Ideas for next year? (before you forget)

[Bod]

I will remove all ties from presents and insert batteries etc before wrapping - it worked very well this year
I will also start the assembly of any toys well in advance!

[robyn]

We will stay at home...

[DustyMcBrush]

We will stay at home...

ditto!!! We spent no more than 2/3 hours in any one place and it was too much.

Would defo do the advent activities again, was very nice to know that December was sorted and we had lots of fun things to do!! Maybe I should do one for every month!

Think I would open stockings in bed next year and do less on xmas eve

[robyn]

we're finally back home - have been away since the 23rd, and it's been hard work. next year I plan to be upduffed and stay home!

[Heidi]

Would defo do the advent activities again, was very nice to know that December was sorted and we had lots of fun things to do!! Maybe I should do one for every month!

I really liked out advent activities too, so I've been trawling the crafty blogs the last few days, and have decided to set up a basket of ideas for Thom to choose one from every day after school. We have this awful "no-mans land" time between getting home and having tea, that he is currently filling with TV.

[shye]

Would defo do the advent activities again, was very nice to know that December was sorted and we had lots of fun things to do!! Maybe I should do one for every month!

I really liked out advent activities too, so I've been trawling the crafty blogs the last few days, and have decided to set up a basket of ideas for Thom to choose one from every day after school. We have this awful "no-mans land" time between getting home and having tea, that he is currently filling with TV.

This is a really good idea! My struggle is the difference in needs between Birdy & E. E wants to play games and puzzles and pretend... Birdy wants to destroy everything!!! But a basket is a brilliant idea... for when we're stuck.

[DustyMcBrush]

Would defo do the advent activities again, was very nice to know that December was sorted and we had lots of fun things to do!! Maybe I should do one for every month!

I really liked out advent activities too, so I've been trawling the crafty blogs the last few days, and have decided to set up a basket of ideas for Thom to choose one from every day after school. We have this awful "no-mans land" time between getting home and having tea, that he is currently filling with TV.

Good idea. I saw it a bit ago on the chasing cheerios blog but never really did anything about it (plus the chasing cheerios lady, although amazingly inventive, is a bit much for me!) but now would be a good time to start gathering some activties. Do be sure to share ladies! (pinterest?)

[Louisianablue2000]

I really liked out advent activities too, so I've been trawling the crafty blogs the last few days, and have decided to set up a basket of ideas for Thom to choose one from every day after school. We have this awful "no-mans land" time between getting home and having tea, that he is currently filling with TV.

That is such a good idea. Feeling very virtuous after DD1 and I did her thankyou cards today copying this idea (and by the way there is no way her child did those cards since my very neat 4 year old had more random penguins than these): http://mollymoo.ie/2011/12/homemade-christmas-cards/ but not sure if we could keep it up on nursery days, my advent activities on those nights were 'watch a DVD' or 'eat a mince pie'. But I guess we are home from nursery much later than Thom gets home from school?

[blossom]

Something that worked for us was instead of putting decorations over everything I took down lots of decorative items first so that when the decs came down we had something to replace them with and I then didn't have that horrible bare feeling.

[Woodsies]

I do that too Blossom - I take a few pictures down and some of the candles I have about the place, so when the decs came down again I could put the other things back up.

Things I will do again next year:

Order presents early (Sept/Oct) and keep a list of what we're getting for who.
Ask MIL to have the kids for a sleepover again in early December so DH and I can order a curry and spend the evening taking things out of boxes, getting rid of those bloody wire ties, putting batteries in, making sure everything works, then wrapping things up and stashing them back in the attic.
Make my own mincemeat, Christmas pudding and Christmas cake. I must have used a million lbs of dried fruit but boy it was worth it. I will also make my own marzipan and royal icing again, Mum made her own cake but used shop bought marzipan and that rolled icing and it just spoiled it imho.
Prepare all the veg and potatoes the night before and put them in freezer bags with a little water in the fridge, ready to go into the pan the next day.

Things I will not do again:
Buy cheese. Honestly, I bought a lovely lot of cheese but no bugger ate any of it! I gave some away, I used some in a macaroni cheese last night but the rest has gone to waste.

Things I must remember to do:
Write a note on the calendar for some time in October when I'm thinking about buying the Christmas cards of how many are left over from previous years and stashed in a box in the attic. Every year I go and buy a load and because we don't put our decs up until mid December, every year I find a stash in one of the decs boxes by which time it's too late because I have written and posted the others! So I'm going to count them later and put a note on the calendar.
Print some sticky labels to go on the presents from FC. H is getting a bit too good at recognising handwriting now so this year we used a different paper for presents from FC but it all got a bit confusing, so printed labels are the way to go!

[blossom]

Impressive Woodsies!
You can freeze cheese by the way.
I love your idea of spending a night getting all the wire etc out of the toys.

[Woodsies]

You can freeze cheese by the way.

Really? All types? I used up the brie and camembert in the macaroni cheese and we'll use the cheddar in sandwiches but I had some cambazola, st agur, stilton and wensleydale which no-one but me likes, so I binned it.

[blossom]

That I don't know but I can't see why not.
If it happens next year (although you're not planning on getting so much cheese in) you could make cheese and veg muffins and freeze them or surely a few cheese sauces or ready made cheese and ham sandwiches that can be either taken as lunches or thrown in the toasted sandwich maker. Or else my DH would drive to you and pick up the left over cheese himself no matter how far away you live!

[Babamama]

Stilton freezes fine, don't know about the others. My dad gave us a huge Stilton last Xmas which there was no way we could of eaten so we froze blocks of it.

[skip]

Book a cottage somewhere in the middle of nowhere and have an anti-christmas with just Dh and the boys...