Last year I drafted a post about how I survived the holidays. (You should head over and read it.) Turns out I like to do as little as possible over the holiday season. And you know what? It works for me.
*This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through my link I will earn a small commission. These commissions support my family and this blog.*
Here are a few of my holiday confessions:
I’ve never cooked a turkey.
Never. Not once. I’m 37, have been married for 10 years, and I have never made anything more exciting than a roast beef dinner, or a chicken cacciatore. I have made a from scratch lasagna once or twice, but my kids won’t really eat it, so why waste my time?
I’m happy to bring a dish to a holiday party, but don’t ask me to host it.
It can even be more involved than a salad. But I don’t have room to host a holiday party. My hosting of parties only happens when the weather is nice. If we can sit outside, have some delicious finger foods or BBQed items, hook it up! But the minute we have to fit everyone inside my house, I’m out of the hosting game.
Decorating for Christmas is fun.
Having said that, I’m also the “make sure the ornaments are evenly distributed around the tree” mom. The “I hate how the Christmas tree takes up so much space” wife, and the “how are we out of rum for my egg nog!” lady. I love the look of a lit up, fully decorated Christmas tree, but sometimes it’s way too much work to get to that point. Since I never have people over, I wonder, every year, why I go through the hassle. Then I tell myself “It’s for the kids!”
Sometimes I hate watching people open gifts.
Especially if we try to do the “each person opens one gift, but there are 20 adults opening gifts together” thing. (This is how my husband’s family does Christmas every year. We draw names and spend $50 on one person but then sit around and watch everyone open each item. It takes FOREVER!) I love watching the kids open gifts though. And when you find just the right thing for someone, that’s amazing to watch too. But sometimes it just drags on way too long!
I LOVE all the eating. And drinking.
If I go to visit somewhere and someone hands me a glass of wine and asks me to take a seat next to a table full of snacks I am one happy lady! And I don’t even think about dieting. (I never think about dieting, but it’s the furthest thing from my mind during the Christmas season!) Sure, I’ll have that second – or third – glass of wine. And more cheese and crackers? Yes please! What’s that? I can stay for dinner? I’d love to! Now that I’m a little more in tune with my body I find it not so hard to avoid overeating. Over-drinking is tougher for me though. Sometimes that one causes me issues…
I (usually) don’t do any baking.
I may do some this year, but for the past 5+ years my mother-in-law has made giant batches of cookies and divvied them up among the “kids”. The first few years I was there helping; mixing, baking, whatever they needed. Now that my kids are older, they are there helping out and I’m not. And that’s fine with me! This year my MIL told me they aren’t doing that, so, if I want baking, I’m going to have to do some myself. And I likely will, though not to the volume I’ve been provided with in the past! (Help me out by leaving some great – easy – recipes for cookies and squares we can make! I’m thinking about creating a post about doing easy Christmas baking. I’ll mention you if you leave a recipe I use!)
I’m sure everyone has this confession, but I hate shopping!
Even when I know exactly what I’m getting someone (and where to get it) I still hate it. As soon as November hits people go crazy! The stores are jam packed, parking is a nightmare, and my patience evaporates after 2 seconds of people and carts and all that hassle. I thought people did all their shopping online, and I’m the only holdout who doesn’t do that. Apparently not! I’m actually surprised I got as much done as early as I did this year.
Do you have holiday confessions you can share with me? I’d love to read them! Leave them in the comments, then sign up for my blog updates to stay on top of how our holiday season is going. I send out updates once a week at most – with the occasional extra one when something exciting is happening!
Hope you’re having success in all your holiday preparations! Jump over and read my post with tips to save time and money at Christmas. I think it’s a good one!
~Jess
Leave a Reply