I truly hope all of you had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving. Before you put Thanksgiving completely behind you for the year, take a moment to do your event follow up.
We always think that we will remember all kinds of things for next time, but seldom do. Taking this moment now will take a few burdens off of your shoulder next Thanksgiving AND help you out with your Christmas planning.
Any time you have a planned gathering or event that may be repeated, make sure to do a written review afterward. Those few moments you take will be where you develop your future shortcuts.
Make yourself a cup of hot chocolate with extra marshmallows. Grab some paper and a pen. Curl up in your comfy chair and make a list of all of the things you remember about the events in the form of a follow up interview. When you are done, add it to your planner and forget about it. If you are not making a planning binder, you can file your notes, put them on index cards and keep them in your recipe box or as a last resort a book mark in your cookbook.
I have a few suggestions of things to ask yourself in case you have never done this before. Just remember that the point of all of this planning is not to find perfection (there is no such thing), it is simply to make all of the work seem like less work so the fun can seem like more fun.
The Food:
- What items did you serve or eat? What items did you take?
- Was the food a hit or what changes need to be made?
- Did the grocery budget break the bank? Do you need to spread the shopping out over more weeks next year? Do you need to cut out a few items all together?
- Was the time, effort, and cash worth it or is there another alternative?
- Did you have enough snacks, entrees, leftovers, etc. to make it the entire weekend or do you wish you had more or less. (The very reason I added cooking the extra Turkey breast in the crock pot to my plan.)
- Did you discover someone had a food allergy?
The Schedule:
- Did you have a plan or play it by ear? How did it go?
- Did everything get worked in at the right time?
- Were you able to relax or were you harried at different times? If you had a time when you were frazzled, write down what you were trying to juggle and maybe jot down a few ideas of alternative ways of handling them.
- Was there anything you meant to do that was forgotten?
- Did your schedule free you up to play and enjoy or did it keep you working during the entire event?
The Activities:
- Did you host or go somewhere? Did you enjoy it or would you rather do it differently next year?
- What traditions do you incorporate? Do you enjoy them or are they an additional chore? Are there some new ones you would like to try?
- Was everyone entertained? Do you need to find more activities for anyone? Do you need to make a bigger activity bag to take with you for the kids? What things did they not retrieve from the bag you packed? Are there lighter, less cumbersome alternatives?
- Black Friday. Did you participate? How did it go? Was it worth it or will you stay home next year?
The People:
- Did you spend time with the people you wanted to?
- Did everyone get along?
- Does anyone have any quirks you need to plan for next time?
So what changes are you thinking of making for Christmas and for next years Thanksgiving?
Adjustments to my plan:
If your read my Thanksgiving To Do Lists, you have a general idea of most of the things we did. I pretty much follow the same plan for Christmas and July 4th minus the weekend decorating and making different menu items for the different occasions. Here are the adjustment notes I am making to my planner this year.
The Food - I found a few new recipes to add. I also tried a shortcut with a food item I will not ever take again. There were a few requests from others for things to add. One of the kids has turned finicky and only wants mac and cheese or peanut butter on whole wheat toast so I will make sure to have them on hand or find out if the phase has passed. (???? Am I the only one who finds this bizarre? On many levels?) For some reason I had a craving for spinach dip all weekend. Add it to the list for Christmas.
The schedule - So far so good.
The activities - The leaf garland was a great activity for the kids - well everyone participated at some point. It kept them occupied forever. I will definitely include activities like it in the future. But next time I think I will make one up in advance to actually hang up. Somehow in spite of all of the time spent working on it, it never made it that far. Find something as soon as possible for Christmas. Look into a theme to replace ‘Things to be Thanks For’ that incorporates the meaning of Christmas, something even the little kids will understand. If you have some theme ideas, I would love to hear them.
The People - This is why I have specific projects that I assign to specific people and why I have everyone help out with Christmas decorating. No awkward discussions or arguments this year. I wish there were some way of making the little kids take a nap, including my own. Yeah, like that will ever happen! There is one person I am going to have to find still more tasks or distractions.
Christmas will be curious, because there will be a new group joining us this year - extended family of extended family. We have not gotten to know them really well yet, so it is going to be… interesting. Christmas this year will be a full long weekend event like Thanksgiving instead of our normal day long festivities and short drop in visits through the week.
Should I come up with some distractions for this weekend, too? There is the Festival of Lights at the race track. Board games, craft projects… does anyone outside of the movies really do charades? How about decorating big time for New Year for a change?
I think I will just add a few extra menus and toilet paper to the grocery list and wait to see how it goes. If we do this again, I will be better prepared from doing this years Christmas follow up.
Update:
Christmas Review
For the Christmas Review there are several additional notes I make that will help me for gift giving next year. I thought adding the specifics may help someone.
- I make a note on all of the new interests everyone has picked up since last year,
- How much the kids (and adults bellies) have grown to approximate clothing sizes for the up coming year,
- And since many of the gifts I give are out of the kitchen I add “Favorite of…” notes to my recipe pages.
Taking this extra minute to consciously focus and write these things down helps me to get presents as I find sales throughout the year not only for Christmas, but also for birthdays and other special occasions. And it helps me in deciding which recipes not to drop if I come across others I want to add to the consumable presents (remember consumables and essentials are the gifts least likely to become clutter).
I usually also peruse all of the craft and decorating ideas I have bookmarked over the past month or so to pick several that I want to make sure to include for next Christmas and file away notes on a few others. I keep an active craft project notebook in my craft room. As a crafting junkie, I often get the itch to do a project simply to be crafting. When I do not already have a project active, I go to the craft room and try to pick something from the priority list.
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Such a great idea to evaluate the holidays and keep track. I always think I’ll remember and I never do. And thanks to your reminder, I actually remembered to write down how I made my first Thanksgiving turkey… that was seriously the most awesome I’ve ever had. My family thought so too, so we’ll keep it around next year.