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Stay Merry This Christmas

 The holiday season is upon us, and if you are pregnant the mere thought of all of the shopping, cooking, cleaning, and everything else that you usually do for the holidays might leave you feeling exhausted. Fortunately, as with many things, the expectations that other people would place on you during the holiday season are likely to be far lower than those that you might set out for yourself. Here are a few tips for making the holiday season a little bit merrier and a little less stressful. First of all, make sure that your holiday schedule is realistic. Do … Continue reading →

Waiting to Take the Christmas Decorations Down

I have been accused of being a “bah humbug” when it comes to Christmas decorations. That’s because I am usually counting down the days until all of them come down, including the tree. While the first couple of weeks I really do enjoy the festive look of Christmas throughout my house, it begins to die out. Suddenly all I can think about is getting my house back to where it was. I miss my family pictures, currently being replaced by angels and snowmen. I miss seeing out the window, currently blocked by the Christmas tree. Actually, I just prefer the … Continue reading →

Making This a Stress-Less Christmas

We are just a few days away from Christmas. If you were to ask me if I feel ready, I would have to honestly say no. But at the same time, I’m not sweating it. Gift shopping-wise, I am fine. In fact, this is the easiest I have ever had it. No adults are exchanging and the only other children in the family are my nephews. But my sister and I agreed to not buy for each other’s kids this year. My children want money, so I don’t even have to pick their gifts out. So in this department, I … Continue reading →

Summer Christmas Desserts

Christmas pudding has never been on the radar at Christmas in our family, mainly because my dear husband won’t eat it. Instead Christmas dessert is more likely to be Lemon Meringue Pie, Lemon Delicious Dessert or Pineapple Coconut Pie. All of these recipes are up on the food blog. Pavlova is another favorite Aussie Christmas dessert, though not is much in our house as it is a bit too sweet for my liking. I’m actually just as happy with fresh fruit salad and frozen yoghurt. But this year I might just try something different for Christmas dessert, a recipe a … Continue reading →

Christmas in Summer

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve here in Australia. That means the last day for shopping and getting all those last minute food items. Not the ham though, I got that today. It also means I will be busy cooking pork and chicken and making babaganoush. Given a summer climate we don’t go into for roasts dinners on Christmas Day. Years ago we decided to go for what its better suited to the climate and have cold cooked meats and an array of salads. Tabouli is always one of our family’s favorites. But some of the other salads vary. As well as … Continue reading →

The Ward Christmas Party- Crunch Time

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I am stressed. I am not going to lie. The ward party is less than two weeks today and I have so much to do. I have sign-ups galore to deal with, and reminding people, making things, and doing the decorations. We have food to shop for, and caroling groups to coordinate, gifts to buy for the band that is playing. I wonder what the Bishop was thinking? I am such a high stress person. A worrier. I worry constantly about little details that the night of, no one will even notice, except me. Well, maybe there will be a … Continue reading →

Decorating for Christmas

Decorating for Christmas can be a chore or a lot of fun depending on your outlook. Pretty much our approach to Christmas decorating is to keep it simple. I’m not a crafty person, so me making Christmas decorations is never going to happen, unless they were dead simple like a couple of Michele’s suggestions. At the recent Christmas ladies night our church held, all I managed to do was provide amusement for the other ladies at our table. That’s okay, I figure you do the things you can and don’t worry about the others. I’m looking forward to putting up … Continue reading →

Taking the Stress out of Christmas

Following on from ways to reduce stress on your marriage and family at Christmas, here are some more ideas. If you are planning on visiting parents, in-laws or siblings and have to travel a long way, leave yourself plenty of time. Don’t try and rush from one place to the other. This only leads to stress and accidents. Try and amuse the children on long road trips. Sing songs, talk – children often open up a lot while someone is driving, play I spy, read a book together and talk about it, let them play games or listen to music. … Continue reading →

Take a Step Back and De-Stress This Christmas

Instead of stressing out about food and baking and so on at Christmas, why not let everyone chip in? A lot of get togethers of people I know, work on the basis of people combining food to make a birthday or special occasion or Christmas feast. Someone might bring dessert, another salad or a casserole or nibbles. It doesn’t matter. If people have a special dish they like make and want to bring it, fine. We often take dessert because I’m gluten free and some people seem to think it’s a hassle making gluten free cakes and desserts. It’s not. … Continue reading →

Celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas

For the past week my twins have been sick. One even wound up in the hospital due to dehydration and digestive complications. He is fine now, but we had a scary and tiring week. Until the illness and hospitalization hit us, I was feeling very organized about Christmas. I’d cleared my calendar to have four days alone in the house for house cleaning, finishing up the shopping, getting some meals made ahead, and mailing presents. We did manage to get the presents sent before the hospitalization, and I don’t have too much more shopping, but oh the house. We have … Continue reading →