Never! I’m already plotting cross stitches and cards.
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Your cards were fabulous! They must be incredibly time consuming! I am amazed and honored to have received one!
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I think it’s fun to work on seasonal items during the actual season- bonus joy if you’re not racing a clock!
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I have two finished black jersey scrunchies, and now I’m working on some extras in some other fabrics.
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Yes, post-Christmas Christmas crafting is great! You’re still in the mood for Christmas but there’s no pressure. And future you will thank you in November.
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I agree. I had three projects on the go at the end and didn’t get two done in time and the last one was not to my satisfaction. So I definitely think I need to start now.
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Haha. #truth
Perfect! ha
Looks great! Clever idea, I had no idea this existed. When I travelled alone when I was younger I sewed an extra pocket on the inside of my jeans where I kept a banknote.
Christmas is two days here, so we’ve had the First Day of Christmas and now it’s the morning of the Second Day of Christmas. Yesterday we had a friend over, today my whole family.
The meal we had yesterday was relatively simple for Christmas (not a dozen dishes on the table) but it was generally healthy and easy to make. I was surprised at how easy, I’ll post a schedule later. Tonight is turkey, and we’ll have more guests, so hope that all goes well 
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So, the promised schedule for a simple but nice and stress-less dinner for a small group!
We started with chicken vol-au-vents, we then had roast beef, roast potatoes, sprouts and squash in honey-mustard sauce for veg, and dinner was poached pear (guest was lactose intolerant and doesn’t have a sweet tooth). I prepared the chicken ragout and the poached pears a day before, so that’s a cheat. Both dishes take about 15 minutes to prepare and both taste better on the second day anyway.
After breakfast, the first thing I did was peel the potatoes, squash and clean the sprouts and prepared them (the potatoes had some herbs on them, the sprouts and squash were drizzled with a marinade that consisted of olive oil, balsamico, honey and mustard) and put them in the oven for 30 minutes. Then I let them cool in the fridge and counter (potatoes don’t deal with fridge and clingfilm very well, so I put them on the counter covered with a clean teatowel).
The meat for the main course was a roast beef, we got a small one (about a kilo) and they typically don’t have the bone here. I rubbed it with lots of pepper and salt, browned it for a couple of minutes in a cast iron pan, then transferred to the oven for 45 minutes on a lower temperature (145C). After about half an hour, I put the veggies and the potatoes back into the oven with the meat. When the meat was done and resting on the counter, I put the oven on a higher temperatures to get the potatoes and veggies a bit crispy.
All in all, when our guest arrived, I only had to go into the kitchen for 5 minutes at a time, to put things in and out of the oven or quickly heat something. It was super relaxed and even our guest commented that they’d never experienced such a relaxed Christmas dinner - healthy and cooked from scratch but without stressed people in the kitchen, just barely noticeable trips to the kitchen every now and then. 10/10, will serve this exact meal again, I’m sure.
The second day of Christmas, my family was … like my family. Chaos. I knew it 
Here, too, I decided to serve vol-au-vents (mushroom this time) as the starter, then turkey, chicken, the leftover sprouts and squash, potatoes and macaroni as sides. After my experimental veggie main course failed last week, I’d asked in our family group chat if anyone had a suggestion for a vegetarian main course, and my mother answered that she’d bring one. We agreed on a small dish, that could go into the oven when the turkey was resting, together with some other things - I let her know the exact temperature/oven time so she could figure out if that worked for her dish.
Well, instead of with a finished dish … she turned up with a bunch of ingredients. And didn’t even start preparing until the turkey was resting and I was going through the most busy 20 minutes in the kitchen - heating up things, putting things in and out of the oven. We have a small kitchen so she was in the way constantly, asking where she could find a clean oven dish (nowhere, they’re all in use!) tomatoes (we don’t have them!) herbs/spices, moving whatever I needed etc. Her dish ended up spending too little time in the oven and honestly wasn’t great. She’s a good cook but she’s not good at planning these kind of things.
When I agreed to let her do the veggie dish I knew something was going to go wrong And I’m no longer stressed out by it. She doesn’t like to be away from home for very long anymore, so my family only stayed for about 4 hours, and that’s enough. I know she’s kind, but she’s constantly asking “what can I do, what can I do, what can I do?” out of kindness but all the time, I’m trying to come up with things to keep her occupied and not in the way. I tried telling her to sit down and enjoy the festivities, but that just doesn’t work, she feels so guilty for not doing anything when she’s sitting down. But whatever tasks I give her, she ends up doing something completely else. At the end of the day, I still haven’t talked to anyone really, because I’m constantly trying to manage her. I remember my grandma was like that at that age, when she was transforming from the stereotypical “mother” role to the “older lady” who was comfortable sitting down and letting other people do the work. I suppose this is what happens when we all get older. I just try not to tell her she’s behaving like grandma
On the upside, after I finished writing them for this year, I finished a bunch of cards for next year! All papercraft too, which isn’t my main craft. I actually really like how they’ve turned out.
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It all sounds lovely to me. I do miss some of the family chaos…our holidays are rather boring now with just the two of us.
My sister keeps people out of the kitchen by setting up a puzzle that everyone can work on and she threatens no dessert if it is not done (it is usually a fairly simple holiday puzzle…).
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Oh that’s smart! Maybe an idea for next year. We’ve been thinking of how to do this new tradition of family Christmas and I think we’re probably hosting for the forseeable future.
It was the first time celebrating it like this. Growing up we all went to my grandma’s house, the chaos was much worse as my mum is actually the least chaotic of all her siblings, but my grandma’s kitchen was also 3 times bigger than ours (also a galley kitchen, but 6 meters long and worktops along both sides) so we weren’t in eachother’s way as much 
All my uncles/aunts/cousins and partners were there, plus some random other people that got invited. It was lots of fun.
Then Covid happened, she died, and we stayed at home for a couple of years. This was the first Christmas post-Covid and other relatives decided we weren’t going to get together with the whole family anymore. So we’re just figuring out this whole new tradition of our mother (divorced parents and not everyone is in touch with our father) all kids + partners together for Christmas.
Everyone’s relationship with everyone is a bit tense, and most subjects are a bit tense. Christmas is a time when people talk about the past, but it’s complicated to discuss that subject in our family because there’s a lot of history. I think I get along the best with our mother, and I don’t mind her friendly helpfulness that much, but I know some other family members get so annoyed by it that they’re at risk of exploding, and to avoid that I keep finding tasks for her.
All in all it wasn’t that bad, we all tried to behave ourselves. No one is looking for a fight (although I was very afraid of that happening, when one sibling blurted out “I wish our dad died instead of this other person” to the sibling who is closest to dad, but they managed to stay civilized). We have cousins we’re quite close to, and it was easier when they were around for the festivities, they really lightened the tension. Our parents’ generation decided to not get together anymore, not us.
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Here’s the puzzle I had set up for grandparents to work on with the grandkids:
It was semi-successful. No one bugged me in the kitchen anyway, but I’m not sure how much everyone actually worked on the puzzle. 
Your menu sounds great @Immaculata! We did salmon (baked) and London broil (grilled), smashed potatoes, roasted veggies, home-made rolls (my first attempt!), and salad. Family also brought ziti and stuffed mushrooms and I made a vegan spinach and artichoke dip appetizer. Wasn’t too bad but we were about 30 mins behind schedule and there was a lot of oven competition! We had snow ghost (chocolate) and pumpkin pies for dessert. 
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Sounds very tasty!! I had never of snow ghost pie but I googled it and now I want to eat it lol.
A very early or late finish, depending on which way you look at it.
This is one of a series of three, I’d finished two and misplaced nr. 3. Ages ago, not sure if I lost it December 2022 or an earlier December (magazine was from 2020). I finally found it back and it was nearly done, only needed about half an hour of stitching. Now I have all three of them stitched, finishing them will be one of my goals for Christmas 2024!
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Very cute!!
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I say you are off to a good start for 2024! I am making some Christmas ornaments for our knitting guild 2024 tree (just because the yarn is interesting and I was bored!).
I actually do plan on making a lot of things early this year, especially more cross stitch!
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