A sweet Christmas card for Rudolph Day

 

 Recently I came upon this sweet Christmas card front.  Usually with card fronts (after scanning them to use as graphics) I just add them to my stash of freebies to tuck in with Etsy orders.  I loved this one so much I decided to also blog about it -- and what better day than Rudolph Day to do so?

This is such a pretty winter country scene -- a classic red house in a snowy landscape with leafless trees, a clump of white birches, and plenty of glitter to add dimension and sparkle.  There's even a stack of firewood at the end of the house.  I would love to live in this house!

Then there's a split-rail fence and several red cardinals about.  Just a classic country scene.  The greeting reads "Christmas Greetings -- and warm wishes for your happiness always."

The back of the card front, though, carries a message that I loved and wanted to share with readers.

The text is sort of light so I'll share it here:

Meeting again at the
crossroads of the year
with memories of
happy hours gone by
and high hopes
for the year to be.

I love this thought -- meeting again at the crossroads of the year!  That may just sum up the reason why I continue to send Christmas cards -- to meet up, even if only via the mail, and check in with people with whom we share memories of happy hours gone by, people whose new years we have high hopes and prayers for.  This might be a sentiment I would add to a handmade Christmas card.  It would also be lovely as a sort of Christmas blessing to cross-stitch and display.

Anything seems possible on a Rudolph Day in March!

Rudolph Day for July

 

I've had a list for quite a long time as to how Rudolph Day -- the 25th -- might look each month.  A sort of schedule if you will.  I could barely remember where I originally found it, but I thought it was shared by Mary at Rudy Day News, so I went looking.

And yes!  Mary shared this schedule back in 2012.  So here is the listing for July:

We will purchase all stocking stuffers this month. If you plan to make your Christmas cards, now is the time to get all the papers, ribbons, envelopes, stamps and inks, etc. together and make those cards. Have a festive card making day with Christmas music playing in the background! Sign those cards and write short notes. Update your Christmas card address list and print the labels or envelopes out. Get your family photo taken to include in your card and have them printed. Go over that master gift list--have you purchased at least half of your gifts or more?

I thought it would be fun to see where we are at with this goal.  

About the only thing I personally can claim to have done on this list is that I have purchased my Christmas cards.  I have also purchased my Christmas stamps.

My hubby and I no longer do stockings -- we used to do them for one another, but long ago decided we would take the money we would have spent and put it toward getaways throughout the year.  Much more memorable!

And I certainly have not bought at least half of my gifts or more!  I do have some ideas for maybe a third of the people on my list, though.

Happy Rudolph Day, friends!

Rudolph Day!

 I just realized that today is Rudolph Day for February.  I don't have time for a lengthy post, and realistically nothing Christmasy is happening today, but I thought I would at least acknowledge the occasion.

Above is just a tiny bit of my February decor, which I am sharing today because it includes a Rudolph -- well, at least a deer.  You see him at the left of the photo.  Though he looks almost new, he is actually a ceramic candleholder from my childhood in the 1950s.  The little framed crewel of the skating boy was stitched by me in the 1970s.  The little beaded heart was made by grandchildren and the tag at right was one of my first attempts at paper crafting.

The wintry pitcher was a thrift store find a few years back, and the cardinal in the middle was found in a kitchen drawer while cleaning out my childhood home.  The sparkly runner underneath it all was hand woven by my friend Patty.  It looks like it's black and silver, but what looks like black is actually a very dark green.  So pretty!

One thing I plan to do today is to sort through my box of seasonal paper decorating treasures and winnow out what I no longer use.  So I guess we could call that a legitimate Rudolph Day activity.  Happy Rudolph Day, everyone!

November Rudolph Day update

 
Wow!  It's rare that I actually think to post an update on Rudolph Day, so I'm pretty tickled to have thought about it today.  

I'm not as far into Christmas preparations as I'd like to be.  I've planned some of my handmade gifts (mostly play food and calendars) and have completed a few items so far.

I've purchased a few Christmas gifts and I've done a good bit of work on my Christmas list.  

We're doing a Christmas program at church and I will involved with that, so there are practices to think about.  Thankfully, the program is scheduled for early in the month (the 11th) so that will make things less busy closer to Christmas Day.

My hubby, though, has already made a good beginning on the Christmas baking list.  He's made three batches of Heavenly Delight fudge already, along with double batches of Secret Spice Cookies, Chocolate Spritz, and Chocolate Mint Crisps, and a large batch of Whipped Shortbread.

 
And as we speak, he's working on a double batch of Sacher Torte cookies!  

 I'm also beginning to plan and schedule December Daily posts here -- and hopefully in my Kitchen Table blog as well.  And I'm busy listing vintage Christmas cards in my Etsy shop.

So that's what's happening here as of November's Rudolph Day!  How are your Christmas preparations coming along?

February muffin recipe: Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Muffins

 

 Rudolph Day (and a snowy one at that) seems like the perfect day to try a new muffin recipe.  Recall, I am trying one new muffin recipe per month with the idea of finding something very special to use for Christmas 2022's kitchen gifts.

The one I tried today, Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Muffins, is a good contender for that role.  I had found this recipe awhile ago and saved it.  My hubby and I were on a 40-day sugar fast until a couple of days ago, so I had held off on baking these muffins until now.  I'm glad I waited, because baking them on Rudolph Day was so perfectly serendipitous.  

This is a large recipe which makes 22 muffins.  I didn't think we could use quite that many, so I cut the recipe in half.  That worked perfectly and I managed to eke 12 muffins out of the batter.  I didn't have any applesauce on hand so I used the vanilla yogurt option.  I also didn't sprinkle any of the mini chocolate chips on top.  They didn't look quite as pretty as the muffins from FoodTalk, but they certainly were delicious!

You might wonder if the chocolate is overpowering with the gingerbread muffins.  It's really not.  I think the fact that mini chips are used might make a difference there.  And of course I used only 1/2 cup since I was cutting the recipe in half.   I wondered if the chocolate might make the muffins overly sweet.  Again, that just wasn't an issue.  

These muffins are scrumptious, with just the right amount of molasses and spices all complemented by the chocolate mini chips.  Highly recommended!

January 2022 Christmas Club meeting

 

So yesterday, we had our first Christmas Club meeting for 2022!  Susan, Carrie and I met at Carrie's home in her beautiful new space.  It was a low-key meeting but very encouraging and productive.  We talked about our Christmases, and Susan even has pictures from hers arranged in scrapbook layouts.  It looked like such a wonderful time!  I would not have thought of documenting this, but Susan even had a photo of her home that she and Jim took when they arrived home on Christmas night.  It had been snowing, and the lights of their lovely home just showed up so beautifully.  It was a great photo to end with.

Carrie and I had both noticed that Christmas felt very relaxed this year.  What a blessing that was!  

We discussed Christmas cards.  Susan wants to do a photo card for 2022 and Carrie was able to share some tips about when she starts working on their family's photo card.  I have already purchased Christmas cards for 2022.  I was using up odds and ends of cards from previous years in 2021 and actually used almost all of my stash.  So I found some nice ones from Christianbook.com at an after-Christmas sale.  Below is just one of the designs I purchased:

We enjoyed beverages and some refined sugar-free muffins I had made -- Cranberry Poppy Seed, with a crumble topping.  They turned out pretty well.  I'll post more about this later, but I'm thinking of trying a new muffin recipe every month in 2022 with the thought of finding a good one for Christmas kitchen gifts this year.

At the meeting I also took a few minutes to share the after-Christmas debriefing that I try to do every year. 

As I looked through my Christmas notebook, I found that apparently I never did do this debriefing exercise for 2020.  But no matter -- I've now done it for 2021!  I'll plan to write a separate post about this.  

In preparation for the Christmas Club meeting, I also took some time to update my Christmas notebook in the way I describe in this post.  It feels great to have that task accomplished.

2021 was an interesting and different Christmas season for me, due to being nearly immobilized with sciatica for most of it.  I am so thankful that God gave energy and even adaptive ways of doing things to be able to accomplish all that was necessary to do.

And that was pretty much our club meeting yesterday.  So fun that we could actually meet on Rudolph Day!

February Christmas Club meeting

 

 Appropriately enough,  it was Rudolph Day (the 25th) when the Christmas Club gathered for its February meeting.  Susan, Carrie, and I gathered around Susan's dining room table specifically to work on making gift tags out of our used Christmas cards.  I think that Carrie and Susan were working with last year's cards, while mine were a much older batch.  We shared a tag punch, templates, hole punches and so on -- passing them around by means of the "lazy Susan" that's built into the round table.  Very handy!

Susan served us some lovely holiday tea in Christmas teacups and with the festive napkins above alongside.  (I snatched up my napkin as I left, so that I would have something to illustrate this post!)

I didn't take time to scan my completed tags, so will share some from a previous year.  I think I completed maybe 8 or so at the meeting.

For next month, Carrie is planning to print out a December calendar for each of us.  We will use these to begin planning for some Christmas events.  Sounds like fun, and it will be good to have some things pre-planned.  Then, closer to the time, as other events come along, we can fill those in.

Hope your Rudolph Day included some festive fun also!

January 2021 Christmas Club meeting!

 

So on Monday, January 25, we actually did something very appropriate for Rudolph Day -- we held our first Christmas Club meeting for 2021!  Three of us gathered at Susan's home for  a cup of tea and an hour or more of purposefully catching up on our Christmases and our plans for the coming year.  It surely did feel as if we were starting the New Year off right.  

We began by discussing how our Christmases had gone in 2020, especially considering that some things had to be different due to the virus.  We all felt that they went quite well.  Carrie felt good about keeping things more organized, and shared that her family did nearly all of their usual Christmas activities.  She had also asked the kids about any activities they might like to incorporate, and only one thing on their list did not happen.  Susan shared that their family time with their granddaughter was truly wonderful, at times actually feeling like a Hallmark movie as they shared memories and old family photos.  Wow!  It's hard to imagine much better than that.  As for Mr. T and myself, we felt that things were much as usual and we made some great memories with the local grands.

The one negative thing we all experienced in common was the unusually slow postal service.  Yes, we were warned about all that -- but for a package to take a week to get from the middle of New Hampshire to the lower end of it is slow indeed.  And then it still had to cross the country to its destination.  Though mailed in plenty of time, the gifts sent to Nevada were all late.  (Other than those sent directly from Amazon, which went through just fine! 😀)

We went over a list called "January Assignments" that I had saved from a previous year.  Most of this came from Organized Christmas originally, I think. 

 The first point -- tie up loose ends -- was mostly covered by our opening discussion of our Christmases.  In thinking about this, I know that both I and Carrie still have some Christmas things up in our houses, as we do decorate for winter.  In fact, at my house the tree is still up.  We did take the manger scene down and replaced it with a lighted log cabin.  I am also in the process of winnowing through a tote of Christmas and winter decor, and most of it is headed for the thrift store.

The second point concerns gift closets, and both Susan and I did go through ours this year.  I threw some things away and sent some to the thrift store.  I also found a couple of gifts in an area where gifts had previously been stored.  One went to the gift closet and the other to the thrift store.

 I do need to print and fill out a gift closet inventory form to really make the best use of this storage space.

The third point involves making a Rudy Day tote to have a way to stay ready to celebrate each month.  It's a lovely idea, but probably something none of us will make time to do.

The fourth point is a fun project: recycling Christmas cards.  We are going to do that at our February meeting, but I still have 2018's and 2019's cards, so hopefully I will turn a number of these into gift tags before that time.  The tags pictured below are from a previous year.

 Susan has placed a number of reminders on her phone for the various months, and for February 1 she has a note to herself regarding Valentine's Day: to plan, make, send Valentines or Valentine gifts, or to plan a special meal or activity for Valentine's Day.  

Susan likes to send Valentine cards and maybe gifts; Carrie usually makes a special meal or dessert for her family.  When my kids were in college (a long time ago now) I sent Valentine care packages.  Now that it's just Mr. T and myself, I might make a special meal or dessert, or we might go out.  We don't usually exchange Valentine cards or gifts, preferring to save the money we would have spent on these things and use it on getaways instead.

 Above you see my to-do list to accomplish before the next Christmas Club meeting.  It includes making gift tags from 2018's Christmas cards; printing out and filling in a gift closet inventory form; and going through cookbooks to identify new recipes to try for kitchen gifts.  (For example, I am planning to retire my bran muffin recipe as I just don't like it anymore, and so am looking for something different to replace it.) 

 We will see how well I do.  But it does feel great to have met for Christmas Club -- and on Rudolph Day, to boot!

January's Rudolph Day

I have a busy day ahead (preparing for a number of lunch guests at our home tomorrow) so am not sure just how much I will be able to do regarding Rudolph Day.  I thought at the very least I could write a blog post regarding the to-do list I made during Tuesday evening's Christmas Club meeting.  Recall, Susan had given each of us a sheet of notebook paper she's been hoarding for some time, and gave us an assignment to quickly, right then, make a to-do list of what we have to do toward Christmas 2020.  So here's what I wrote:

TO DO

Order Christmas stamps to use in 2020

Make tentative gift idea list for Christmas 2020

Go through cookbooks/December magazines and identify new recipes to try for Christmas 2020's kitchen gifts

Finish putting away the after-Christmas bargains

Make gift tags from 2018's Christmas cards

Update my Christmas card address list

That looks simple enough.

However, that "update Christmas card address list"?  I've got to admit that other than the address list for my card swap friends on the craft forum,  I've never really had a Christmas card address list.  Shocking, I know.  I have my work cut out for me on that one.  Even more shocking, after all these years without such a list, I finally think it's a good idea!

October's Rudolph Day

Wow!  Can you believe it?  After today, there is just one more Rudolph Day before Christmas!

This is the message inside the card pictured at top of post.  This card was in my Etsy shop and sold quickly.

I really have not done a lot of Christmasy things today, but I did complete a personalized Shutterfly project that will be a Christmas gift for one of my grandchildren.  I dare not be more specific in case the recipient reads my blogs, but I am quite pleased to have gotten this project completed -- and for free, too!

Recently in chatting with my Nevada daughter she mentioned that her kids have often fondly reminisced about the Quiet-Time Puzzle Kits I've occasionally made for them in the past, and talked about what a fun gift that was.  So I am thinking I'll make those again this year.  They're simple and quick to put together.  Inexpensive too.

She also gave me a couple of other good ideas for easy gifts I might make for her kids.  So I have no shortage of ideas ... just time. 😃

It's possible that tomorrow I may be able to accomplish something else toward Christmas -- like making up my tentative Christmas baking list. We will see!

September's Rudolph Day

Suddenly it's September 25 -- Rudolph Day! 

I'm still trying to figure out where the year has gone, and September has flown by even more quickly than the previous 8 months.  It's crazy!  Still, here we are, and the few months remaining before Christmas must be used wisely. 

I'm planning to take my Christmas notebook along on an upcoming vacation, and will hope for some good planning time and for inspiration to strike. 

Some shopping has been done,  and I have the gifts for two grandchildren completely taken care of.  That helps a lot, but there are still quite a few to figure out. 

My Nevada daughter gave me the idea of making some felt food for the youngest grandchildren.  She mentioned that although there is plenty of felt food in their house, their youngest (soon to be 4) has no felt food of her own.  Which reminded me that my second youngest granddaughter (soon to be 5) has no felt food of her own either. 

So I'm going to do a few simple things, probably like these Felt Cinnamon Rolls ,

Crocheted Donuts,

and maybe some Christmas Cookies as well.

 All of these are very easy and are ones I've made before. 


When I went looking for some fresh ideas, I turned first to my Fun with Felt Pinterest board.

From there, I ended up at this new-to-me Etsy shop, Treehouse Patterns.  What amazing felt food patterns she has created!  These are downloadable pdf files, and I think they are very reasonably priced.  I bought 2, and am excited about making some of these felt goodies for my youngest granddaughters!

So, for our upcoming vacation, you can be sure some felt, thread, and patterns will be in my crafting bag.  Since I already have 1 other gift each purchased for these little ones, the felt food will finish off what's needed for their gifts.

I'm thinking that, other than some Shutterfly gifts already completed, and a few others planned, that the felt food will be the extent of my handmade gifts this year.  We will see!

How are you coming with your Christmas planning?  Are you making any handmade gifts?  Comment and let me know!

Rudolph Day for August

Rudolph Day fell on a Sunday this month and I really did nothing Christmasy on that day, being busy with other pursuits like church in the morning and a  hike to a lake in the afternoon.

But I have been working on a few Christmas gifts as Shutterfly free offers come along.  I can't say much about what I am making, but I will say I've made a few items similar to this:

A couple more Shutterfly packages arrived on Saturday, so I'm calling that my Rudolph day. 

It was a bit low-key this month, but I am thankful to have quite a bit of my Christmas shopping already taken care of!

Let's celebrate Christmas in July with a cookie!

Photo and recipe from Jamie Cooks It Up!

It's high time, I think, for one last recipe, and what better day to try out a new Christmas cookie than on July's Rudolph Day?  There could hardly be a more celebratory cookie than this one: Soft Frosted Chocolate Peppermint Cookies from Jamie Cooks It Up!.

These sound incredibly delicious -- starting with a soft, rich cookie made chocolatey with both cocoa powder and milk chocolate chips.  And brown sugar!  I think any chocolate cookie with brown sugar has a greater depth of flavor than one made with white sugar.  These are a molded or shaped cookie rather than a drop cookie -- that is, you form the dough into balls.   To my mind, this always produces a nicer looking cookie.

And then the frosting -- white chocolate and cream cheese will make it nice and creamy, and both peppermint and vanilla extracts (plus crushed candy canes on top) give the perfect flavor to top the chocolate cookies.  

I've learned to trust recipes from Jamie Cooks It Up!.  They are always scrumptious, easy to follow, and well written.  This looks like another keeper.

Happy Rudolph Day -- and please pass the cookies!

Rudolph Day for June

This gorgeous vintage card is available in my Etsy shop, A New Hampshire Attic

I basically accomplished very little toward Christmas yesterday, June 25.  Still, I managed a couple of small things so thought I would share.

*  Two of my recent gift orders arrived from Shutterfly.  For obvious reasons, I can't share photos of them here or even say what they are, but it was fun to see them arrive and think about how much the recipients will hopefully enjoy them.  I haven't stashed either one in the gift closet yet, as I wanted to show my hubby how nice they came out.

*  I did a bit of planning toward Christmas in July here on this blog, which will be starting up in July.  I'm finding some wonderful ideas!

*  I had thought I would play some Christmas music on my tablet while doing a bit of cross-stitching last evening.  I decided against it only because of time.  I stuck with the "music for quiet studying" I'd been using, rather than take time to hunt up Christmas music.  That way I had just a few minutes more for cross-stitch.

See you here on Monday, July 1 for a whole month of Christmas in July!

When Rudolph Day feels like Rudolph Week

I have been busy the past couple of weeks ordering Christmas gifts from Shutterfly utilizing various free offers.  I know that at least one family member reads my Christmas blog, so I guess I'd better not say just what the gifts are.

It's been fun this week watching the gift orders come in.  There is just one left to arrive so I know that won't be here until next week.  But this week has felt so Christmasy as the gifts have rolled in that I thought it would make a perfect post for Rudolph Day.  I've done nothing celebratory today, but my week has felt that way anyhow!

Last year I made the above ornament from a free Shutterfly offer and gave it to my daughter and hubby for Christmas.  I could never have imagined it would turn out so well.  Even though the boys (at left) are not in the photo as much as I wished they would be, it still came out so nice and tells an entire story.  The recipients loved it and my daughter took these photos of it hanging on their tree.

Below you see the back side of the ornament.  These can be personalized in a multitude of ways.

If you have ever considered a photo ornament and have wondered how well it would turn out, I can assure you that these ornaments are high quality and beautiful.  They make wonderful family gifts!

With my Christmas notebook on Rudolph Day

Yes, I actually did something Christmas-related on January's Rudolph Day!  Well, not on the actual day which would have been Friday -- that was way too busy of a day.  I did this work on Thursday.

But before I talk about that -- isn't this the niftiest vintage scene featuring an old coal stove?  I found it in some old Christmas cards I am going through to list and sell on Etsy.  This pretty scene just caught my eye.

The sheer curtains, the sleeping kitten, the sprigs of holly decorating the finial atop the stove, the candles and ornament in the window, the braided rug and wooden bucket filled with berries -- oh, I just love it all!  Even those little oval silhouettes on the wall remind me of my grandmother's front room.

Anyway, for Rudolph Day I was able to spend some good quality time with my Christmas notebook.  The first thing I did is a given for me after Christmas: I took a fresh sheet of Christmas-themed computer paper and listed down everything that we gave for Christmas gifts.  Of course, I had already made a list,  on plain notebook paper, but some things changed with the actual gift-giving:   I couldn't locate a source for a particular gift, I changed my mind, etc. etc.  I had started this list the previous  January, and inevitably in the intervening months, my list had been scribbled on, crossed out, and so on.  So that there will be no confusion next year and I don't give someone a duplicate book, game or whatever, I make a nice, neat list.  It gets filed in the back of my notebook in a section titled Christmas past.

Then I take a fresh piece of lined notebook paper and start a new list for the coming Christmas.  Some things are going to stay the same, pretty much.  We always give my husband's boss and his family a big gift basket full of treats, for example.  We usually give my mother-in-law a jar of homemade hot cocoa mix, some homemade bran muffins, and a bag of clementines. Other gifts, like a science center membership for one family, a gift card for another, etc. will be the same again next year, so I've made sure to write those down.   I have already purchased a couple of items for next Christmas, so I've written those down as well.

I also took a fresh sheet of notebook paper and started listing ideas for 2019 birthdays.  I just jot down each person's birthday and their name, and I do this in order of where the months fall in the year.  We don't have any birthdays (other than my own) until March, so I start there.  I already have a few birthday ideas, having seen how certain Christmas gifts were received. 

Elsewhere in the notebook, I also like to note any new recipes we tried and how we liked them.  And I make a note of any new decorations we added, where we put them, and where I will be storing them. So I've done that.

Then later on in the day, I sat down with my Christmas debriefing form from Organized Christmas.  I like to use this each year to evaluate how the holiday season went and what needs to change in the coming year.   I don't always find the time for this exercise, but this year I did, and the results will be a blog post for another day!

How was your Rudolph Day?  Did you observe it in any way?

Free Christmas printable kit!

Image from The Elli Blog

Just in time for Rudolph Day, here is a fun free holiday printable kit from The Elli Blog to help with your Christmas planning.  The ideas and printables are so inspiring!  I love the rustic wood look of the backgrounds and the colorful touches of classic red and green.

I downloaded the food tags and the recipe cards and they are very pretty.  In addition, there are stickers, gift tags in both round and rectangular options, wrappers for jars or boxes, gift wrap, and much more. 

The recipe cards would be great if you are giving a kitchen gift and want to include the recipe.  Or you could print out a half dozen recipe cards with favorite Christmas recipes and tie them up with jute or red or green twine to make a lovely little gift or stocking stuffer.

The possibilities are endless with this free printable kit.  Have fun with it!

Eggnog Iced Coffee

Recipe and photo from Cheryl at Tidy Mom

Now, isn't this just the perfect beverage for July's Rudolph Day?  A wonderful, festively flavored iced coffee!  Here's the link : Eggnog Iced Coffee.  It's from Cheryl at Tidy Mom.

I am posting this on the 24th because it's a cold brew coffee and needs to be started the night before.  I've never tried making cold brew coffee, but I've heard many good things about it and so I will be giving this recipe a try tonight. 

The only catch to making this in summer may be if I'm unable to find eggnog.  I believe Borden's may make a canned eggnog that's available year round -- they used to -- so I will check into that.  Otherwise I can just use a little extra cream, some extra spices and a dash of vanilla.

Try this and let me know what you think!  Have a wonderful Rudolph Day tomorrow!

June's Christmas Club meeting

(The pretty vintage card above is available in my Etsy shop.  I love the pastel candles tucked in among the berries and greenery!)

So yesterday, our little Christmas Club had its June meeting at a local library.  Only three of us attended, but it was an encouraging and productive meeting!

Actually, as I informed the other ladies, we had a fourth, long-distance member who was with us in spirit: Vicki, from Christmas 24/7/365.  Vicki lives in Arizona, so obviously she could not get to the meeting, but I have told her she can be an honorary member of the club. We are delighted to have you, Vicki!

Another blogger who was unaware of our meeting but was in a way present at it was Pamela, from The Lady of the House Speaking.  I had printed out copies of her post presenting 5 ways to make Rudolph Day fun and productive, which is truly worth the read.  Pamela suggests fine-tuning a craft on Rudolph Day, as well as a festive recipe.  She adds several other ways to make your Rudolph Day special, so head on over and read the post!

We agreed that it probably wasn't likely, with our busy lives, that we would do all five things on any given Rudolph Day, but Pamela provides a wonderful plan if one has an entire day.  I know some people celebrate Rudolph Day on an adjacent weekend, if the 25th of the month is too busy.

We discussed our summer and fall plans a little bit.  All three of us will be traveling during the fall at various times, so we agreed it's even more important to meet during the summer and get ahead of the game as much as possible.

One of Carrie's goals was to get her Christmas gift list started.  She did get money for Christmas gifts  put in the  budget.  And she actually began the list yesterday, so that's a good start on her goal.  I have my gift list started (I admit I usually begin it in January, after I've seen how the previous year's gifts went over).  Susan still has her list from last year, as she didn't use it.  So one of our assignments for the July meeting is to get our gift lists completed and fine-tuned.

I shared that I had purchased my Christmas stamps for the coming year.  (I actually ordered these in January. ) You can find all sorts of stamps at usps.com and I highly recommend doing so right away.  The only downside might be that if new holiday stamps come out between now and then, you might wish you had waited.  I ordered global stamps as well for my out-of-country Christmas cards.  It's going to be so nice to have these all ready to go when the Christmas cards are.  No last-minute trips to the post office for Christmas stamps.

Susan brought up the topic of neighbor gifts.  She has done gifts of cookies, and also small loaves of banana bread.  I usually do cookie trays, but have also done other things like hot cocoa mix, tea breads, scones, even granola.  One of our neighbors always makes a sourdough rye bread which we look forward to every year.  Another family makes jars of salsa using ingredients from their garden. There are loads of ideas on my Kitchen Gifts Pinterest board, so if you are looking to change up your neighbor gifts, or start a new tradition, you will want to check that out.

We set a tentative date of July 19 for the next meeting.  In addition, I'm hoping to post every day that month for Christmas in July, and planning a Christmas in July sale for my Etsy shop, so it should be a festive month indeed!

Christmas Club meeting for May

Last Wednesday, our little Christmas Club met at a local library.   I just realized I'd better post about this while I can still remember what we talked about! 

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!