hanikia with husbands parents and christmas at my parents hoouse hubby stays home me oh fancey pillows from the world market thats on sale now at 10 a piece

ZF, with my family life in chaos, I have found thinking about Christmas to be more stressful.  However, I did purchase at an art fair today a calender for my mom, with woodcut pictures of birds.  I think it will be something she likes. It's nice to think about what people would like, that is always a good process for me.  

latenightleader:

ZF, with my family life in chaos, I have found thinking about Christmas to be more stressful. 

latenightleader:

It's nice to think about what people would like, that is always a good process for me.  

Well, my Christmas plans just changed dramatically. I will need to be organized to get the gifts where they need to be ahead of time.

They just posted the holiday schedule at work. My "group"- people clustered together by management to make sure all shifts have the needed levels of experience, is assigned to work Christmas. Since I work nights, that means I work Christmas night. Since some RNs have left, and instead of replacing them, other RNs increased from PRN to part time or full time, each of us is supposed to pick up an additional 6 hour shift "so all shifts will be adequately staffed".  If enough of us don't volunteer, we will be assigned.  No one is allowed to take vacation time over the holidays - period.

Since none of our children can come home for Christmas this year due to work & med school rotations, I talked to DH, then signed up for the full 12 hour shift on Christmas Eve.  Our staff is mostly young mothers, who I think should be home with their children if at all possible, & I can make that happen for two people by taking two 6 hour shifts that night. So my "best" gift goes to the unknown recipient.

Zohnerfarms: I think that is a wonderful thing you are doing and you are one of those co-workers that we all wish we had. You are truly a great person.

I made a great find of dayplanners yesterday at Michaels for only $1.00 ea.  They also had full size wall calendars but I really like these dayplanners because they will make great stocking stuffers for DIL and granddaughters.  I also intend to use them as last minute gifts to have on hand at the office.  I purchased 10 of them because thats what I felt comfortable taking out of my grocery budget since unfortunately, I don't have a Christmas budget set up yet. I plan on making 75% of my Christmas gifts this year.  The other 25% are male relatives that I just cannot come up with anything to hand make for them.  I am making golf towels for one of them because he will appreciate them. 

As for meals, for the last 20 years we have had a tradition, my SIL and I get together and put on a buffet or themed meal on Christmas Eve after church.  My MIL and my other SIL, fix traditional Christmas dinner at my MIL's house.  My 30 year old niece helps my SIL and MIL.  We joke with them that our team is short since they have my niece helping but my dear DIL has joined "my team" so things are even again. We've done it for the last 20 years and its worked for us.  One person isn't overwhelmed with the expense and stress of feeding a large group and we enjoy the friendly female compeition we have going.   

 ZF, I hope to be working holidays someday soon, I will be in nursing school next year.  I remember working in mental health for years, those of us assigned holidays would get together afterwards for potlucks as we wouldn't travel.

I am thinking about making soap, has anyone done this?  Not just the melting and adding scent and color and pouring, but making it?  I don't know how much it would cost to do this.  

latenightleader:

I am thinking about making soap, has anyone done this? 

I have made goat's milk soap before. I get the milk for free, but you could use cows milk, too.  You need water, lye & some type of fat - I use a mix of olive oil & canola oil. The oil is the most expensive part, but the lye is the hardest to find.You need a measuring spoon, an old wooden spoon to stir (it won't be good for anything but soapmaking after), a large stainless steel bowl (MUST be stainless steel- no aluminium) or plastic 5 gallon pail to mix in, and a cooking type thermometer. There are lots of recipes on the web.  Pay attention to the details, since lye can be very dangerous if you don't follow the directions exactly.This can take a couple of hours.

Using 4 cups goat's milk & 5-6 cups oil, plus one hefty cup of lye, I made about 30 soaps using molds.  I use the containers that hold Hotess cupcakes for my molds, or the plastic bottom to the "lunch-type" fruit cups. The molds need greased with vaseline before filling them with the soap mixture, so you need vaseline, too. I cure mine on pieces of cardboard, lined with paper towels.  I figure I spent about $15 on the supplies & ingredients, which made my soaps about 50 cents each.  Remember that they need to cure for at least 6-8 weeks before using, so you need to make them pretty soon. I let mine age for a year, but most people are ok with 6-8 weeks.  (Once you have had a lye burn, you are forever after very careful) 

Hope that helps.

This year is def. going to be smaller than most, I know I say that every year, don't we all?  But I hope it is. I have already started buying little things for DD stocking and gifts, really cheap as I go, but I am going to let her know this year, its about love and family and keeping it together.

We will bake cookies again and pumpkin bread, thats it.  My family that lives in another state will get a phone call. Thats that for us.

I am looking forward to decorating a REAL tree this year with some really cool ornaments I got from Arrowhead last winter, half price... really woodsy looking.  It should be pretty!

dmc

 I make gifts for family members like baking, bath salts, jellies etc.  It's hard to buy gifts for my kids too far in advance because they'll change their minds and then I've got the wrong gift.  I try to buy anything early and on sale.  The kids don't get tons of gifts so shopping for them isn't difficult.  We use gift bags and sometimes wrapping paper if we don't have a gift bag the right size.  Gifts for other people usually ends up being a gift card of some sort.  

We also love to get a gift card from our local grocery store, tuck it into a card and put it in the mailbox of a family we know could really use it.  Someone did this for us once and ever since when we can afford to we do this for another family.  You can write your name on the card or give anonymously as we do.

 We usually eat Christmas dinner at my parents house.  She has cut down the stress buy only making a turkey.  The rest of us have to bring a dish so my mom isn't cooking everything herself.  We help with clean-up.  She's the only one who has a house big enough to accommodate the whole family so we all help so she doesn't get stressed over hosting.

 One of the favorite Christmas activities for my kids is decorating the Christmas cookies.  Some of the simple things end up making the best memories.

 zf, thanks for the recipe, I will look for the lye starting now.  Otherwise, might just try to make the bath bombs, that sounds like it might be smarter with preschoolers around, and the lye.  

dmc- we can always get a treee very cheap, we live in tree area.  I spend about $20 for a big one.  I love the smell.  One year we had one that wouldn't stand up for anything, I think it tipped about 5 times.  Your ornaments sound cute.

dirandp, I love making cookies, now my oldest kids have taken over.   Maybe I'll make some spiced nuts this year.

Christmas will be here sooner than we think!  It is nice to hear about everyone's plans, sounds like most of us are cutting back some and having a little simpler holiday.  

We're definitely cutting back both the quantity and the amount spent!  However, I have found that my year-round shopping has really paid off this year.  Thanks to some generous price reductions, I've been able to buy better gifts than last year, while spending the same or less than last year! 

Of course, I can't tell you the number of times I've been the subject of really strange looks from sales associates when I make a declaration like "Wow - this would make a wonderful Christmas gift for <insert recipient's name"   I'm usually tempted to say something like,"What?  Doesn't everyone buy Christmas gifts in the middle of summer?"

Did I mention that I LOVE shopping for Christmas gifts?  Thanks to my frugal eagle-eye ( and a lot of suggestions from helpful Stretchers), I'm getting good at Wow On A Budget gifts