Week in Review: Preparing for the Holidays

My dad usually comes out west during the holidays each year. He arrived on Thursday and he will head down to Portland to visit his mother and brothers for about a week. Usually, we have a very low-key Christmas and either go down to Portland to visit my grandmother, or stay here and make a nice dinner at home. Eric’s family is Jewish, so sometimes we go to Hanukkah at one of his family member’s homes. One year, we sort of combined Christmas and Hannukah at our house and made latkes (potato pancakes) out of purple potatoes from our garden. I’m not sure yet what we will do this year.

Because the rest of my family is back east, I always get together a Christmas package to mail in time for Christmas. I’m down to the wire on this year’s presents. They need to be put in the mail tomorrow, I think. Yikes! Despite the fact that Tish and I have been crafting every Thursday since September, making holiday gifts, I still have some sewing projects I’m finishing up last minute. Of course, yesterday I realized I was completely out of white AND black thread. And I can’t seem to find any packing tape anywhere, despite the fact that I buy a new roll every time I need to mail something. Tish and I do most of the crafts together, but sewing is something we do separately. Check out the tote bags Tish made. Aren’t they awesome?! I didn’t make any totes, but I’m working on a couple of things which I’ll post about after I give them away.

In case you, too, are down to the wire on holiday gifts, this week’s posts had a few easy handmade ideas that there is still time to execute:

Monday December 12, 2011: Cookie Mix Jars. Impress all your friends and family with these vegan cookie mix jars (applesauce included). They just need to add shortening and vanilla and they can make vegan cookies without even knowing it!

Thursday December 15, 2011: Vanilla Extract. This is a really easy and unique gift to give to any bakers in your life. It needs to infuse for 2 months, but you can make it and give it away with instructions for when to start using it.

Friday December 16th, 2011: Peppermint Bark. Vegan peppermint bark that takes about 15 minutes to make. So easy and delicious for those with a sweet tooth.

And for the non-holiday related posts this week:

I baked for the Sidecar for Pigs Peace Bake Sale (I made Cranberry Orange Bread and one of the Cookie Mix Jars) and I also posted about Feed the Movement (a cool project related to Occupy).

What are your plans for the holidays?

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