The life and times of Libby Withnall

with just over 6 weeks to go and a couple of presents bought or ordered….it’s time to break out the Christmas planner.

When I was getting the planner out the Anthea Turner “The Perfect Christmas” fell out and almost hit me on the head . Totally forgot I had that book so I look forward to reading through it again.

I also discovered I hadn’t yet shared my Christmas note book with you so I decided to make a video. As you’ll see I had a bit of fun trying to work out how to show it to you – with everything being reversed in the camera .

Here are the resources I mentioned in the video.

Flylady  Holiday Control Journal (free)

Organized Christmas (free)

Cut the crazy out of Christmas (blog that accompanies paid class)

Get Organized for the holidays (paid class)

We had a nice Christmas but we’re going to revise how we approach the season next year. Today, Boxing Day, we had relaxing jammie day spent at home and at Nan’s. And I think we all enjoyed it more than we did Christmas Day – which I think says it all.

Gingerbread Muffins (Feast by Nigella Lawson)

• 1 2/3 (250gms) cups plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves                                 (I obmitted this)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup (50gms) packed dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup (50gms) packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup (150ml) whole milk                                (I used low fat organic)
• 1/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 6 tablespoons vegetable or corn oil                    (I used olive oil, but will try macadamia nut oil next time)
• 4 tablespoons golden syrup
• 4 tablespoons molasses                                        (I used extra golden syrup)

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Grease or line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper muffin cups.

Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spices in a large bowl. Whisk the egg in another bowl, then add the brown sugars, making sure to break up any lumps.

Add the milk and vinegar to the egg-brown sugar mixture then measure in the oil with a tablespoon. Use the same oily spoon to add the corn syrup and molasses so they don’t stick to it. Whisk the mixture to combine and add to the flour and spices.

Stir until mixed but still fairly lumpy-the mixture may be more runny than you expect for muffins- but you need the dense stickiness of gingerbread, rather than a cakey crumb. Spoon or pour the mixture into the muffin cups and bake for about 20 minutes until the tops are dry. Cool on a rack.

Yield: 12 muffins

WARNING : These will NOT last  long – as you can one has already been devoured!

Another of our holiday traditions is going for a walk around the neighbourhood to see the Christmas lights. Mum & Dad and the dogs come too so it’s a real family outing.

Christy also bought her babies this year.

It’s hard to photograph the homes but here’s a couple.

Not very much has changed since last year but there are a few new additions. Be sure to drop by the nester and check out her home and some of the others – lots of wonderful inspiration. Hope you enjoy my slide show. Music is A Christmas to Remember by Amy Grant.

One of our new traditiosn – we only started it last year – is taking the girls to have Santa photos and then going out for breakfast – something we never normally do, except maybe  on holidays.

First stop was meeting the big guy. We went to Myer this year (the line already too long in DJs) and he was great. Spent lots of time with the girls, even though a line was forming behind us.

Then the girls got to select an ornament each (and I bought a new wreath for our front door – rats had eaten much of the current one). We then had breakfast out at a cafe. It was nearly 11am by now so I was glad to be eating breakfast .

On our way back to the car we walked by the lolly department and everyone chose something – okay I chose more than one thing . I had to laugh when I saw Kevin sitting down right in front of the chocolate display – why they have a seat there I don’t know – unless it takes people a long time to make their selections.

One last stop – the big Christmas shop to get some new lights for  our tree (I accidently vacuumed the cord up last week and it was wrecked during extraction).

We loved these reindeers but at $290 a go we decided to leave them in the shop. The kids couldn’t understand why….

Thanks so much for the wonderful comments on my last post. I already have a lot of family holiday traditions and think maybe I’m just putting unrealistic expectations on how I should be feeling – thinking I should be excited, whereas it’s probably fine to just be looking forward to the season. It’s very relaxed for us this year with not a lot going, which is a big change from previous years. So I’m just going to go with the flow and enjoy the time with family and friends, not keep on trying to find my Christmas spirit.

And what better a way to start than with a Christmas giveaway for Eric Dodges A Christmas Wish CD. It’s a lovely CD which I’m listening to right now.

I’ll do the draw on Friday. Please leave a comment – If you’d like you can share your favourite thing about Christmas. Everyone can enter the draw. Good luck!

Those of you who are my friends on Twitter and Facebook will know that I’m really struggling to find my Christmas Spirit this year. I was really hoping after returning home rested and relaxed from our cruise that I would find the magic. But alas it’s not to be. I had thought maybe it was because I was having trouble with gift buying this year but I’ve conquered that and still haven’t found the magic. In all honestly I could easily just skip it this year.  I’m not sure if it’s because my thoughts about simple living at are odds with the season or something else is going on. The girls have started their advent calender and I’m trying to get excited but it’s just not happening.  It’s lucky I “partly” decorated  when I did, cause the rest of the decoartions are staying in their boxes this year. If things don’t change soon I’m going to have a do a big evaluation of how we handle the season for next year. We aren’t religious at all but maybe we could focus on giving or helping others instead of ourselves.

Anyway, if anyone has any (non-Christian) ideas on how I can find my Christmas spirit please me know.

Yes, it’s that time of year again – time to compile my Journal Your Christmas album. Being that we arrive back home from the cruise on the 1st Dec I thought I’d best get to together before we leave. This year I decided to go with a 6×6 album – hoping it won’t be too small. I plan to print out smaller photos at home every couple of days.

I’ve left the inside pretty plain for now and will add embellishments after I see how much room the photos and journalling takes up.

You can find out about this years class on here. What I love is that once you join, you can join in every other year FOR FREE!!! Not often that happens is it?

Yesterday I made up this gorgeous card holder with a Bo Bunny kit – love it! So quick (took about an hour) and so easy. Now I just need some Christmas cards .