It had been awhile since the three of us who attended had seen one another, so we had lots of catching up to do first.
Susan had just returned from an RV trip to Texas. She got her Christmas cards before the trip and brought them along, with her address book, so she could address them in all of her "free" time. Of course, the addressing task didn't get done. But her intentions were admirable!
One thing I brought the others up to speed on was my little Etsy shop, A New Hampshire Attic. The sweet little card at the top of the post is one that I had listed in my shop. It has already sold, and I'm not surprised. It's adorable! I'm planning to add lots more items to my "Vintage Christmas" section in the coming month, and am planning a Christmas in July sale!
Carrie brought along some lovely little paper trees she had made from sheet music. The pattern called for using book pages, but the sheet music added a special festive touch. We will be learning how to make these at a future meeting. They would be so pretty strung together as a garland.
One Rudolph Day idea I had seen for May was to think about recipes to try and even maybe make a cookbook of one's favorite Christmas recipes. I did that a few years back -- made a memory book and filled it with memories and our family favorite Christmas recipes. You can read about how to do that here: How to Make a Christmas Memory Book. Now would actually be a good time to start a project like that!
I'm seriously thinking, though, of making a Shutterfly photo book with favorite Christmas recipes. Layouts are available for recipe books at the Shutterfly site. These might make fun small gifts for grandchildren.
I also brought up the idea (mentioned here many times before!) of planning ahead to free up time at Christmas by making a large batch of mac'n'cheese and a large meat loaf, or making and freezing several lasagnas or containers of meatballs or cooked chicken -- all with the idea of simplifying meal prep in the busy month of December.
Another thought I had was that now, in spring and summer, we are often bringing cookies to events like showers, graduation parties, picnics, and so on. It occurred to me that now might be a good time to try out some festive new cookie recipes (modified slightly if need be for the season) that could be used as Christmas cookies in December.
To that end, another thing I shared with the ladies was a few pages from the Printable Christmas Planner at Organized Christmas. I brought along forms for favorite holiday recipes, recipes to try, and a menu planning form. If you're like me, you have favorite Christmas recipes in a number of different cookbooks. A form noting just where to find each one could be very helpful!
That was our meeting in a nutshell. We're hoping to meet more regularly from here on out!
