Happy Rudolph Day!

Today is Rudolph Day, and the focus is one of my favorite - food! More specifically, menu planning. The first step is to print the holiday meal plan from Organized Christmas. While it may not suit every meal you plan on serving over the holidays - it provides the foundational work of what TO serve. Having a written plan will help in many ways... it allows you to create a list of needed items to shop for, provides you with an idea of when you need to start certain dishes, and gives you an idea of what serving pieces you will need to serve the items on the menu plan!

I did have all the menu plan forms in my holiday planner - but found I was making a mess of the pages as I prepared food over the holidays. So what I did was create another notebook... specifically for Holiday Menu planning. Using a binder, the printed forms and sheet protectors, I am able to splash a little without too much dismay. Each holiday meal has it's own tab (example: Christmas Eve Dinner), next is the holiday meal plan form from OC, and then the recipes for each item on the menu, with their needed serving dish noted, follows.

I am in the process of putting together sets of dishes that will serve us for the fall holidays (golds and browns), and the winter holidays (golds and garnet). I got the idea from another blog on tablescapes (big hug for your creativity) - she shopped thrift stores for a variety of china pieces, that perhaps where not the same pattern but matched according to style or colouring. It was my aha moment! What a great idea, I could possibly do that! I honestly never thought of shopping for these items second hand - but now that I think of it, there is a variety of items - from mixed matched sets, vases and assorted serving dishes - that I could purchase for a fraction of the price I would need to spend on a new set. Then I thought - how neat it would be to create place settings that are not the cookie cutter image of everyone elses!

As Hallowe'en approaches keep a look out for items you may want, so that when they do go on clearance after the holiday you could purchase them for a fraction of the cost for next year! There is a great oppurtunity to purchase candy and treats for the wonderful variety of Advent celebration ideas.

Some of the things I luv today:

Known sources:

maya*made

Craftideas.com

Brownie Point

Making Memories

Fete et Fleur

UK TV

spraguelab

Enjoy your day!