I know it may seem early to some, but with the early arrival of snow at our place and the excitement of the holidays approaching, I thought I would make a list of all the things I like to do to prepare for a fun and less stressed holiday season.
100 Ways to Prepare for Christmas
Six to Eight Weeks Before:
1. Make a list of people you would like to have gifts for.
2. Pick a gift theme.
3. Plan out any gifts that need to be made by hand ahead of time.
4. Design your holiday card.
5. Get your holiday cards printed.
6. Check your addresses for holiday card mailings.
7. Prepare your envelopes for mailing.
8. Start collecting items for stocking stuffers.
9. Sort your decorations, replace any hangers or bulbs prior to they day they are needed to
decorate.
10. Plan any holiday parties you will be hosting.
11. Book your hair appointment with your favorite stylist for upcoming holiday parties before
the rush.
12. Set up your Advent Calendar.
13. Donate any old toys, clothing, items to charity.
14. Start pulling out decorations to add to your home decor.
15. Deep clean your home in preparation for winter.
16. Book your dog sitter or kennel if you will be traveling over the holidays.
17. Gather holiday movies.
18. Make a holiday playlist for everyone to enjoy.
19. Get your chimney professionally cleaned and ready for the winter.
20. Make Christmas Pudding.
21. Buy stamps for Christmas Card mailing.
22. Take stock of your pantry.
23. Replenish any pantry items you will be needing.
24. Put your snow tires on your car, get it winter ready.
Four Weeks Before:
25. Visit a Christmas Tree farm near you to support local farmers.
26. Book your live tree if you are renting one.
27. Do any meal prep that can be done ahead of time and put in freezer.
28. Start your cookie baking and freeze cookies.
29. Order any gifts that need to be delivered to avoid the rush.
30. Grab a turkey when they go on sale after Thanksgiving and freeze for Christmas.
31. Write a letter to Santa.
32. Mail your letter to Santa.
33. Make some hostess gifts to bring to holiday parties.
34. Light a fire to enjoy while decorating.
35. Design your holiday table centerpiece.
36. Write your annual holiday newsletter.
37. Mail your cards on December 1st
38. Purchase your favorite wines and spirits ahead of time.
39. Each week add a few items to your grocery list to add to your pantry for Christmas.
40. Plan a holiday brunch for the day after Christmas.
41. Invite friends for a cookie swap.
42. Put up Christmas Lights
43. Put the Advent Calendar out.
44. Decorate outside of your home.
45. Put up your tree and have a trimming night.
46. Decorate inside your home.
47. Get the family new matching holiday PJ’s.
48. Call the local food bank to see what is needed for holiday hampers, pick up a few things on
your next grocery visit.
49. Pick an Angel and deliver a few unexpected gifts for this child or adult.
50. Plan a day to help at the local soup kitchen, make it a team effort.
51. Make a homemade gingerbread house and freeze until closer to Christmas.
52. Prepare any gifts for teachers, bus drivers, dog walkers.
53. Mail any packages that need to travel far.
54. Make sure you have enough wood for the winter for the fireplace or a bonfire.
55. Decorate your stairwell.
56. Gather branches to make a Christmas Wreath for your door.
Two Weeks Before:
57. Do a ten minute tidy and clean every day to keep your home visitor ready.
58. Plan an impromptu night of caroling.
59. Prepare thank you basket on your porch for delivery drivers dropping off parcels (think,
water, sodas, snacks…)
60. Defrost your gingerbread house.
61. Decorate your gingerbread house with your favorite candies.
62. Sort out gifts that you have made or purchased and see if anything is missing.
63. Wrap gifts that are ready.
64. Clean the guest room.
65. Prepare any linens for guests coming to visit.
66. Plan your menu for the week leading up to Christmas.
67. Deep clean the kitchen.
68. Make salt ornaments with your kids.
69. Trim the tree with cranberry and popcorn garland.
70. Host a baking night for the fresh baking that needs to be done.
71. Hang your stockings.
The Week Before:
72. Go for a drive and admire the holiday lights.
73. Go for a walk in town to see the decorations.
74. Go Ice Skating.
75. Take the toboggan’s out for a ride (weather permitting).
76. Pick up any last minute items that need to be fresh from the grocery store.
77. Figure out if any gifts are missing and be sure to finish them up.
78. Finish any wrapping of gifts.
79. Make the hard sauce for the Christmas Pudding.
80. Host a bonfire night.
81. Have a “Random Act of Kindness Day” ~ make sure you aren’t stressed or busy that day,
carry around gift cards for coffee (or something fun) hand them out to people who look like
they could use a smile.
82. Decorate the table with your centerpiece.
83. Make Tourtière for Christmas Eve (freeze).
84. Make Christmas Punch.
The Day Before:
85. Do one last tidy through the house.
86. Turn the NORAD Santa Tracker on to watch where he is visiting.
87. Wrap any last minute gifts.
88. Cook ahead any of the dishes that can easily be reheated (potatoes, squash, stuffing).
89. Make homemade egg nog.
90. Stuff the stockings.
91. Enjoy Tortière for dinner.
92. Go for a walk with the family.
93. Watch “It’s a Wonderful Life”, “White Christmas” or another favorite holiday movie
together.
94. Prepare a breakfast Strata for the morning.
95. Set the table.
96. Set your coffee maker to brew first thing.
97. Prepare a plate of cookies for Santa.
98. Read the ‘Night Before Christmas’ together before bedtime.
99. Go to midnight services on Christmas Eve.
100.Go to sleep knowing you are fully prepared to enjoy!
Apple Crisp season is upon us!! The apples are ripe on the trees and ready for the picking. A favourite in our house is Apple Crisp (although my Grandma called it Apple Betty) and while I love to eat them, I don’t always love to make them, peeling apples, getting everything ready and make it, only to have left overs for days.
So, through the magic of Pinterest and my Grandmother’s recipe, I have created a single serving Apple Crisp. You can make it in the microwave, toaster oven or regular oven. And you can make it in a ramekin, a mason jar or a mug, the choice is yours!!
All you need is one medium apple to make a single serving, well that and some oats, flour, butter, spices… you get the idea. You can truly just make one serving if you like. I made four so I could test out the different jars and cooking methods and hopefully my family will enjoy for dessert tonight.
I had to test out ramekins and mason jars in addition to microwave and oven.
This on was microwaved. It was almost exactly like the baked ones, the crisp, just wasn’t really crispy, like you get from the oven, but completely enjoyable for sure. Especially if you are away at school and only have a microwave to use, you could so easily impress your friends with a quick crisp.
Serves: 1
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 2-3 minutes in microwave, 30 minutes in 350ºF oven or toaster oven
Mix dry ingredients together, add apples and apple juice, stir, place into jar, ramekin or mug (make sure you mug is oven safe if using in oven)
Mix dry ingredients, cut butter into the oats mixture with a fork or your hands (I prefer hands). Place on top of apples.
Microwave for 2-3 minutes on high or bake in oven at 350ºF for 30 minutes. Enjoy! Garnish with vanilla ice cream or just enjoy plain!
**Please use oven mitts when removing from microwave or oven, dish will be hot and filling will be hot as well, use caution when eating.
]]>Fast forward to having a daughter to share my love of tea parties with and here we are. Since she was quite young she would host tea parties. In her room, outside, on the floor in the family room…wherever and whenever she could she would host a tea party. Even if it was just her and I.
We have the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa and they hold a High Tea. One of our daughters friends was going for a birthday party so I got all the questions. And then realized that I had never taken her! What have I been thinking? Since we can’t go yet, I figured I would make some tea treats to enjoy with a nice cup of Earl Grey. First up was the Irish Tea Cake.
Not too sweet, not too dense, not too dry, just right. The perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee. At first our daughter was wondering where the icing was, but once she tasted it with the sprinkled sugar she understood. It would have been too much to put icing on it. Although, when fresh strawberries and raspberries are out, we will be sure to make this again and enjoy with a bit of each.
Want to try it for yourself? A simple, quick and easy recipe that you can whip up in no time for guests to enjoy, or just for a random Friday.
I followed this recipe from Let’s Dish Recipe’s that I found on Pinterest. I had made one in the past, but couldn’t find that recipe and this one was as close as I could get. Enjoy!
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While both are delicious, it depends on how you like your jam. For us, both are welcome, for some they like consistency of one flavor so they only do early or only do late strawberries.
Biscuits are a family favorite here and it takes just a few minutes to whip up a quick batch to taste test our jam. I use my grandmother’s stir and roll biscuit dough recipe from the 60’s and I think of her every time I make some.
Never turn down a bowl of fresh strawberries!
Recipe:
60 min prep
longer to sit
makes 8-10 half-pint jars
Ingredients:
2 quarts fresh hulled strawberries
1 1-3/4oz package powdered pectin
1/2 tsp margarine or butter
7 cups white sugar
Instructions:
*You will know they are sealing when you hear pops as the jars cool.
Server on biscuits, toast, ice cream… your options are endless, we even just eat it with a spoon!
]]>We have a new puppy at the farmhouse!! While we are all very excited, it is a little bit of a happy/sad tale to tell and I have my daughters permission to share.
Late one evening in early February, our dog Bear bit our daughter in the face. While she is ok, she did have 17 stitches to put her lip back together. The plastic surgeon feels she will always have a scar, but we are doing everything we can to minimize that as much as possible. Our daughter is one of the strongest people I have ever met. Although she did absolutely nothing wrong and only went to kiss Bear on the head, when he snapped, she still felt in her heart it was her fault. We have reassured her many times that he had mental health issues and we had seen a few things that led us to be careful and to increase his training.
On the other side of that coin, our wonderful son, feels responsible because he played with him as a puppy a little rough. We have reassured him over and over that is is not his fault that Bear was just not right.
Hubby and I feel responsible because we feel we should have let him go when we first saw signs of him not being quite right. We truly felt that he was 95% amazing dog, but 5% not quite right. We felt in time, that that 5% would go away, unfortunately it did not. We consulted with the vet and even they couldn’t recommend re-homing him given what had happened. We had to say good-bye to Bear and start the healing process, both the physical and the emotional ones.
We promised the kiddos that there would be another dog in our life and it wouldn’t be too long. Just the right amount of time for everyone.
So, here we have…. well, he doesn’t have a name yet, but we have our new puppy. He is a border collie/Australian shepherd mix and so far a delight. It has been less than 24 hours, but he has adapted to his new family quite well and is already having me regret an upstairs office!
We love him and are looking forward to warmer weather and fun times outside!
He is super fluffy right now and loves to chase me and his tail, all around the living room. I will update with his name as soon as we figure that part out.
Welcome to our farmhouse kitchen, where all of the magic happens. This is where we cook, hang out as a family, hosts guests, celebrate pretty much everything, the farmhouse kitchen. It is always said, that everyone ends up in the kitchen. We decided that when we renovated we would include a couch and tv in the farmhouse kitchen, so that we could all hang out no matter what.
There is nothing else to say, except that our original (to us) farmhouse kitchen was not very pretty. We are sure that when it was first done and full of family and furnishings, it likely didn’t look that bad. However, if I can’t imagine cooking in it for a family of four, then I really can’t imagine cooking for a family of 6!! The cabinets were built to last anything and the sink/cooking area was extremely tiny. We knew we needed to just tear that all out and fit whatever we could back into the space. It took some wrangling of pieces, but we managed to do it.
We didn’t want to move the electrical and plumbing, so we managed to find counter depth fridge and stove (not our smartest move with a family of four, but we make do), a farmhouse sink and great cabinets. The cabinets, sink, stove, microwave, hidden dishwasher and countertops are all IKEA!! Seriously, Ikea should be making their next commercial in our house! We fit the cabinets with mere millimetres to spare, but we did it. The corner where the coffee maker is, is a blind corner at the bottom, there was just no way to make a useful cabinet in that corner. The cabinet under the lower window is a sink cabinet, we (and I use that term liberally, as I suggested it and hubby did it) managed to cut down the cabinet and made it fit beautifully as though it was meant to be. We did all the installation ourselves and had rather awesome praise from the counter installers as they said it was the most flush cabinets they had ever seen! So proud of hubby and all his hard work to make sure they were all level.
Hubby’s great suggestion was to add the glass doors to the row of cabinets between the windows. I am not a fan of the glass doors as everything needs to be matchy matchy and tidy in there, but we managed to put the white dishes and glassware in those cabinets so I don’t twitch when I look at them and the glass reflects light and makes the wall look like a bank of windows instead of just two.
We went with a farmhouse style table, again from Ikea, that opens up to seat a large amount of people. I think the most we have had around the table was 16. We are a family that eats dinner at the table every night. It is our tradition and we have kept it up for over 20 years now, so having a great table to share our day is important to us.
And last of all the couch corner. All four of us can actually sit here together if we want to and watch a game, we have since installed another tv where we have more room or can use both rooms at the same time if there are lots of people watching together. This is the family room and the kitchen all in one. We love it, we use it every day, and we wouldn’t change it for anything.
]]>I almost always used candied cherries instead of dried cranberries as they give it an extra little something. I also would cut them into hearts, but hated that I lost cookies with the trimmings, so I started to cut them into squares. Then one day I had some mini chocolate chips to use up and thought, why not? Then I cut them into rectangles instead of squares.
A few weeks ago, I wanted some cookies for a workshop I was hosting, but I didn’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen. I remembered Martha’s Shortbread and that I could whip them up in minutes. Now I can barely keep them in the house, Hubby sneaks a few, the kiddos sneak a few, then all of a sudden the tin is empty. I throw together another batch, changing it up slightly and poof! Those are gone too! Thank you Martha Stewart, for giving us quick and easy shortbread for all to enjoy!
40 minutes
serves 24
Ingredients:
1 cup of butter, softened
3/4 cup of icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup finely chopped dried cranberries, or candied cherries, or mini chocolate chips
Instructions:
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I pulled together a batch of these energy bites for the kiddos this weekend. A quick and easy recipe that anyone, and I mean anyone, can do. I used a basic recipe I found on Pinterest and then changed it up for us with the things we like and can eat. Basically, you can make changes to these recipes based on you and your family. We don’t do nuts here (I am now allergic) and we don’t do dairy. I took out hemp seeds and added carob chips instead, you could put in a number of different seeds and goodies as you see fit.
Energy Bites for Your Kiddos – Thin Mint Flavour
20 minutes
30 servings
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup dates
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp peppermint extract
1/4 cup carob chips
Instructions:
Add ingredients to your food processor, pulse to start the blending. Once the dates have started blending in it will start to seem crumbly, continue processing, everything will start to pull together and when it is all pulling from the sides stop the processor and pinch a bit between your fingers. If it holds together nicely, you are ready to roll. Roll into 1″ balls. Chill. Enjoy.
]]>We seem to enjoy these brownies far more than many other treats, mostly because they are so simple to make. All you need is a pot for the stove and a baking pan and you are good to go. We share them with friends often, sending a tray over the barn for the gals working or a tray to the boys at the field when airsoft is in season. We always make extra so we have some left at home by making a double batch. Making a double batch is very easy, just double the brownie ingredients and use a 9×13 cake pan.
The secret to the gooeyness, which is the essence of the Farmhouse Brownie, is that you must stir the eggs, sugar and vanilla into the melted butter and chocolate very well. If you don’t, the brownies turn out tasty, but more dense and not as gooey. You know it is just right, when the batter has an elastic consistency and wipes clean from the side of the saucepan. Once this happens you are ready for the flour.
40 mins
24 servings
Ingredients:
1/2 c butter
2oz unsweetened chocolate
1c sugar
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla
3/4c flour
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8x8inch baking pan and set aside.
In a large saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat. Allow to cool a little, you don’t want it too hot when you add the eggs.
Add vanilla, sugar and eggs. Stir until well combined.
Add flour and mix well.
Pour batter into greased pan. Bake at 325F for 30 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.
We cut these into about 1″ squares to make them bite-sized, not that you can’t make them bigger, but this way you are enjoying just a bite and they tend to last longer. You can ice these with your favorite chocolate icing, however, we prefer them plain. Serve with a glass of milk, vanilla ice cream or all on their own.
Which ever way you decide to enjoy them, just make sure you include a friend or two to share with.
I am a beach girl at heart, but I married a guy that always dreamed of living in a farmhouse. So now, I live in a farmhouse.
I can’t believe it has been ten years since I opened my photography business! And even more than that since I first made my online appearance as BeachMama. I am so grateful for the amazing clients I have worked with over the years. I have truly done it all; from portraits to conventions, head shots, businesses, weddings, as well as newborn and maternity sessions. I am so happy to be an owner of a beautiful farmhouse/studio/crafting mecca. I can’t wait for you to come visit!
It is a joy to wake up everyday to the beautiful light that skims the fields surrounding the farmhouse. There is such a warm and inviting feeling here, that makes you just want to invite people over. This feeling inspired me to relocate my portrait business to the farmhouse. I love to play hostess. Sitting with friends and family on the front porch with a glass of lemonade and scones is my favorite way to pass the time. Sometimes I may even enjoy a glass of wine (or two) on the front porch!
If Martha Stewart, Ree Drummond and Joanna Gaines had a baby, I would be that baby. I am a crafting goddess; I have yet to meet a project I couldn’t complete. Baking and cooking are two of my favorite pastimes. You cannot stop in at the farmhouse and not enjoy something homemade.
When you do stop by the farmhouse, hopefully you will get to meet my husband, my two children and our fur creature, Bear. You will usually find Hubby working around the yard, and the kids are often helping me as assistants.
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