364 days

We keep a Christmas Countdown chalkboard in our kitchen during the holidays (in fact it used to be by my desk when I used to work in an office)...there are 364 days until next Christmas! After having a wonderful and plentiful holiday season, we're making some notes for next year. Yes, I am planning things for next year already - while things are fresh in my mind, I can decide what worked, what we kept 'forgetting' (having trips to the store each evening this week was not planned for...we'd like to avoid that next year!). Last year I planned our holiday menus, including baking, in a spreadsheet. Then I listed all the ingredients, compiled the ingredients, then came up with a Christmas Grocery List - then a couple of weeks before the holidays we can look in the cupboards and determine what needs to be purchased and just note it on the list (yes, it's a template). However, last year's "template" and menu didn't account for lil k's dairy/sugar sensitivities that has required some creativity in baking/cooking of late. So we have new items to add to the menu (like the yummy fruit juice concentrate sweetened gingerbread boys/girls) to changing our tortiere recipe, to adjusting menu items for soy milk, goat milk, goat yogurt, goat cheese, etc. So this boxing day we added menu items, changed items, and took a few off that we didn't really need (hot crab dip and herb spread for example). As with any template, it's a living document that will be adjusted for 'entertaining' menu items vs. quiet family menu items.

So, food lists are taken care of, I'm now planning my Christmas knitting for next year. I missed the knitting "frenzy" in December. Although, I must admit, it was nice to not have to pull an 'all-nighter' to knit something to get into the mail and/or miss getting it done in time for Christmas. I figure if I plan now, I can get gifts done for next Christmas, and enjoy myself in the process.

Yes, I am taking requests, with size and colour preferences up until Jan 1st...but I make no promises on all requests being completed