christmas

Are You Feeling Buried in Christmas Clutter?

Last night I ended up taking my tree down. On December 25th.

Last night I ended up taking my tree down. On December 25th. This was not done out of an abundance of impatience to be done with the holiday. I had intended to leave it up until this weekend. We had a minor accident, with the mirror that hung over the mantle. It came crashing down, after a fair bit of stomping upstairs, and shattered, all around the Christmas tree. I ended up, in an abundance of caution, taking the tree down, shaking all of the glass out of it, and storing it away for next year. Not an ideal end to Christmas Day. My Christmas was already feeling a little depressing, because with the boys being mostly grown now, Christmas shopping was all about gift cards, big ticket items like guitars and amplifiers, and mixers. The number of presents felt a little light, our tree opening ceremony was short lived, and it lacked the energy of Christmas morning with little ones, with loads of presents, to watch them excitedly unwrap. Our youngest was very animated, therefore fun to watch, and the older boys were happy with their gifts, but this year I struggled, more than usual, with the fact that they are all growing up. I have spent every possible minute with them but it still feels like it’s happened too fast. Such is the struggle of the parent of teens. As there is almost always a bright side, I woke up today with the biggest post-Christmas chore already accomplished, and a yen to get back to a very tidy feeling home again.

Photo by Pixabay.
This is how I want my home to feel. Maybe someday.

We have embraced minimalism for many years now, but have been finding it a struggle, since moving north again, to maintain it, especially in the wintertime. You just need so much stuff! I find myself purging our belongings monthly, but it feels as though we are buried under a mountain of junk. Everybody has at least four jackets. In Florida we had one. Everybody has at least eight pair of shoes. In Florida we had four or five. You just need more. We had a bigger place in Florida. As you can imagine, six people in a smaller space, with twice as much stuff, is a recipe for disaster. Literally. Now, my sons are not slobs. They put a ton of effort into keeping things orderly. They have had a consistent chore routine since they were small. Keeping a clean house was completely effortless in Florida. Here it feels overwhelming at times. Since most of our Christmas mess was handled last night, due to the small number of gifts we had purchased for the boys, we decided to spend today purging and deep cleaning the house to prepare for the coming new year.

After Christmas there seems to be a few things in particular that holds people back from tackling the Christmas clutter:

An abundance of new toys, games, clothes etc, with no set place to store them.
Leftover food.
Christmas ornaments
Tree
Lights
Miscellaneous Christmas decor: rugs, linens, pillows, candles, pictures, knick-knacks etc.

Hopefully, before Christmas, you purged the toy room, to make some extra space for the new toys and games coming in. If not, now is a great time to do so. If you use the one in/one out rule you will have the toy mess handled promptly. The same rule can be applied to new clothing. For every new article of clothing purchased, you can remove an old one and hang it’s replacement in that space.

With a family of six, with four tween/teen boys, we don’t often have leftovers for long. We make lasagna for Christmas dinner, so it’s not hard to convince them to clean up the leftovers for the next couple of days. If we did do the traditional ham dinner I would have tons of leftover ham. They would happily eat it on Christmas day, but that’s it. If you do have leftover ham, my suggestion would be to freeze it until New Year’s Day, and use it in your Hoppin’ John. Toss some black eyed peas, onions and collards in a crockpot with the leftover ham, and let it cook all day. Invite friends over for a New Year’s feast. Freeze your leftover cookies, candy, or fudge, to pull out on New Year’s also. Set up a dessert table, add champagne, for guests to enjoy. By the end of the meal, you should be pretty much, leftover free.

When it comes to taking down the tree there are tons of little tricks to keep it orderly and keep your special ornaments safely tucked away until next year. You can, of course, buy special boxes with individual slots for each ornament, but they can get pretty pricey. An easy method that my sister taught me is to wrap similar ornaments in color coded tissue paper, and nestle them neatly into sturdy shoe boxes, put on shelves. This way you know which set is which, and if you change up your tree’s theme each year, you can easily find the sets that you are looking for.

The simplest way to store your tree’s lights, is to wind them up neatly and store in a gallon ziplock bag. We set ours right into the tote with the tree, on top, so they are easily found and tested, the next year.

A part of Christmas cleanup that I find particularly frustrating is going around the house, searching for all of the miscellaneous Christmas items that we throw around to bring cheer to every corner of the house. Throw pillows, Christmas rugs, tablecloths, napkins, the Christmas candles, and little soaps etc. We even switch out our art to Christmas pictures. We set around wooden nutcrackers, and nativity sets. With all of the little things we set out and around, we are bound to forget one or two. Or ten. That means ten different trips back to the Christmas storage to return everything to its proper place. I’m pretty patient about it, until a week after Christmas, when I think I’ve gotten it all, then find one lone bauble hanging out in my kid’s room, under the bed.

Where the heck did that come from? Trip number eleven. Finally, done! I hope.

The most difficult part, for some, is finding the motivation to take on the overwhelming task of Christmas cleanup. When I am feeling buried under the mess, I scour pinterest for minimalist homes, decluttering posts, tiny home hacks, and anything that inspires me to get up off my butt and clean. I start in one corner of my house and begin purging what needs purged. I divide my home into six zones. Three downstairs, and three upstairs. Starting in zone one, I put everything back in it’s proper place, and purge/donate what needs to be gotten rid of. Then, I tidy, fluff, arrange until everything looks exactly right. Next, I sweep and mop, swipe and dust until everything is gleaming. This includes, floors, ceilings, lights, walls, pictures, baseboards, everything. When zone one is finished, I move onto zone two, repeating the same process until zone two is finished. If I have to stop, for some reason, as soon as I get a chance I pick up with zone three, and continue until the entire house is immaculate. The great thing about this process is that with six zones, and six people, if I have the boys around to help, I can just assign them a zone and they know what to do. If all six of us are here, the whole house can be immaculate in 30-60 minutes.

Don’t hesitate to enlist the help of family members to get your home back in order. Everyone enjoyed the holiday, everyone should participate in getting life back on track after. It’s important to start your New Year feeling organized and on top of your game. That goes for everyone in the family. Put the kids in charge of taking care of their new things, teach them how to organize, and keep belongings in great condition. Start the New Year strong with everything in it’s place. Help the kiddos do the same. They will go back to school refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the school year, and you will feel accomplished and ready to handle whatever new and exciting prospects 2020 has in store for you!

How about you? Do you have any tips or hacks for dealing with the Christmas cleanup? Share your ideas in the comments. Find our Can I Get a Ramen boards on Pinterest to see more minimalist home ideas. Find us on FB @canigetaramen.food.blog and on Insta @canigetaramen.

We Came, We Saw, We Ate Too Much.

As promised, we spent today at the Mifflinburg Christkindl Market. We were very excited to experience this market, as we are huge fans of handcrafted items. As I had mentioned in my previous post, when I was in my early (read: broke) twenties, I was lucky enough to take a trip to Europe to visit a friend. We spent a few days driving around Germany sight seeing. The two places that left the biggest impression on me were The Black Forest and Rothenburg. I found a Christmas pyramid that I fell in love with, but could not figure out the logistics of purchasing it and shipping it home with the sad (lack of) funds I was working with at the time. I have been haunted by this, each Christmas since. You may be haunted by three ghosts, but I am haunted by one Christmas pyramid. All kidding aside, this market took me back, with the cuckoo clocks, ornaments and pyramids. There were beautiful examples of both, but sadly, I did not find the Christmas pyramid of my dreams, yet, so I did not purchase one today, as I had hoped. Maybe next year. You won’t save money buying them here, but you can take it home right away, won’t have to ship it across the pond, and, an added advantage, there is no language barrier.

I think we’ve covered all the important words…

While I did not find my Christmas pyramid here, the town has two gorgeous pyramids which I took plenty of pics of, to tide me over, until I find “The One.”

You can purchase the one on the left for $3000, but you’re going to need a pretty big picture window to display it in;) The other is in the town square.

It pretty much rained the whole time we were here, but you know that didn’t ruin our fun. We spent a fair bit of time perusing the craft vendors, where we saw some fine examples of handmade pottery by Lukacs Pottery. Plus, many woodworkers, glassblowers, huts with jewelry, soaps, candles, maple, honey and much more. My favorite maker find, though, were these fantastic antique sleigh bells, which were lovingly restored by hand by the owners, of the brilliant little business, titled “Mike’s Antique Sleigh Bells. What a fantastic item to bring to a Christkindl market.

Aren’t they spectacular? Love the folk art!

We walked up to the Elias Performing Arts Center, where they were serving hot toddies, and had live entertainment, and found a very talented local artist, by the name of Valerie Moyer, who specializes in landscapes and Homestead Portraits. She has also just illustrated her first children’s book, which, naturally, I purchased, and she graciously signed for us.

The book was written by a local teacher, and illustrated by Valerie. Look for the hidden bunny pictures, too.

Here’s a few more examples of Valerie’s work:

Valerie is still in the process of creating social media accounts for her work. If you are interested in any of her pieces she can be contacted at vmoyerartist@verizon.net. Most of her paintings include an endearing little hidden bunny, which is her trademark. She also can be commissioned for personal, homesteads, residences, churches, historical buildings, family farms, etc.

We enjoyed wandering the market with the boys, snapping pics at every little photo op, which were plentiful, and watching the entertainment. There was a live nativity, and German dancing, puppet shows and live music in various spots throughout town.

The two older boys stayed home because they were not going to go through the posing again:D

This was all loads of fun, but if you know the Bridges, you know we came for the food!

If that picture of him eating doesn’t sum up our family, I don’t know what does!

We tried the brats and kraut, which were okay. We tried the pierogies, giant homemade candy canes, and the cinnamon sticks from The Strudel Factory, which were good, but the Strudel Factory’s hot strudel is what it’s all about. We tried cherry and apple both, [no, we’re not sorry,] and they were both fantastic. I can’t really decide which one is better. I would say it would depend on mood. They had an apricot/almond strudel that I will try next year, along with the cheese strudel, which I almost insisting on trying this year, but got outvoted. There was a ham and apple dumpling that I didn’t get to try [I’m not pouting], and I never even found the Nokerl, that I, sort of, went there for. But there’s always next year. Or Austria. Long story short if, next year you do get the chance to drive out to the Mifflinburg Christkindl market, you won’t regret it. If you’re just not that into Christmas, make the drive for the town’s history, German/Austrian culture, buggy museum, covered bridge or quirky little personality.

The top right sign is the sign hanging over the covered bridge that we drove through on our way into town.

What others types of Christmas markets do you attend? We would love to hear about them in the comments. Share pictures on insta@canigetaramen, or find us on FB and Pinterest@canigetaramen.food.blog.

Delicious Golden Kolacky

One thing that I love is baking at the holidays. All through the month of December, you will find me trying out recipes, new versions of cookies that I make all year, new cookies that I have just heard of recently, but am dying to try my hand at, and of course, old versions of cookies that I only make this time of year. This is a Polish version of one of my favorite cookies. Kolacky. I really only make it between Thanksgiving and Christmas, though. It’s a must have at the holidays for me. There are various ways to make Kolacky. This version uses a cream cheese dough filled with a teaspoon of your choice of preserves. It is such an easy recipe, it can be filled with many different flavors, and in our house, it is one of the first to fly off the cookie platter. The original dough recipe is 3 simple ingredients: Butter, cream cheese and flour. As you may have already guessed, I am replacing the butter with avocado based plant butter. I am also subbing regular cream cheese with higher protein Greek cream cheese, and I am also adding 2 tbsp. of sugar to the dough, for sweetness. Just a little. If you would like to try this simple delicious Kolacky these are the ingredients you’ll need:

1 cup plant butter (preferably avocado)
8 oz. Greek cream cheese
2 cups of flour
2 tbsp. sugar
At least two flavors of your preferred preserves. I used blueberry, and apricot here.

Preheat oven to 350*. You may be astounded at how easily this dough comes together. It’s as easy as creaming butter, cheese and sugar in your stand mixer, then slowly adding the flour, until a firm dough forms. You may want to refrigerate for an hour before baking. Mine didn’t seem to need it this time, but it sometimes does. Once dough is ready to roll out, roll to around 1/8 inch thickness, then, use a 3 inch square cookie cutter, (or a butter knife, and ruler), to cut out squares.

Set on cookie sheet, then spoon a teaspoon of preserves in the center of each square, fold opposite corners in, and pinch closed.

Once all are filled and closed, bake for 12-15 minutes, or until bottoms of cookie are lightly golden brown. Sprinkle tops with a smattering of powdered sugar. Let cool completely before serving.

Do you have a favorite holiday cookie recipe that whips up in minutes? Or, one that you just can’t live without at Christmastime? If so, feel free to share in the comments. Share pics on insta @canigetaramen. You can also find us on FB and pinterest @canigetaramen.food.blog. Thanks for reading!

The Dickens of a Christmas Wellsboro, PA.

This weekend Wellsboro, PA is putting on their spectacular Christmas Festival: The 36th Annual Dickens of a Christmas. This is a don’t miss event for the Southern Tier of NY/PA. The festival runs Fri., Sat., and Sun. Events run throughout the weekend but the huge vendor market runs only on Saturday. The townspeople are very friendly and always willing to give you advice on where to find parking. It’s a festive place to get a few holiday photos of your family, friends, dog, etc.

They may be getting tired of posing for photos here…

During the Saturday market there are over 130 vendors, selling wares ranging from handmade alpaca products, to wood artists, primitives, soaps, candles, ornaments, maple goods, Christmas decor of every kind, wind chimes, to name a few.

Aside from the hundreds of Saturday street vendors, the town of Wellsboro, itself, has the most charming downtown, with unique shops, ranging from outfitters, to pop culture shops, to gifts, and candies. There are quite a few apparel shops, and even a traditional family owned department store. If you are afraid of missing out on larger city conveniences Dunham’s Department Store has a Starbucks inside, where we went to warm up after walking around in the 25* temps outside.

The Starbucks decor stays true to the style of the town, which I thought was brilliant!

As you walk around this amazing little town, you notice a wreath hung on every gas streetlamp, every tree in the square decorated, charming shop windows, dressed for the holiday, and smiles on so many faces. If you are not yet feeling the holiday spirit, an afternoon in this small town might just change your heart.

During the market the streets are filled with carolers, street performers, and townsfolk dressed in Dickens era costumes. Everything about this place is Christmas personified for this weekend.

If you are looking for something fun and family friendly to do around the Southern Tier this weekend head down to Wellsboro, and share in the festivities, with this town and the thousands of revelers who come to spread some holiday cheer. Feel free to bring Fido, as well, as it’s a very dog friendly event.

Freeman and I were starting to freeze here, and Luc, being Luc, needed sustenance. Again. ;]

Grab a snack, eat at one of the many restaurants in the town center, try the wine tasting at Oregon Hill’s winery store, or maybe finish your Christmas shopping in one the many interesting boutiques. Remember to dress warmly though, it gets chilly walking around outdoors after a bit. If you forget a layer or two, one of the vendors is sure to have a supply of gorgeous handmade hats, scarfs, and gloves for every taste and budget.

So, how are you spending this weekend? If you know of more festivals/celebrations in NY and PA, feel free to leave them in the comments, and share festival photos on insta @canigetaramen. Thanks for reading!

Five Days of Cupcakes|Day 2: Mucho Maple Cupcakes

“They say that blood is thicker than water, but maple syrup is thicker than blood. Therefore my loyalties lie with pancakes.”
Abigail Pamela Taylor

I’m inclined to agree with Abigail, though maple syrup also makes great cupcake batter AND frosting!

Here’s what you’ll need for the cupcakes:

6 tbsp of butter, softened
1/12 cup of flour
3/4 cup of sugar
2 eggs, separated
1/4 cup of sour cream
1/2 + 2 tbsp of milk
2 tsp of maple extract
1 tsp of baking soda
1/4 tsp of salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Separate your egg whites from your yolks and mix the yolks with sugar and butter in a stand mixer. (Hand mixing not recommended.) Add milk, sour cream, baking soda and salt to the mixing bowl all at once and mix at medium speed. Add flour slowly in as you mix and fold the egg whites after most of the flour has been mixed in. With a spoon, scoop the cupcake mix into your tin or a silicone cupcake mold and bake for between 12-15 minutes.

While those maple joys are baking, why not get to work on the better part of the cupcake duo, the frosting?

Here’s what you’ll need:

4 cups of Powdered Sugar
2 tsp of maple extract
2 sticks of butter
1-2 milk

Combine all the ingredients into a the stand mixer and churn at low speed until smooth.

From here, it’s all what you want to make of it with frosting the cupcakes.

Be sure to show us your pictures on Instagram with #CanIGetaRamen

Thanks for reading!