****Holiday Planning, 2013****

[Ivy]

I re-wrote my Thanksgiving O. M. M. list of things to get done before that day arrives.

Also, I wrote a list of gifts to make, purchase to give away in December. I feel more organized now.

[Nancy]

I found cards on hand here bought marked down after hoilday sale. Yea.

To do see holiday lights this season.

Craft show this weekend.

Assemble blue giftbag for Hanakha house fam. Members. Fill blue gift envelopes too.

Store run for tky day omm make gift list.

[Ivy]

Nancy, I was wondering if blue had a certain significance for Hanakha. Are all gifts and gift bags, paper, etc.. blue for Hanakha?

We had friends, who were the parents of Dson's bfriend in pre-school and first grade. The husband was a Jewish professor and the mother was a Christian attorney. They celebrated both Christmas and Hanakha. It was nice going over to their home during the holidays because there was the mix of the 2 faiths in the decor, presents, etc... We enjoyed it. The parents had decided when they married how they'd let their children decide for themselves as teens or adults, which faith to join. I thought it was interesting.

[Harriet]

It comes from a scripture, Ivy. In the book of Numbers, the Jewish prayer shawl is described as having fringe at each corner with one thread dyed with a certain shade of blue and three threads of white. When the Israeli flag was designed, the blue and white were used, remembering that scripture. The blue is for heaven and the white for purity and cleanliness.

Hope you have a terrific time at the craft show, Nancy! If there are brilliant ideas, tell us about them!

[Nancy]

Thanks Harriet I had no clue what the blue meaning was!

One card I need to add is ' Wrap & Mail Gifts'. X

I called dson told him I was prepping a basket for them when they decide to do their celebration they were not sure yet. I put in chocolates with blue wrapping. I found some blue and silver containers and will wrap some thing with blue and white snow flake paper I will add some canned salmon as they have enjoyed the salmon and cream chees dip I've made in the past. I've decided to add quick bread not sure of the flavor maybe blue berry muffin mix could work! I hope to do up some blue gift bags in the future on list for next yr.

Getting stuff gathered up for dd's as well bc they do a thing on tky day weekend some yrs.

Wrapped a couple of gifts now it feels like I am making progress.

[Nancy]

Plans are evaporating quickly here nobody is on the same page. Sigh

Moving on I did get the gifts wrap to mail for dsis.
I will do that later on I the day after it warms up a bit. X

Got orange and strawberry jello - sug.free and cool whip forgot that.

Half of the pumpkin is done cooking the other half now.

[Ivy]

DH will see if he can find tea breads at the grocery store tomorrow, when he goes after his haircut. I wrote his grocery list out tonight.

I've been working on a L. L. pal's L. L. reply. I've got a holiday card to put in a greeting card envy, to put her L. L. into. I'm sending her a few other things, too. I believe writing her, with the wood fireplace insert burning is causing me to be drowsy because of being busy today.

I put a scarecrow ceramic man in the powder room. The main bathroom's mint CD coaster has pump soap on it. I got out forest green to make a new 1 with an edging in white. The towels and rugs are white trimmed in green. It's fun to plan for holidays. The coaster will match the colors in the ceramic dress of my Thanksgiving angel in the main/guest bathroom, too.

We'll mail the holiday cards out on Monday. I'm using cards leftover from previous years because of our budget this year. Plus, the fact DH couldn't find any new cards out this year that particularly pleased him. It's fine to use older cards, it saves on trees, and money, too. I put on pretty holiday return address labels, stickers, and postage stamps, too.

[Nancy]

Only one loaf of sweet bread is left in the freezer now so will make some cranberry bread when dgd is here tomorrow.

[BookSaver]

I'm stocked up on groceries for the long Thanksgiving weekend. DH is off Friday as well as Thursday. I haven't looked at weather forecasts any further ahead than to drive to family and back home on Thursday. After that, if the weather turns bad, we have enough food in the house to last several days.

I've been waiting until tomorrow to check on the fudge that has been packed away for a few weeks. It *should* be ok to take Thursday, but if it looks funny I'll make some fresh tomorrow night.

Today at Aldi I found a very cute set of food storage containers for a hostess gift for DSis. They have a snowman design on the lids. The price was so reasonable that I bought 2 sets for her. I'll wash and dry them before taking them Thursday, because last year she ran out of containers when she was sending food home with family. They are sealed in plastic, but I have a thing about washing new dishes before they're used, even if they look clean from the store.

I decided not to buy anything new to wear Thursday, but to go casual instead. I have some nice black jeans and just need to decide on a pretty top, probably with a warm cardigan.

I have all the supplies I need to make pretty little gifts for my sewing group board members. Just need to make the time. Deadline will be the December board meeting on the 17th. Once I do the first one to try out the pattern to make sure it will work, I can assembly line the rest.

[Harriet]

Can't wait to hear about your enjoyment with the little-gift making, BookSaver. Agree with you about washing containers before using.

Well, the Bible for the Angel Tree gift came (link on previous page) and it is truly a lovely Bible, very supple cover, better looking than the photo, and the engraved name is exactly right even though they shipped it 5 hours after I ordered! So I highly recommend ChristianBook.com for purchases of Bibles that are reasonably priced and arrive promptly. The small gifts I bought are just as I expected, too, and the inexpensive ($4 and $7) necklaces look nice enough to deserve small gift boxes! They are just in transparent sleeves of plastic. Maybe I can find some little boxes in my wrapping stuff. I liked that their site gave you an exact running tally, on the shopping cart page, of how much more you could order without any more shipping charge. I was able to buy stocking stuffers that I would have ordinarily figured cost too much shipping.