@Beth C – this is so smart to send birthday cards by the month. Quick and efficient but very personal and shows you thought ahead (a text is still caring but could be like hey, I just looked at my calendar). I’m unsure if card sending is fading or not. We got a ton of photo cards…but a lot fewer personal messages attached to them. So it’s interesting how people choose to split that.

@Beth – this is great! I love your list and your verdicts. I’m sorry airfare was so expensive, that is a bummer. But I love the idea of going to B&N and getting December magazines – I am totally going to do that next year. Streaming the Messiah sounds like a win to me too – any way one listens to it is great. Thank you so much for sharing these!

1. Spend time with friends and family. I have 3 different events with friends that people have scheduled, plus a family celebration for my husband’s milestone birthday. It should provide a nice amount of good cheer without being overwhelming. Result: Success. Some things got added to the calendar, and one 7 day stretch at the beginning of December did end up feeling a bit overwhelming, But all in all, lots of good times with friends and family.
2. Take a quick trip to Quebec City with my adult daughter. I don’t usually like to do vacation stuff in December, but my daughter really wants to head up there for a long weekend and check out any Christmas markets that they have. Trips with adult kids don’t happen all that often, so I’m going for it. It is a quick flight from our area, and if it is freezing cold, at least I know that there will be maple lattes to warm us up…..Result: We did not get to this. My daughter ended up traveling two weekends in a row in early December, and airfare from Philadelphia or Newark to QC was…outrageous. We’ll do something else later this year or try to nab fares to Qc for next December before they skyrocket.
3. Head to Barnes and Noble and scoop up an assortment of holiday-themed magazines. This is a long-standing tradition for me-I will bring most home, but will grab a warm drink and peruse one while there. It seems to me that the number of holiday-themed magazines has dwindled-I remember that McCall’s and Ladies Home Journal had good holiday issues back in the day. Result: Success, although my frugal self wondered how one person could end up spending so much $$ on December magazine issues.
4. Spend an afternoon at home curled up with said Christmas magazines, Result: A resounding success!
5. Take some time to wander aimlessly around a few of our local shopping centers to soak up the decor. Result: Success, and I actually got a few random gift ideas for my husband by wandering around.
6. Visit Trader Joe’s and Aldi to see what holiday treats they have. I became a huge fan of Trader Joe’s chocolate drizzled kettle corn a few years back, but then it disappeared. The following year, my wanderings led me to discover that the popcorn had migrated over to Aldi. I already have purchased a bag this week…Result: Success. I was proud of myself for buying only the popcorn. I discovered that I STILL had uneaten TJ’s peppermint bark in my snack bin leftover from last year, so resolved to look longingly at the treats without buying them.
7. Order photo holiday cards-we have a great family picture from the wedding mentioned up above. I haven’t done this since we took a great picture of us in our Christmas pajamas a few years back. Result: Success!
8. See if I can find a local Messiah concert. Result: Failure. However, I did manage to listen to a lovely Messiah concert that Duke University streamed for a few days for members of its Osher Living Learning Institute programs. I cranked it up so that my husband could enjoy it while he was paying bills and I was addressing holiday cards.
9. Try to see the holiday trains at the Morris Arboretum in the Philadelphia area. This has been on my list for years, but it is a bit out of the way for us. Result: Another fail. I tried to combine that outing with a meal at Vernick Food & Drink in Philadelphia for my husband’s birthday, but discovered that I was a week early,
10. Try not to stress out about the fact that I haven’t given any thought to gift ideas as of yet-and since I try to do a lot of my shopping from the comfort of my couch on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I really need to get started…..Result: I exhausted myself, but stayed glued to my laptop and got most of the gift shopping done on those two days.

@Elisa- we’ve been using Earth Balance – it comes in multiple forms, but one is a butter flavored stick, so that works for baking.

@Sarah K – that sounds like a great tradition. We at least are a few days after so it’s not exactly on top of Christmas but close enough that it’s always going to be meshed together to a degree. I realized that the most obvious day to open presents from cousins would be on his actual birthday but it just felt wrong. That still needed to be his special day- his other siblings don’t have to watch their siblings open presents on their birthdays!