Post Christmas Notes

Our Tree - One More Time!

Some of My Favorite Gifts-Perfume from my Hubby, Earrings from Shane!

Closer View of Earrings from Shane - Garnet in Silver!

Wild Game of Uno - Christmas Eve!

Thank You Dear, Sweet Pat for my Paula Deen Cookbooks!!!
(My husband actually had a funny remark about me recieving cookbooks. I may share it at another time!)

Hope you had a sweet, memorable Christmas! I can barely believe, after all the excitement and anticipation, that the big day is behind us already.

We had a lovely family celebration at our home. Everything went smoothly and we spent lots of time relaxing and just enjoying each other. We did have lots of occasions for entertaining and loved every minute of it.

Shane is having a ball with his new presents, especially the Smithsonian Lab Set that Santa brought him. Josh will be enjoying all his gift cards to area restaurants; but seemed the most pleased with his gift card to his favorite jewelry store!

I noticed that several of our neighbors have already put their trees out at the curbside, ready for brush pickup. That's just another reason we're considering purchasing a good quality, artificial tree for next year and it must be pre-lit! I enjoy leaving my tree up for a week or two into January so I can continue to keep our home festive for a little bit longer. I love having the time now, after the holiday rush, to sip my hot chocolate in front of my lit tree and reflect on the past month and the days to come. I think it is so sweet to wake up each morning and see the tree lights already on as testimony to the fact that my hubby enjoys doing his morning Bible reading by the lit tree.

However, here are a few things I've been doing today:
New Year's Day , 2007. . .

a) Posted my New Year's Resolutions. I've chosen several things I want to do in the new year and I've posted this list near my computer. This way, I can see the list daily and be sure to contribute something to ensure my resolutions are kept each day throughout the year.

b) Avoiding the supermarket. Before buying any new food (besides some staples such as milk and bread), we eat up all of our holiday leftovers. It's great because it saves me quite a few days of cooking. It saves us money because we always ensure everything is eaten before it goes bad. Plus, it helps us clean out the fridge for all the healthy food we want to get in there for the new year.

c) Stored all the Christmas wrap. I've been organizing and storing all of our holiday wrap, bows, tissue paper, gift bags and ribbon for next year. I've invested in several clear, plastic storage boxes which will stack in our garage. This way I can see what is in each box and be able to easily purchase what I need, if anything, next Christmas.

d) Made returns. We received two gifts this year that needs to be exchanged for another size. I already filled out the exchange form, applied the return sticker, and called UPS to come pick it up this week! (They were items I had ordered through a catalog company as gifts for my family.)

e) Wrote out Thank You's. I'll be writing out a thank you card each day for those people who were kind enough to give or send us gifts. I plan to have them all in the mail within the next week.

f) Journaling/Blogging. Over the next few days, I'll journal things I want to remember for next year. I do this in my special Christmas Journal that was purchased for me as a gift by my Mother several years ago. I've already indicated what I purchased or made for my gift recipients. I'll also indicate what we wore, what table linens we used, what dishes we had, what people seemed to especially like and more notes like this that we can reference for future holiday celebrations. I'll be blogging more about these things and my resolutions in the coming days I'm sure!

The beat is on for the new year!