The Holidays are upon us

I love the holiday season. It always makes me feel snuggly in my home and thankful for great friends and family. And I love the decorations.

We had Ed's sister and her dh up over the weekend and spent a wonderful day with them. She loves my lasagne and says it's even better than Olive Garden's, so naturally I made a huge batch so she would have take home leftovers. She had hosted Thanksgiving so I think it was a nice for her to comfortably hang out for the day. I love having her over because we are both kitchen-bodies and make ourselves totally at home in the other's kitchen. As soon as we walk in the door of the other's home we are in there washing the working dishes, wiping counters, grabbing table service, and shooing children away from dessert platters. We work very well together.

Even though Christmas will be at Aunt Betty's this year, everyone did agree to come out the Saturday before for an afternoon and dinner here. It's an hour drive out to the farm for some of them, but I do think everyone loves visiting the "farm" during the holidays and seeing the animals. Since Betty's doing a traditional holiday meal, I need to plan something a little different for Saturday's dinner for about 15. I'll need a meal with fantabulous desserts and then snacks for the gaming tables later. You know what this means. You got it, a binder! Lists, tabs, color coding, and all that will be in order.

We put our tree up on Sunday and then after I ran into town for some shopping yesterday I finished the decorations. Well, the figurines and all that, I still need to arrange three full totes of garland and get out the holiday dishes. That's the project for today.

How's your shopping going? Is your list huge or managable? Do you even know what half the things are on your children's list (I don't have a clue)?