How to have a stress free Christmas

Hopefully, you all had a great and stress-free Christmas.

We had a super day with loads of memories and fun. While I like the holidays, I'm not one for fussing and spending hours prepping. I like simple. While a nicely decorated house is very pretty, it takes a ton of time, money, and effort to make that happen. So how to get the house ready for Christmas with minimal effort?

Here's our Christmas tree!  Yes - it's a quilt I designed a couple of years ago. It's a modern Christmas tree.

Our Christmas tree

The pattern appeared in Quilter's Newsletter Best Christmas Quilts in 2016. I guess I should get off my butt and write the pattern in a saleable format!  It was a breeze to hang up the "tree". Didn't take any space, no danger of Murphy eating the decorations or knocking the tree down as I envision would happen with a real tree. The dog has no spatial concept of her size.

We even had ornaments. While the tree comes with some built-in ornaments, we had special ornaments that I had made and they got hung on the tree.

One of Murphy's ornament

One of Lexi's ornament

Of course, Little Bear was very sad that he didn't have an ornament so I quickly whipped one up for him.

Bear's ornament

These are super fast to make and you can personalize them with a photo in the center, some machine embroidery or a novelty print. The pattern is in the Ornament issue of A Needle Pulling Thread. That's issue 48 - the current one on the newsstand.

They are super cute and super easy!


Here's the annual photo - well, except we didn't get one the last couple of years since M wasn't home. But here is M, the three dogs, and James, our chef.

Murphy, M, Bear, James, and Lexi

We had fun trying to pose everyone for that picture. Not the easiest feat to say the least.


I made M a special present - a picture book about Bear's visit to our house back in October. I'll tell you more about that another day. A big learning curve - that was my project that I was struggling with and had a deadline at the beginning of the month.

M opening Bear's Big Adventure book

The dogs got bones right away to try and keep them out of the way. Oops - someone forgot one more bone in the bottom of this bag and Bear was determined to get it.

There's something in the bottom of that bag!!!

Then Bear happily moved from place to place with his chew bone. Happy as a dog with a bone can be.

Practically invisible in his dog bed chewing his bone

And GASP - he's on the sofa with his bone!!!!

Murphy loved the treat bag and the bones, but not so happy with the party hats!!!

Oh the humiliation

Murphy was just praying that Bear would leave his bed and the coveted chewy toy. 

Murphy and Bear

 While Lexi was in a completely different room.

Lexi chewing her Christmas bone

And look - we have a new toaster oven which is really more than just a toaster oven. Our other one which was practically an antique was toast!  Yep - it had seen better days and it was time to get a new one. Thanks, Santa!!!!

New toaster oven

Several years ago, it became a tradition to go see a movie on Christmas Day. I booked the tickets for Aquaman in the VIP theatre. This year, we arrived in plenty of time to order lunch. And we were positively neater this year (big fiasco last year) except that I still managed to spill the leftover salad dressing!!!

Back home where the three cooks hit the kitchen and I retired downstairs to work on the jigsaw puzzle.

M christened the new oven by making stuffed peppers for the vegan Christmas dinner.

M and her vegan stuffed peppers

We also had turkey for the non-vegans. But we stopped buying a whole turkey years ago. Heck, I don't think we ever bought one. We buy a breast and a couple of legs and we're good and holy smokes - the clean up is super simple!!!

The Christmas turkey bits

After dinner, I volunteered to clean up the kitchen. When I arrived in the kitchen to survey the damage, I was wondering if I was out of my mind!!!!  Every square inch of counter surface and the sink was piled with stuff. Where to even start? 

And now to clean up!!!!

I plugged in my earbuds to listen to my audiobook and slowly started. There was way too much for one dishwasher load, even two dishwasher loads. So I loaded the dishwasher and started to prep the food to put in the fridge. Then I hand washed everything. OH MY -- I hand washed dishes? The world must be coming to an end. Hey - I used to do it all the time as a kid.

It took me a couple of hours (OK - about an hour and a half) to get everything spic and span, but I didn't mind it at all. Hey - I want to know how they catch the thief in the book!!!!!

I don't think our fridge has ever been so full. I don't think anyone needs to cook for the next couple of days. 

The fridge is packed

And there's my sparkly kitchen. Although I noticed a couple of empty wine glasses by the sink this morning. Hmm - 

The kitchen as it looks this morning

The dogs were very tired at the end of the day after all that excitement. 

Murphy asleep in her bed

Bear yawning because it's bedtime

Lexi is pretty aloof when it comes to taking pictures. So she didn't want one taken! That's for HER blog, not this one.

There was no drama, there was no disappointment, no one overate, no one got drunk and disorderly. There was no yelling or people upset. There was ZERO rushing. There were only good memories in a stress-free day. We had oatmeal raisin cookies for dessert (made the day before) if anyone wanted one. I think I was the only one who ate one. See - it's easy to keep things simple. And I have to say that those oatmeal raisin cookies were made with NO eggs. I can't remember what he put in them, but they have a nice chewy consistency. I love them.

On that note, I actually feel like sewing today so I'm going to be heads downs as much as I can. The left side of my neck is still tender after my little fender bender. I'll be contacting the insurance company about that.

Have a super boxing day!!!!

Ciao!!!