Monthly Musings

Linking up with Holly and Patty for this month's fun Monthly Musings topic

1. We don't have a lot of holiday traditions. We've had some that have fallen along the wayside as the kids have gotten older. The "biggie" tradition would be going to a Christmas Eve church service on Christmas Eve and then eating dinner together. For most of the kids' childhood, we went to my mother in law's house for a really good meal (she always put on a fantastic spread) after the church service and then we exchanged gifts with her and Donnie's sister. The kids opened their presents from grandma at this time. It helped to set the stage for the big day the next day. On Christmas Day, either the kids would wake up early (when they were young) or we wake them up (since they've been teens, lol) to start our family's Christmas tradition of reading one of the gospel accounts of Jesus' birth, then the kids open their stockings from us and then their presents. Later, Donnie's family comes to eat and then we do a gift exchange with Donnie's dad side of the family.

Christmas Eve three years ago

The Three Rineer kids Christmas morn

2. We celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.

3. As for shopping, we usually begin in November. Donnie is extremely organized and detailed oriented. He also loves giving gifts. I don't dislike it but I am not as into as he is. So he generally keeps track of what we've purchased and knows how much more we need to buy.

4. Decorating- This varies a little from year to year but I almost always have a good chunk of it done by the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Our town has a Christmas festival the weekend before Thanksgiving so the town is completed decked out and it seems appropriate to have our decorations done by that time. At a minimum, I like to have our outside lights ready for their lighting. Many people here in Springboro wait until this weekend to begin turning their outdoor lights on; the festival is a great segue to the season in our town!

Trees as far as the eyes can see (so long as you're standing in one precise point in our entryway...). I love this view of the entryway tree and the dining room tree.

5. Hosting- We almost always host the big Christmas meal for Donnie's side of the family.  Additionally, some members of my family usually come to our house at some point between Christmas and New Years and we host a meal for a celebration with my side of the family.

Hosting with the mosting.... Christmas china ;). I have two different sets of Christmas china both of which I love. I use one for the dining room and one in the kitchen.

Last year, I learned how to fold napkins to look like Christmas trees. I love this for my Christmas tree themed china. Looks like I need to order some green napkins...

The cousins' card exchanges (we always give money so it's just an exchange of cards with bills inside of them!)

My brother always brings a Wick's Sugar Cream Pie (or two!). These are so decadent-  definitely a holiday eating splurge! 

6. Favorite meal or recipe- Last Christmas or the Christmas before, I started making a copy cat Honey Baked Ham. It's really good, doesn't require a trip to the neaest HBH store (which isn't near us) and costs a fraction of what a HBH does. I wrote about it here.

7. My best organizational tip would be to try to divide and conquer tasks if possible. Like I mentioned before, Donnie is more organized than I am by nature and he enjoys buying gifts- even if it's clicking Buy Now on Amazon. So he does most of the shopping- virtually all of the online shopping (the kids make lists with links so we buy a lot for the kids electronically). I care more about inside decor so I do almost all of that myself. 

8. Wrapping gifts- I like wrapping the first few presents but I get pretty tired of it pretty quickly! I do like to make the wrapped  boxes look really nice with bows and I love to coordinate the wrapping paper that I use for the season. 

Last year was the first year I put this much smaller tree in the family room. Looking at pictures with the big tree in it make me kind of miss the big tree but this one is so much easier to put together and light...

9. I don't drink coffee ever! So no holiday coffee for me. I think the coffee lovers of the family buy holiday themed K-cups but I can't say for certain. Really I don't drink anything different during the holiday season. We have a hot cocoa bar but I don't partake much of that.  I think the bar is cute and worth having for that reason. 

10. Holiday baker- I love to bake! I always make pecan chocolate chip pie for Christmas. I almost always make additional sweet treats but there's nothing else that's a tradition that I make. It depends on what sounds good to me or anyone in the family.