Countdown to Christmas is ON!

[Jem]

We originally had more plans than what we currently do, but with the current state of our Covid poop we only have 2 dinners over the Holidays....And I'm hosting BOTH of them! Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners.
Christmas Eve we are having Lasagna, Wings, Cesar Salad, Buns, a cold platter of finger/snack foods (cheese, pickles, beats, crackers, etc...), a platter of cookies and squares and a birthday cake for my step-mother. I'm in charge of the platters, the rest is potluck.
Christmas Day we are having a traditional meal, with a few extras... Turkey (gravy and cranberry sauce as well), stuffing, mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, fried green beans, Tourtiere (meat pie), sweet hickory BBQ meat balls, carrots and corn, coleslaw, pasta salad, deviled eggs, a cold platter and a platter of various desserts. I'm in charge of the stuffing...(well, I guess dressing, as my Mom is doing the turkey)...green beans, meat balls, pasta salad and both the cold and dessert platters.

What I've accomplished so far as the countdown to the big day arrives...

Gifts are all bought and wrapped
Some cleaning jobs have been done...degreased oven and range hood/fan, cleaned my bedroom and laundry room, did a big dusting job of the 2 spare rooms, and did some puttering/organizing as I went.
The house is decorated....enough. If I have time I may add more, but I'm happy with what I got out if I don't.
Called and spoke to everyone involved and finalized who's doing what.

This is my list of things I still need to do...

Clean the house, top to bottom.
Wash all cat linens and my curtains
Clean the snake tank
Wash litter boxes
Do all my baking (approx 13 different recipes)
One last grocery (and a few other stores) shop
Start the prep work for the food I'll be making for my dinners
Pick up my folding tables at my husband's shop
Pick up folding chairs from my sister's house
Rearrange the living room to accommodate previous 2 list items. (I don't have a dining room...so I turn the living room into one.)
Pull out my Christmas themed kitchen/glassware/linens/napkins etc....
Get some sand and salt for my driveway...just in case. We've been having some weird up and down weather...lot's of ice as a result.

I think there are a few more things...I just can't think of them right now...

So how is everyone else doing with their preparations?

 

[vince]

Don't rush it! I still have to mail Christmas cards and the tree is still not decorated, although it's lighted and at least has a star on top.

 

[susanm9006]

I made the pasta sauce today for our Christmas Eve dinner. It’s a day long process so I like to get it out of the way.
I still need to shop for the other ingredients for dinner and for bread to bring to my sister’s Christmas day dinner.
I finished most of the laundry today and just need to run a small load of kitchen towels
Gifts Are all wrapped and next Tuesday I will drop my aunties at her house. I bought her an Alexa device so I am hoping to get it set up for her then.
Of course there will be a final cleanup of the house on Friday .

 

[nurseangel]

I have all my shopping done! I need to wrap some gifts and put others in Christmas bags. I will be doing a traditional Christmas dinner with Cherry Yum-Yum and homemade biscuits and rolls.

 

[susanm9006]

I have all my shopping done! I need to wrap some gifts and put others in Christmas bags. I will be doing a traditional Christmas dinner with Cherry Yum-Yum and homemade buscuits and rolls.

Haven’t heard of Cherry Yum Yum - tell me more.

 

[Kat0121]

Haven’t heard of Cherry Yum Yum - tell me more.

I second this request. I don't know what it is but I think I want some.

 

[nurseangel]

Haven’t heard of Cherry Yum Yum - tell me more.

I second this request. I don't know what it is but I think I want some.

I think it's a southern thing. I had two aunts that used to bring them to the family Christmas party. There are a few variations. I like the Dream Whip recipe the best. I don't have my aunt's exact recipe but found one very similar online. The one I use is below:

Southern Cherry Yum Yum Recipe - Food.com

Two things: It's very sweet (or maybe that's because I add a bit more sugar than the recipe calls for). And once you make it, you will be forced to make it for every family get together. Or else...

 

[Kat0121]

I think it's a southern thing. I had two aunts that used to bring them to the family Christmas party. There are a few variations. I like the Dream Whip recipe the best. I don't have my aunt's exact recipe but found one very similar online. The one I use is below:

Southern Cherry Yum Yum Recipe - Food.com

Two things: It's very sweet (or maybe that's because I add a bit more sugar than the recipe calls for). And once you make it, you will be forced to make it for every family get together. Or else...

I was right. I do want some. I bet It would be good with raspberry too. I like Dream Whip. I haven't had it in ages.

 

[strider rose]

gifts for in laws are wrapped , one last gift card to buy and send from amazon

 

[MoochNNoodles]

My kids are with my mom again this weekend so I’m supposed to be wrapping EVERYTHING. My grocery pickup ran way late and by the time I got home from getting them and errands DH was home and we went out to ab early dinner and wandered around Walmart to lose the food coma. Now I feel like doing nothing.

We have 2 kinds of cookies left to make. The house needs cleaning. DS has a little school work to catch up on and he needs to deep clean his room and get his tree up.

I haven’t decided which Christmas service we will attend. Our old church had a fellowship every Christmas Eve and those were SO fun. I am missing that tradition. So for now I have shrimp, eggnog and popcorn for Christmas Eve. I’m not sure what else I feel like making. I am making meatballs and sauce to go with my moms lasagna and garlic bread. I will find a veggie in the freezer.

I also have pies to make. That should be on Thursday or Friday. Its really nice having big kids to help!

I have crafts and puzzles for us to work on this week. DS has a kit to make DD a beaded snowflake for her gift.

But tonight? Back to doing nothing.

 

[Kat0121]

I got so wrapped up in finding out what cherry yum yum is that i forgot to answer the question.

The cats already have their gifts. A new cat tree and a new scratching post. Both have been inspected and approved by management.

When DD and I went to Disney World a couple of years ago for the Epcot food and wine festival she bought herself a really cute Minnie mouse apron. We moved her things up to North Carolina in October. When she unpacked everything the apron wasn't there. I looked all over and it's not here either. I thought my house only ate scissors. Apparently not. Disney no longer sells the apron. I found one on Ebay. New with tags. She's supposed to be getting it Tuesday. Her other gift is a pair of earbuds that she has on her Amazon wish list. The apron is from the girls. I'll probably get her a gift card also. Im just not sure for what place though. DSIL is getting gift cards. He always wants restaurant cards. Ruby Tuesday and Cracker Barrel this year.

I still need to send cards out.

No decorations for Hurricane Sophie to tear down.

I told DD that the apron will turn up as soon as she gets the replacement one.

 

[Winchester]

I'm done with cookies, thankfully. I still have to roast two pounds of peanuts and two pounds of cashews. And make almond brittle and (maybe) peanut brittle. Still haven't decided what I'm doing about the coconut cake.

It will just be Rick and me for Christmas and I'm always rather glad about that. We can be more low-key, do what we want, and just enjoy the day. Normally, I do a brunch when it's just us, but this year, Rick has asked for filled pork chops for a Christmas dinner. I can do that. He really misses the crown roast of pork that I used to make. The kids are coming up on Tuesday, Dec 28th. They're all off school (son and DIL are both teachers) and Rick and I are retired, so it works. My brother and SIL are also coming on the 28th, primarily to see the Grands, although I think the beef pot pie was a pretty good draw for my brother.

The cats received an electric throw for Christmas this year. So far, there has been no arguing, although Mollipop can be pretty territorial with it. Tabby loves it; she loves being warm.

We're done shopping for the Grands. Our son and DIL just want gift cards and I can get online for those at any time. I still need a gift card for Rick (Cabela's for fishing gear). I still need to get to the candy store for chocolate covered pretzels for Rick and for his mom.

On Friday, I'll make sticky buns, so we'll have them for Christmas morning to go with our hot chocolate while we open gifts.

No big housecleaning until the day before the kids come. Just catch as catch can for now.

 

[Jem]

Well the last load of curtains are in the wash. And I took my swiffer and dusted all the walls...except in the basement...my husband's "gaming" today. If I don't get to cleaning the basement as efficiently as the rest of the house it's no big deal as nobody goes down there during visits.
I also spot cleaned any scuffs/marks on the walls and doors/frames. After dinner, the plan is to clean the snake tank. And wipe down my kitchen cupboards (just the outside).
We'll see how I feel after that if I do anything else tonight.

 

[susanm9006]

Well the last load of curtains are in the wash. And I took my swiffer and dusted all the walls...except in the basement...my husband's "gaming" today. If I don't get to cleaning the basement as efficiently as the rest of the house it's no big deal as nobody goes down there during visits.
I also spot cleaned any scuffs/marks on the walls and doors/frames. After dinner, the plan is to clean the snake tank. And wipe down my kitchen cupboards (just the outside).
We'll see how I feel after that if I do anything else tonight.

A lot of cleaning! I hope your family isn’t like mine who will spot a speck of dust at 20 feet and be sure to point it out.

 

[Jem]

A lot of cleaning! I hope your family isn’t like mine who will spot a speck of dust at 20 feet and be sure to point it out.

Nah...My family doesn't care. Houses are supposed to be "lived in" (but still clean of course). It's just my Mom is SEVERLY allergic to basically any animal with fur, so anytime she's supposed to come over for a decent length of time, I try my best to do a good de-dust and de-fur as much as possible. I also make sure that I clean a few days ahead of time so anything that does get kicked into the air has time to settle and then I do a final vacuum the day before and run to air purifiers on high for a bit.
It's just I've been slacking on my cleaning duties lately, so I have to do a really good one...

 

[MoochNNoodles]

A lot of cleaning! I hope your family isn’t like mine who will spot a speck of dust at 20 feet and be sure to point it out.

I'll be sure not to invite them here!

It felt really really good to just relax last night and most of today. I've been sleeping off a bit so I got a good nap in today and I feel so much more ready to face my to-do list. It's probably a good thing I didn't wrap my kid's gifts yet because my step-sister gave DS his gift this weekend and she got a version of one of the same things I did (which was on his list; how she knew I don't know!). It's a Laser Tag set for home. I'm going to see if you can make all of them work together first; because then DH can play too. If not; Amazon can take it back.

I was able to get the Ghirardelli Chocolate to make peppermint bark with the kids. That looks really fun!

When I picked up my kids today my mom mentioned Christmas Eve and my eyes went . Last year the church was basically still closed so we did have a nice dinner. This year we are at different churches located in different directions and since we hadn't talked about it I assumed we weren't doing anything. I'll have to talk to her about it tomorrow and see if I need to come up with more food than I was going to make for us. I accidentally got a boneless ham so I could make that. (I need a bone-in one for my pea soup!)

 

[Katie M]

I wound up buying a few more presents-my parents together are getting a set of blue enamelware dishes for the camper, my mom is getting a camping cookbook, and my stepdad is getting summer sausage and cheese. I'm giving my brother a new insulated mug and a variety pack of Starbucks coffee.

Everything's at my parents' house-I just have to wrap it all.

 

[Jem]

Well, the kitchen got a good cleaning and I made a double batch each of my date squares and cappuccino flats.
Which is about 6 dozen squares and 6-7 dozen flats....2 recipes down, 11 to go.

 

[Jem]

So today I made double batches of Jam cookies (with raspberry red current jam), Butterscotch clusters and Marshmallow squares. I also made a small batch of Chocolate mint crunch patties...well that's what I'm calling them. I had some mint chocolate bars I wanted to use so I bought a box of chocolate mint oreo cookies, crushed them up and mixed them in the melted choc bars. Their setting on wax paper as I type. They look good...I'm sure they'll taste good too.
Tomorrow, I'm going to try and get by butt in gear early to go do my last grocery run first thing in the morning. Then, hopefully, get the rest of my cookies made. I have to make my shortbread cookies, ginger cookies, snikerdoodles, lemon fudge and Chocolate peanut clusters.
Cleaning wise, I have to do the bathroom, wash all the cat linens and litter boxes, the snake tank (I was too lazy to do it on Sunday ), vacuum, dust the living room and wash the floors. A final tidy up and arrange my living room also, but that will only get done Christmas eve morning. Then there's just the regular stuff like laundry and whatnot that I usually do over the weekends that I'm going to tackle on Thursday instead.
I'm also going to start the prep work for the stuff I'm making for Christmas dinner. OH! I have to make a note to take the ground meat out of the freezer for the meatballs...
I think we're going to get take out tomorrow so I don't have to stop and clear out my baking stuff and make dinner, then have to do THAT cleanup to get my baking stuff back out again...I don't have a big kitchen so I can't just put it all aside.
I'm feeling pretty good I'll get it all done with 2 full days plus Christmas Eve morning/early afternoon still to go.

 

[susanm9006]

You make me tired just hearing about all that work but your cookies all sound delicious. Did Aunty duty and dropped off her gifts today. All I have left to do is buy one gift card and pick up bread and meat which I will do tomorrow.