Open House – T minus 4 weeks and counting

As I write this, it’s mid November and I feel drastically behind for the Open House. But I feel that way every year, so what’s new? Actually, my work load in my design job has been at capacity and beyond for several weeks, so I’ve had a hard time juggling that and OH prep. (At least I’m earning money to help pay for the Open House.) Here’s where I stand so far:

Decorating:

Carolina Panthers tree done. This tree sits on top of the entertainment center, topped by a Sir Purr angel (made the wings and halo with pipe cleaners). We won our only game the day I put that tree up, but unfortunately the luck hasn’t carried over from week to week. Going to be a looong season there.

Nature tree done. This is a little 4 footer with bird and wildlife ornaments. It sits on a table in the den because, as I learned the hard way a few years ago, any tree on the floor in that area is in danger of being hit by the dog when she’s flailing a toy around.

Beach tree done. I love the colors on this tree. That aqua just speaks to me, you know? I buy 1-2 new ornaments whenever we’re @ the beach to add to this slim 6ft tree. This is usually the first tree I set up each year (before Halloween, even), because it’s out of any traffic pattern in a corner of the dining room and doesn’t irritate me by being in my way. Unfortunately, I now have a recycling center in that spot, so having the tree up is more inconvenient than usual. But I’ve relocated the recycling to another part of the room for now. No biggie.

One front porch tree done. Normally, I just have to pull these trees out of the storage tub and set them by the front door, but I left myself a note in the storage tub that the lights didn’t match the bushes in the front. I’m a little anal particular, and the front bushes were cool white leds while the front porch was warm white leds (you always have to check when you buy), and I wanted them all to be cool outside. So with my mother-in-law’s help I stripped both trees down to the branches so I could start over with cool lights. One tree is redone, the other I haven’t had time to finish yet. I don’t normally do anything outside until after Thanksgiving (my husband’s rule), but our neighbor across the street has icicle lights up, so hubby said I could set up the outside decs, just not turn them on. (Thanks, neighbor!)

Ceramic tree up. This was my grandmother’s. Kind of a fancy light bright (Lite Brite?), but it always brings good memories and I love to look at it when it’s lit up.

Peanuts vignette and a few other entertainment center decorations done. I love setting up little scenes for guests to discover.

I still have more to do inside than I want to consider, including two trees (one real tree with hundreds of ornaments and lights, one a 4 ft kitchen theme tree), all my Christmas dishes, Winnie the Pooh Christmas village, and so on. I know I could make my life easier by decorating less, but I really enjoy it, and really enjoy looking at the finished decorations.

Food Preparation:

The menu is still a work in progress, but I have approximately 20 sweets and 20 savories as strong contenders. I’m making 10 new dishes for company this weekend as a kind of trial. We’ll evaluate for taste, ease of serving, how quickly we could make them, and if we can make ahead. I’ll freeze a few portions of some dishes, then thaw them out after Thanksgiving to see if they’re good candidates for doing ahead.

Unfortunately, I have only one cookie recipe scooped and in the freezer. I have a month to go, but unbaked cookies keep for months in the freezer so ideally I’d have a half dozen recipes finished and frozen. Well, my work is cut out for me for the next few weeks, I guess.

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