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By eliza_cross, on December 19th, 2011%
I once attended a truly awful cookie exchange party. After laboring for several days over the required 12 dozen cookies and packing them in the requisite zip-lock plastic bags (“for easy swapping!” the invitation said) I arrived and discovered that the seasoned exchangers had already ransacked the cookie table. After several of them swooped in on my ginger thins, I surveyed the leavings: a dozen well-fingered baggies of animal crackers topped with canned frosting.
So you can understand my trepidation when several girlfriends invited me to join their annual fancy Christmas cookie exchange a few years ago. But these smart women have this holiday ritual figured out, and their execution is so simple and brilliant I thought I’d share it with you. Here’s the gist: we each bake five dozen of our best cookies and package them prettily. (I baked coconut macaroons and drizzled some with melted chocolate.)
Next—and this is an extremely important element of a simple cookie exchange—we meet at a great restaurant. We drink Mimosas, we catch up, we laugh, and we present each other with our cookies. Later we each return home with a stunning selection of five dozen fancy, delicious cookies like these:
Here’s what I love about this newfangled cookie exchange:
- Reasonable quantities. Making a single batch of 5 dozen cookies is doable, even with a busy schedule. And 5 dozen cookies limits the amount of temptation at home, too (even though I’ve already eaten 15 cookies since yesterday).
- Off-site location. Meeting at a restaurant means no one has to clean the house.
- Planning ahead. The girls get the date on the calendar at least two months in advance so everyone can be there.
- Festive annual event. It’s important to make time for friends, and this gathering insures that we all get to see each other during the busy holiday season.
- Champagne. Need I say more?
I’d love to hear about your updated traditions, and I hope you’re finding simple, joyful moments during this busy holiday season.
Hugs,
P.S. Have you signed up for the January Money Diet yet ? If you’d like to save money, reduce debt and spend less during the coming year, join a group of like-minded people and commit to the ultimate financial challenge of eliminating nonessential spending for 31 days.
In lieu of spending cash, we find other ways to indulge, have fun and live large. Throughout the month, you’ll find postings with a variety of ideas, recipes, photos, links and tips to help you stick to the money diet—and pocket the cash. To participate, simply leave a comment confirming your participation and you’ll be automatically entered for a prize drawing of a deluxe prize basket at the end of the month. Here’s to a financially fit 2012!
By eliza_cross, on December 11th, 2011%
A week ago I coaxed my son and daughter to sit in front of the Christmas tree for the annual holiday photo. I love this unstaged candid shot, of the two of them sharing a private laugh:
When Michael was a baby, he couldn’t take his eyes off his sister Gracie if she was anywhere in the room. Despite their thirteen year age difference, they have always been close.
Do I take these little moments for granted? I suppose I do, especially at this time of year when it seems I’m juggling more tasks, chores, events and items on my endless To Do list. But Michael and I were making dinner in the kitchen a few nights later when I got the call that no parent ever wants to receive: Gracie had been in a car accident on the highway during evening rush hour.
An accident instantly halts all the world’s noise.
Everything else falls away with crystallizing focus to the singular, life-and-death question: Is she okay?
And thankfully, my friends, she is fine. She didn’t get hurt at all, and the driver of the truck she hit was fine, too. Her little green Toyota Corolla that took her so reliably through Denver city streets and back and forth to college, however, is totalled.
So. Now we are dealing with insurance deductibles and rental cars and claims and paperwork and unplanned expenses at Christmas time. But you know what? It doesn’t matter. And if everything on my holiday To Do list doesn’t get done or bought this year, it doesn’t matter.
We have lost two loved ones to car accidents, and I am acutely aware of how vulnerable we are and how easily a few more inches, a couple of seconds, a different angle, or a little more velocity can, in an instant, bring forth an outcome too painful to imagine.
I wish it didn’t take an accident to remind me of the truth I know, but sometimes forget:
Every day we have together is a gift.
In these coming days filled with holiday preparations and busy-ness, I wish for you the gift of simple, happy moments with your loved ones.
Hugs,
By eliza_cross, on December 5th, 2010%
Twenty dollars.
I confess, a twenty dollar bill doesn’t always last long in my wallet — especially during this season of holiday shopping. But what if a mere $20 could literally change one person’s life?
Water 4 Christmas is a wonderful organization that partners with charity: water, using 100% of its donations to drill for fresh water in poor communities where people die every day from lack of clean water. A new well costs approximately $5,000 and provides clean, fresh drinking water for 500 people for 20 years.
According to charity: water, “Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of diseases and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.” The compelling thing for me about this cause is that so many people can be directly helped — for so little money. A donation might the perfect gift for those people on the holiday gift list that are hard to buy for.
“I never look at the masses as my responsibility; I look at the individual. I can only love one person at a time – just one, one, one. So you begin. I began – I picked up one person. Maybe if I didn’t pick up that one person, I wouldn’t have picked up forty-two thousand….The same thing goes for you, the same thing in your family, the same thing in your church, your community. Just begin – one, one, one.” ~Mother Teresa
I invite you to join Happy Simple Living in supporting Water for Christmas or your favorite charitable organization this holiday season. We can make a difference, you know.
Hugs,
By eliza_cross, on December 3rd, 2010%
Have you purchased your festive holiday snowman condiment spinner yet?
Throughout the holiday season, I’ll be posting amusing offerings of Holiday Stuff from retailers. Perhaps, like me, you’re trying to avoid buying any more Stuff this year. I understand firsthand the lure of buying Stuff to decorate the house for Christmas — since we had 16 bins of holiday-related Stuff stored in the garage. No more Stuff! I can say with confidence that we are NOT adding a snowman condiment set to the mix.
What are the most ridiculous holiday things you’ve seen for sale this year? How are you minimizing the emphasis on Stuff this holiday season? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Hugs,
By eliza_cross, on November 20th, 2010%
Here’s an easy idea that I first saw at a holiday decorators’ showhouse and immediately copied at home. Amaryllis bulbs are readily available during the holidays — usually for less than $10. Choose a nice, fat, healthy looking bulb and put it in a glass vase or jar. Surround the bulb with glass marbles (look for inexpensive marbles at the dollar store), lifting the bulb as you add the marbles so the roots hang down. Add water just to the mid-point of the bulb, and place in a sunny window. In about four weeks you’ll have a beautiful bloom. This arrangement makes a nice holiday gift, too!
Hugs,
By eliza_cross, on November 10th, 2010%
Thanks to all of you who entered the drawing for the book, “Unplug the Christmas Machine.” I used Random.org to pick the lucky winner. Here’s what Katie wrote in her comment:
What a timely story! My husband and I have been trying to talk our families into simplifying for years now, with success coming very slowly. It seems to be a very sensitive topic for people; many seem to view piles of gifts as an important tradition. My husband and I throw or give away almost every gift we’re given and I wish people didn’t waste their money buying us gifts we don’t want.
My favorite simplification idea is the gift my husband and I are exchanging. We’re going to make coupon books for each other. We have a toddler so coupons like “sleep in today” will be wonderful! Thank you for the article!
Congratulations, Katie! A coupon book is a great holiday gift idea, and I hope you and your family enjoy the Christmas book. I’ll be giving away another book soon, so stop in again.
Hugs,
P.S. You might enjoy this holiday article from our friends over at Miss Minimalist, “Top Ten Gifts for a Minimalist.”
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