Oct 27, 201109:51 AMWomen's View
Controlling the Holi-daze
Is it just me or does all of my free time vanish when November 1st rolls around? This is the time to start planning for the holidays. Thanksgiving dinner needs to be planned, Christmas shopping needs to start, Holiday cards need to be ordered and mailed, Christmas decorations need to put up, and our annual Christmas vacation needs to be organized. It’s crazy and chaotic. I love it but it’s all just a whirlwind of activity. It would be nice to be able to just enjoy the holiday season. So, I have a plan this year: let other people do some of the running around.
First, for Thanksgiving dinner I’m having as much of it catered in as possible. After budgeting out what it costs to buy the food and the time it takes to make it, I can easily have someone else do the hard work. Odds are my family will actually appreciate me not do the cooking. The food will taste better and I will have time to spend with my loved ones. Of course, my mom has to make her homemade sweet potato casserole but other than that everything else can come from the local Kroger store. I’m sure there are fabulous locally owned catering companies in Cincinnati that will make you a scrumptious Thanksgiving feast but I have to say, Kroger does an amazing job. I can order a turkey with all the fixins’ and while I’m lying on the couch watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade my husband can go pick everything up.
The beginning of November is typically when I start my Christmas shopping. Luckily, my favorite places to shop are already in full Christmas mode. Camargo Trading Company has their holiday open house on Nov. 2nd from 5-9. I can knock out half of my shopping list and they wrap the presents. Nothing beats a great boutique to shop at other than a great boutique to shop at that also wraps. My other go-to place this shopping season will be Cheers to Art. This is such a unique place and will make the perfect gift. At Cheers to Art you can paint and have a glass of wine (or beer). It’s a fun way to spend an afternoon or evening. They offer gift certificates in varying amounts. Even if my friends don’t normally paint or are not artistic they will enjoy this experience.
I have a kind of radical idea for decorating my house this year. We’re planning on having a couple of holiday parties so I want the house to look very festive. Not just my typical Charlie Brown tree in the corner but something warm and inviting that reeks of the holidays. Sacksteder’s Interiors will come in and decorate the house from top to bottom. We will still have a tree that we will decorate as a family while the rest of the house will be professionally done. I love the idea of my house looking like a holiday wonderland but I don’t have the time to make that happen. My toddler girls will be over the moon. Every year they beg to put a tree in every room of the house. I think they will like what Sacksteder’s comes up with better than the pink, shiny pop up trees I usually put in their rooms at Christmas.
I never do outside holiday lights but every year promise myself that next Christmas we will do it up. There are tons of companies that will come out and do the outside lighting display for your house. Google it. It’s not that expensive either…well, the cost of the decorating isn’t expensive but the electric bill is another story.
As a traditionalist, it seems a bit against my nature to have Thanksgiving dinner catered and someone else decorating my house for Christmas. However, I’m also a working mom and the most important parts of the holidays, for me, include spending time with my family. Cooking and decorating will still be part of our holiday season but on a small, more manageable scale. I’ll have time to take my girls to the Festival of Lights at the Zoo AND our home will be decked out for the holidays. Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!
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