How Long Do You Leave Your Tree Up?

For us it's usually until January 1st.

I try and get the most out of all my decorating efforts by starting early (December 1st) and keeping them up as long as I can get away with it.

I also keep turning on the Christmas lights as well - I think the colourful beauty helps to stave off the anti-climactic "boxing day blues". Then by the beginning of January, I'm ready to pack it all up and start fresh with a new year.

What's your Christmas tree tradition?
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I'm Back!!

Yikes, what a busy week!

Our Christmas was wonderful, as I hope yours was :-) The turkey turned out fine, and dinner was enjoyed by all.

At the moment we still have our tree, lights and decorations still up, as well as new toys stashed in corners of the living room, waiting to find permanent spots in the kids' rooms. And the leftover food... ahhhh!!! Let's just say I'm not letting any of it go to waste ;-)

Next on my agenda is to shop for next year's Christmas cards, and any marked down decorations or supplies that I think we might need. Now is definitely the time to shop for next year.

Next up: New Year's Eve!!! Have a good one, everyone!
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How To Defrost And Cook A Turkey

I needed a refresher on turkey defrosting and cooking info, and naturally thought "ooh! Blog post!"

Defrosting:

Refrigerator: the safest, and the longest, method. Here's an estimate:

8 to 12 pounds = 2 to 2.5 days
12 to 16 pounds = 2.5 to 4 days
16 to 20 pounds = 4 to 5 days
20 to 24 pounds = 5 to 6 days

Cold water:

Time: thirty minutes per pound.

This is the method that I usually use. Leave the bird in its original packaging, and be sure to check and change the water every half hour (to ensure that it stays cold and fresh).

I put the still-wrapped turkey in a couple of kitchen catchers and submerse it in a cooler in the bathtub. I like using the cooler because you can keep the bird submerged by closing the lid, and changing and refreshing the water is really easy (open the spout at the bottom to drain and slide the cooler under the tap to refill).


Cooking:

Here are some links to articles that have cooking time charts:

http://www.byward-market.com/en/emagazine-xmas5.html
http://www.the-perfect-turkey.com/how-long-to-cook-a-turkey.html
http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Turkey-Cooking-Time-Guide/Detail.aspx


This is an estimate, of course, because ovens can vary as to the heat they produce. The safest thing to do is use a meat thermometer in the deepest part of the meat, to ensure that the turkey has reached an internal temperature of 170F (77C).

One more safety tip: NEVER pre-stuff a thawed turkey. You can make your stuffing in advance and store it in the fridge, but do not put it in the bird until right before it goes in the oven.

Happy eating!
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Norad Tracks Santa

I had heard of this website last year but never looked it up. Here's the link:

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.html

On the video he goes for quite the ride!!! Makes me feel motion sickness just watching, lol.
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Another Christmas Decorating Idea

I love this idea: save your kids' school Christmas art crafts and use them as decorations every year. What a great way to boost your child's self esteem while making your home festive :-)

I got this idea from an article by Michelle Jones at www.betterbudgeting.com. She has a lot of great tips on how to save money at Christmas.
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Gingerbread Train

This year we got a gingerbread train instead of a house.

Every year we get one of those kits - you know, with the bags of icing and pre-cut gingerbread, and the plastic base that you assemble it all on. They've always been the traditional house style, with the gingerbread cookie trees in the yard (you mean we're not supposed to eat those as we're building the house? ;-)

As much as I love Christmas tradition, the train was way easier to assemble. There are more parts, but because the pieces are smaller it's not as difficult to get them to stay in place (with the houses we never seemed to have enough icing, and we'd always have to prop the walls up with something as it dried). As I type this, we are halfway through - we assembled the train yesterday and left it to dry, and today we will decorate it.

I don't know how they get any of them to look like they do on the box. They must use a professional pastry chef with nifty tools or it's computer generated or something.

My goal this year is for us to eat it sooner (that should be soooo hard - wish us luck ;-) The reason has been in the past that after all the strife of assembling the darn things, I haven't wanted to damage them. Then by the time Christmas is over and you start picking at the trimmings, it's quite stale (and yet I proceed - I'd eat a shoe if it had icing on it).

This year, darn it - I don't care how pretty it is!! I'll take some pictures and then we'll dive right it!! lol

How soon, if ever, do you eat your gingerbread house?
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Canadian Mailing Deadlines

I'm a last minute (oops ;-) Christmas mailer, and I always end up paying more for sending my parcels to family.

This year, however, I'm more on the ball because at least I've checked the Canada Post website for their mailing deadlines:

http://www.canadapost.ca/AboutUs/Corporate/HolidayMailing.aspx

OK, so... according to that I have to mail parcels by TOMORROW. (Got it Jeanne? TOMORROW).

Hey, at least I know this year... it's a step in the right direction ;-)
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