Holiday Prep

Is it that time again? Yep! It’s actually a hella late start for me I try to start my holiday prep in January so I can pick away at it all year. That is a habit born of being broke for several or more years of my adult life. I would shop all the crazy after Xmas sales at Michael’s and Jo Ann’s and snag craft items I could whip up for the next xmas, or decorations I could give as gifts or add to our collection. (75-90% off was my jam) I also spent the whole year visiting tag sales and secondhand shops looking to luck out on clothes, books, toys, etc, that were in excellent condition and perfect for the people I was shopping for. Our Christmases were always pretty amazing despite the bad financial times. Anyway….

This year, due mostly to the pandemic, I am starting now in mid-October. Eek! We need to save money this year for sure. Everything is unstable at this point; jobs, the political climate, the actual climate, just everything, so we are trying not to spend too much, trying to build up a cushion in case we need it. In a shocking development, to me at least, I am pretty much forced to buy all our presents new. There has been no browsing the aisles at charity shops, no tag sales, nothing like that. I have to order everything online to be safe. So were doing a category thing:

One thing you Want
one thing you Need
one thing to Wear
one thing to Read
one thing to Eat
one thing to Drink
one thing to Play
one thing to Make

That seems like a lot until you realize that our ridiculous “normal” was 15-20 presents each thanks to my shopping strategies. So this is a significant cut back BUT I will be forced to get it all new so that kind of shifts the cost back up. I’m still looking for deals, of course, and I’m doing ok. The categories are mostly broad and a lot of the items will end up being cheap, like something to drink is going to be tea for a few of us and rootbeer for a couple, only my hubby will get expensive as he wants scotch. Something to eat is cheap too. I have requests for chocolate, pretzels, ‘fancy’ ramen, smartfood, and crackers so far. I expect my remaining daughter to request dill pickles. My son asked for underwear for something to wear, my husband needs jeans, one daughter asked for a jacket. I’d pay a lot less if I could shop second hand but hopefully the novelty of getting stuff brand new will make it worth it this year. Yikes.

Stockings will be stuffed with mostly practical items; hand lotion, toothbrushes, shampoo, etc, and food treats like cocoa packets, mints and so on. There may be socks, or gloves, probably a few homemade items. I love the stockings, I like to get creative and fancy with them, make them specific to the recipient and all, but this year will be a little different and that’s ok. We will be surrounded by all the decorations, and we will have our little feast. We will play games and watch movies, and read aloud, and it will be lovely.

Soon my son and I will begin planning said feast. He will peruse our Harry Potter cookbooks and surf Youtube cooking videos and come to me with suggestions. He wants me to make spotted dick for dessert this year, I suspect mostly because of the name, and I will. It has raisins in it and it sounds kind of awful but I’ll make another dessert as back up and it will all be fine.

Oh, I need to get holiday crackers, I need to put that on my list! I have a whole binder that keeps me on track for Yule/Christmas. It’s a thin binder, nothing overwhelming, I used to just use a few pages of a spiral notebook. For years and years I used a notebook and all I wrote in it was a list of gifts for each member of my little family and a list of their stocking stuffers. Since I shopped all year and hid things away I really needed those lists of I might forget which gift went to which person. It also helped me keep things even as far as number of gifts and $ spent for each of them. As each present was wrapped and tagged I would cross it off. It was really helpful for knowing if something was missing and I needed to hunt it up but as systems go it was very, very basic. In 2017, after visiting Diagon Alley in FL, I got it in my head to make us a Harry Potter Christmas and nothing was going to get in my way.

I made us all House Stockings and scarves and I made a bunch of decorations. Google search was my best friend as I looked for ideas on how to create this first themed Christmas. I cooked up a storm too, making a Hogwarts/English Christmas feast complete with butter beer and other such treats. It was all this crazy activity that lead me to improve my system. Instead of just present lists I needed to keep track of many projects I was working on and create a schedule for myself for both the crafts and all the cooking. It’s kind of funny, I used to stress out horribly on the big holidays and now I am relaxed and enjoying them. I am on track to be finished with all but wrapping and meal prep by the end of October!

The Binge… Isolation Viewing

Too subtle? I’m playing on “The Purge” a movie about everyone legally committing crimes for 24 hours once a year, even murder. Instead of that heinousness, in this the hours, days, weeks, and months of our current apocalypse, I am bingeing videos, shows, & movies. I comfort-watch a bunch of shows like Parks & Rec, Brooklyn 99, Community, The Tick, Sherlock, etc. Now I’m all caught up with The Rookie, Grey’s Anatomy, Criminal, etc. I could still track down and catch up on the Doctor Who I’ve missed, plus a few others. I’m hunting for a new show to become a comfort show after viewing the entirety. These are mostly lighter shows, comedies usually, stuff I can fall asleep to and know that nothing super dark will happen to give me nightmares.

I binge police procedurals, The walking Dead, Dexter, and other heavier shows too, but not these days. If I’d noticed it earlier I probably would have been into Pandemic or Outbreak but, as fictional as I am sure they are, they are too real right now. I heard about another one that was medical-based too and the second season deals with… the black plague? It must involve time travel? Stress is destroying my memory.

Stats for Quarantine so far:

Most Watched: Community (Hulu)
Commentary: A Late Show & Last Week Tonight (Youtube)
Weirdest Movie so far: Under the Skin (Netflix)
Tried it, didn’t stick: Dr. Ken (Amazon Prime)
Funny so far: Schitts Creek (Netflixs)
Want more episodes: The Rookie, Grey’s Anatomy, Law & Order SVU, The Orville, Good Omens, (that one is not going to happen but What a Gorgeous Show) Firefly. (no, I will never stop wishing this.)
The World as I wish it: Liziqi (Youtube)

Other than watching shows I did pick up my knitting last night. I’m sorry, I should have made sure you were sitting down before typing that. I hadn’t knit a stitch since we locked ourselves down. I knit several rows on what will probably be the last Harry Potter Washcloth I knit for awhile. A small part of the reason I stopped knitting was that I was bored of the washcloths. I’m knitting my way through Harry Potter Knitting Magic; by Tanis Gray but seven washcloths is a lot. I’ll finish them up at a later date but I’m ready to move on. Think my next project might be the Beauxbatons Capelet or one of the House Mug Cozies. I’ll have to see what I have the materials and needles for. A very cool book if anyone likes to knit. It was a post-Xmas gift from my husband because it didn’t come out til January… I think. While I knit I am, of course, watching shows or videos, mostly Liziqi or tiny house tour videos.

What are YOU doing during isolation? Please let me know! I’d love to hear from you, other humans, people… is anyone out there still? ~_^

knitting by the book update 2/13

snowy weather and illness means i’ve had more time to knit lately! i’ve finished 3 of the horcrux washcloths and started a 4th.

completed: cup, diadem, and nagini. started: ring.

so, i finally ventured out to the greatest yarn store to get supplies for upcoming projects. i’ve got yarn to finish all the horcrux washcloths, for the house colors mug cozies, the nagini lariat, the beaubatons capelet, and i jumped the line and bought a bag of yarn for the order of the phoenix throw blanket because it was such a good deal. at the moment i am slightly bored with the washcloths and keep reconsidering my plan to knit all of them, but i’m about halfway there anyway so i am going to try to stick with it. my plan is still to make items for each house when a project calls for it… at least through the scarves. when i get to more advanced projects, like the house cardigan and all the socks and such, i may pick one house and move on. i would go back and make the other houses later because of course i want to make all of them.

i’ve also finally packed away almost all the harry potter xmas decorations. i still have the house banners up because the dining room always looks so sad once i take them down. everything else is back in boxes in the closet waiting for next winter.

first project finished

i’ve finished the first horcrux washcloth and am working on the second. i finished the hufflepuff cup and have started the ravenclaw diadem. we ventured out today to get yarn and needles for upcoming projects and failed pretty hard. i was able to get approximate colors for all the washcloths and some to make an upcoming nagini project but that was it for yarn. i’ll have to head down to webs to get expensive yarn i guess. oh well, it will be much nicer yarn too so it’ll work.

more later, i’m beat and need to make dinner. cheers all! and happy knitting.

knitting by the book

it seems i got a late xmas present from my sweet husband. he bought me harry potter knitting magic and it just came out. i’m psyched that it seems to have projects of every level. i’m not an expert knitter by any stretch of the imagination so I’m starting with one of the beginner level projects.

i’ve been pretty much a beginner for decades so i think i’m going to try to use my love of all things harry potter to force myself to make real progress. i’m going to try to knit through the book, make all the projects starting with the simplest all the way through the most complex. i don’t know if i’ll be able to make everything, i have so much to learn, but i am going to try.

i’m on row 40-something of the “cup” horcrux washcloth. there are 7 of them and i will probably make them all and then pick the next project to attempt.

oh, and my computer is having issues, the shift key doesn’t work very often so hardly any capital letters. Its’s a pain.

Enjoying the Season

Ahhh, I am settling into something of a new routine, getting things done and keeping organized. You know, more so than previously…

My son and husband took a workshop on pie making. I am 100% in favor of this. Here is my son’s finished pie.

I am getting close to finishing the third scarf I’m giving away to the teens next month: Hufflepuff. That will leave only Ravenclaw to go!

I find my son’s jack o’ lantern’s new expression adorable and hilarious:

It kind of looks like a pirate to me now; Arrrr! Both pumpkins have been set by the compost pile to do their thing.

I’ve started my holiday menu planning and shopping. I bought our ridiculous 22 lb turkey today and I cannot wait to go all Gordon Ramsey on it. My son has request goulash for Yule/Xmas and I think I’m going to go with it. Last year we did a roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, the year before was chicken and ham pie I think… Whatever, it will be a wonderful day, it usually is. Thanksgiving should be great too. Gordon’s turkey goes a long way to making the feast.

This year I’ve decided to do everything I can to keep the holiday season merry and bright at least from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day. We’re signing up for workshops to make ornaments and wreaths, looking for holiday activities and events we can go to and I’m thinking of hosting a gathering for food and cheer with some holiday music playing in the background. That last one is a little iffy because of the effort involved and how much cleaning my house needs before I try to host a party. My decluttering is set in boxes which are all over the place. Oh! We could have weekly movie nights where we watch holiday movies and eat popcorn and have cocoa and stuff! ^_^ What do other people do? Any ideas?

Physical and Mental can get in Sync Any Time Now….

I’m physically falling apart and mentally starting on an upswing. It’s actually super weird because I feel like I can tackle anything, in my head, but my body does Not agree. Usually my head is the one dragging me down, telling me I can’t do something, and I’ll feel physically confident even though I am a huge klutz with limited skills.

I’ve been quite tired for a bit now and achey. I keep getting minor injuries, bruises and that, from crashing into things, (klutz) or stumbling, or the other day when either my IBS was acting up or I had food poisoning. Yeah, I seem to have lightly pulled a muscle in my back … from puking. LOVELY. I keep turning my ankles stumbling just enough to keep them achey. It’s ridiculous.

Meanwhile, I’m busy cleaning, decluttering, working on fun projects for work and for myself. One project is I’m knitting house scarves (Harry Potter reference) for the teens at the library. When I show Sorcerer’s Stone in December I’m going to have puzzles the teens can complete to enter a drawing for the house scarf of their choice. I really hope I can get all 4 done in time. I’m only halfway through the Griffindor scarf at the moment.

I’ve also been reading more, trying new recipes, getting ahead scheduling events at work, managing my time better and saying NO to things I don’t have time for or don’t want to do. I’ve also been working on enlisting the kids to do more around the house. There’s just so much and they need to develop the skills for when they’re on their own. (whatever they may believe about me exploiting their labor)

Before I pop off, here’s a book recommendation: Hollow Kingdom; by Kira Jane Buxton. It’s insane, funny, touching, heartbreaking, filled with expletives and still reverent. I don’t want to give anything away. It’s Wonderful.