Simple Holiday Delights (and more!)
Holiday inspiration, family movie suggestions, picture books, recipe organization & more!
Well, you did it. You survived Thanksgiving!
I hope you had a fun and delicious holiday. I’m not sharing a recipe today because honestly, does anyone feel like cooking this week?
However, I do have a few thoughts about the Thanksgiving meal that I want to share. I’m wondering if any ring true for you? My take-aways from our big Thanksgiving dinner were:
Why turkey? Maybe roasted chicken next year instead of an expensive rather flavorless turkey that 3 out of the 4 people in my immediate family don’t really like? I’ve been the last turkey hold-out in my family, but this year I think I turned a corner. Why does the holiday meal revolve around a bird that’s really hard to cook and makes the whole day unnecessarily stressful?
Maybe salmon instead? I have a friend in Seattle who mentioned they were serving salmon for Thanksgiving this year and I think it’s a great idea. Doesn’t a whole roasted salmon surrounded by mushroom stuffing with fresh herbs sound delicious?
Add spice! Adding spicy kielbasa sausage to brioche stuffing is a great idea. The sweet/spicy combo took the stuffing to the next level. Everyone enjoyed having a little heat in an otherwise mildly-spiced meal.
Refreshing bubbly, please. Light, bubbly beverages are perfect with rich, heavy food. Whether it’s Prosecco, Champagne or flavored sparkling water, go with bubbles instead of red wine. I think this is true for holiday parties, too. Stock up on refreshing effervescent drinks!
Cook ahead of time, relax on the day off. Contrary to what most food articles tell you, everything on the Thanksgiving table tastes the same (or better) the next day. Cooking most of the meal the day before and warming it up on Thanksgiving is the best way to get more enjoyment out of the holiday. Ditto for Christmas.
Watching a movie with family is fun. And also…Singles is still a great movie. Highly recommended for a mature PG-13+ audience, especially those nostalgic for the nineties. It’s definitely not traditional holiday movie fare, but it was fun to watch.
Family Movie Recs
Speaking of movies, Josie and I are planning a holiday kick-off this weekend, which will include putting up decorations, turning on the Christmas music and watching a movie with hot cocoa, marshmallows, whipped cream, candy canes and popcorn.
My 9-year-old has her eye on Frosty or Rudolph, which I’m always happy to watch. My 13-year-old would like to watch a “real” movie and is a swimmer, so we’re considering the newly released Nyad.
It’s not easy finding movies that the whole family can enjoy. We’ve watched lot of “little kid” movies over the years, and there are lots to choose from. Now that our kids are getting older, I’ve found it more challenging to find movies that can be enjoyed by young tweens all the way through grandparents.
Some movies our family has enjoyed (that skew towards older kids and adults) are Cruella, Paddington 2, My Neighbor Totoro, and Breaking Away.
If you have any movie recommendations to drop in the comments section, I’m sure everyone here would love to hear them!
Not just holiday films, but anything the whole family can enjoy. Sitting down early in the evening (or late in the afternoon) to watch a movie is a something I love to make time for during the holidays.
Simple Winter Delights
No matter what you do and don’t celebrate this time of year, one thing we can all enjoy together is the winter season. I love getting cozy, especially because the cozy season in LA is short and unpredictable.
When I lived in colder climates, this part of winter was also my favorite. The shift in season still felt new, magical and full of delights.
A few simple things delighting me right now…
Nut Pods Holiday Nog coffee creamer: If you like the holiday spirit in your coffee but hate sweet coffee, then the unsweetened creamers from Nut Pods are perfect. This year I’m really into the Holiday Nog. I often blend it with half n’ half for a creamy, lightly flavored holiday coffee.
Freshly cut berries and branches: We don’t have many pine trees in our neighborhood but we do have eucalyptus, peppercorn trees and bright red berries. The kids and I bring them home from our walks and they decorate our house all season.
Fairy lights: Twinkling lights are my favorite part of winter decorating. This year I bought a string of fairy lights to wrap around my kitchen window. I’ll probably keep them up through February, because they add twinkle and warmth without feeling overly Christmasy. If you don’t celebrate with a Christmas tree, consider fairy lights in your house plants. They look so pretty!
Holiday Picture books: This might be the last year my kids are interested in holiday picture books, which makes me want to sit down and weep. But maybe there isn’t an age cutoff since I still enjoy holiday picture books at age 48? I get so much joy from adding our favorites to our library queue every December.
Some of our favorites are Bear Stays Up, by Karma Wilson, Grumpy Badger’s Christmas by Paul Bright, Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs and The Snowy Nap by Jan Brett. We also have a tradition of reading The Night Before Christmas on xmas eve, which I will still be doing when my kids are teenagers, whether they like it or not.
Recipe Organization
In lieu of a cookbook review this week, I’m sharing my new recipe binder. It’s a very practical, no frills method for saving favorite recipes. And I love it!
For years I’ve wanted to organize the dusty recipe box in the back of my kitchen cabinet. It held beloved family recipes, handwritten by my mom. It was also stuffed with print-outs from food blogs that were folded into haphazard squares and shoved into the box. It was an unorganized and unhelpful method for storing recipes.
What finally inspired me to get organized was the stack of recipes that I printed out for Thanksgiving this year. I wanted to save them all for next year, along with my “Thanksgiving Game Plan” that includes a timeline and schedule for cooking every dish. It’s a lot of work to plan Thanksgiving and it seems ridiculous to start from scratch every year.
So. I took myself to Target and bought a 3-ring binder. I asked Josie to draw a cover for it. Then I used a 3-hole punch on the stack of recipes I’d printed out from the internet. Over time, I plan to organize these recipes into categories. I also bought recipe card page protectors for the beloved handwritten recipes, which are organized together in the back.
There’s nothing new or genius about a recipe binder, but finally putting one together has made me feel really impressed with myself. This project was like reorganizing a Tupperware drawer. When I stopped procrastinating and finally tackled the job, it took hardly any time at all and has removed a tiny stressor from my life.
P.S. The handwritten recipes from my mom were a Christmas gift one year. If there are sentimental recipes that you want handed down from a parent or grandparent, ask for the handwritten recipe as a Christmas gift this year. Even if you never cook the dish or dessert yourself, the recipe in their handwriting is a really special way to preserve a memory.
I hope this week has been somewhat slower-paced for everyone and you’ve been able to get more sleep, eat more salad and drink more water before the holidays are in full affect.
A few weeks ago I mentioned a mantra that I saw in a cookbook and loved: Forgo perfection in favor of connection. I plan to carry this mantra with me into the holiday season and hope you do too.
xo
Jenny
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I thought of another movie our family has watched together and liked, the documentary My Octopus Teacher. Very heartwarming and interesting for kids who love the ocean.