Notes From Christmas…

I’m writing this post from our hotel room in Portland. It’s check-out day. The kids are still sleeping, and the Mr. is tip-toeing around our suite collecting all their stuff. This feels like the end of Christmas season. We’llĀ  make the 5 hour drive home today, I go back to work tomorrow, and then it’s New Year’s Eve. Time to switch gears from holiday mode to new year, new decade, smash those goals type of vibes. Before this magical mood slips away though, I wanted to take a few minutes to make some notes about Christmas 2019.

Every year during the holidays I find myself saying “next year I’ll do this”, but then next year rolls around and I never remember – or I remember too late! With that in mind, this is my list of things that worked really well for our family this year, and things I’d like to do differently next year.

christmas 2019

[wc_fa icon=”heart-o” margin_left=”” margin_right=”” class=””][/wc_fa] What I loved about Christmas 2019

Going downtown to see the Christmas displays
This year we went to different places than we normally do for shopping, and I loved seeing all the trees and lights on Robson and at McArthur Glen. I want to do more of this next year.

Lots of time with friends leading up to Christmas
Our social calendar was packed this year, but I loved it! We went holiday shopping with friends, did dinners, an even cookie decorating. Some years we don’t do “Christmas stuff” until just a few days before, this year all the hangouts made for a really good holiday build up.

Christmas cookie decorating & brunch
We hosted our first ever Christmas brunch with cookie decorating. I definitely want to do this again next year, and maybe even plan a more complicated baking task with the girls. Brunch is definitely a type of entertaining I would do again.

Family Christmas Eve
For the first time in 5 years, all my siblings, their spouses & kids were together on Christmas Eve. It was exhausting, overwhelming, and a little crazy for me to take that on, but I would definitely do it again! It was lovely to have our family together for the holidays.

christmas 2019

[wc_fa icon=”heart-o” margin_left=”” margin_right=”” class=””][/wc_fa] What I want to do differently next year

Designate a day/time for decorating the tree
We kind of did our trees in bits and pieces over a few days. Charn set them up, Zara took out and put up some decor, I changed it around (lol). Next year I want to designate one afternoon to actually decorate the tree in one go. Kind of like the kick of Christmas 2020

Start shopping earlier
I say this every year, but so far I haven’t been successful. Here’s to hoping next year things are different.

Do more baking
We gave out a lot of generic chocolate boxes this year. I would love to do some more baking or chocolate making next year. It would be lovely to be able to share home made treats with friends and family. Or maybe we could make some sauces for easy pasta dinners post Christmas?

Plan something for Christmas morning
I was so exhausted from Christmas Eve dinner this year that we did nothing on Christmas Day! Maybe next year I’ll make pancakes a few days ahead, or set up a frittata mix the night before. It might also be nice to set a pretty table for Christmas morning.

 

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