, and what you’d do differently next year — if you hosted, obvi.

If you didn’t host, do some Thanksgiving debriefing.

This is a page from my Holiday Success Kit that I’ll keep for reference in the future. I have notes from past holidays so that I can learn from my mistakes and make the next year better.

After Thanksgiving, take a few minutes to debrief. Do the same for Christmas and your future self will be sooooo happy.

Black Friday Finds

Yesterday the girls, my mother-in-law, and I did a little Black Friday shopping. Nothing major, just browsing and getting into the spirit of things.

Among my finds:

• hammered metal chargers at Hobby Lobby for 50 cents each – I’ve been wanting a set of chargers for table settings for awhile, but haven’t been able to stomach the prices. These are from the fall line so they were 90% off.

• Martha Stewart fabric ribbon (on wooden spools!) at Marshalls for $5.99 – I bought teal, red, and silver. The general pop of color I have going year-round is teal so I’m eager to work it into Christmas decor.

• small teal ornaments at Target for $5 – I have a couple tabletop trees that I’m going to add teal to.

• a new electric toothbrush from Target for $30 – I’d been meaning to replace the one that died but didn’t want to spend $50. This was a good discount off the regular price.

I bought this teal truck a few months ago as my first decor purchase for the new house. It’s held pumpkins and now Christmas trees.

As someone who has never been good at decorating, I’m a little excited. Can you tell?!

Jammie Day!

Today I slept in and took the day slow, spending a veritable jammie day, something I haven’t done in months. It’s been on my list of self-care things to get in rotation and it just hasn’t happened.

I think I need to schedule one for December right now.

I took it slow, puttering and picking things up, setting the house back to normal life. Bryan stored the new table extension under our bed — I’m not letting that thing go!

The girls and I watched our fourth Christmas movie of the season. I got a $0.99/month subscription to Hallmark Movies Now. Between that and Amazon Prime, we’ve seen:

1. Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday

2. Haul Out the Holly

3. 12 Dates of Christmas

4. Sister Swap: Christmas in the City

The bolded one is really the only one I would recommend. A post of Christmas movie recs is coming soon as well as Advent books.

I purchased two Advent devotionals and will do a review of our collection next week!

I hope you’ve had a good week.