{"id":12825,"date":"2015-12-20T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2015-12-20T11:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=12825"},"modified":"2015-12-19T13:25:44","modified_gmt":"2015-12-19T18:25:44","slug":"countdown-to-christmas-whats-on-your-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=12825","title":{"rendered":"Countdown to Christmas: what’s on your list?"},"content":{"rendered":"

How things will play out at my home the next few days<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Kelly Hockenberry<\/strong><\/span>, Columnist, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"KellyColumn415Newest815\"<\/a>Christmas Eve is four<\/span>\u00a0days away! Are you ready? <\/span>I know,neither am I. (And for all of you who answered in the affirmative, well\u2026.aren\u2019t you <\/span>a candidate for Santa\u2019s team. Bah humbug.) Therefore, in order to quell the rising panic within me, <\/span>I have devised <\/span>a handy\u00addandy checklist of things to accomplish between now and December 24th:<\/span><\/p>\n

SUNDAY:<\/strong> \u00adgo for <\/span>a horse\u00addrawn carriage ride in Kennett today (12pm \u00ad3pm). Our little town is SO cute during the holidays! Don\u2019t miss it! While there, pick up last minute gifts from my favorite State Street shops and <\/span>a vanilla cafe au lait from Philter. Wrap gifts in the evening while watching Elf in front of <\/span>a cozy fire. HA! This part will never\u00a0<\/span>happen…but it sounds really lovely, doesn\u2019t it? <\/span>I have NEVER managed to wrap presents in advance of 11pm on December 24th, but maybe this is my year? I\u2019ll keep you posted.<\/span><\/p>\n

MONDAY:\u00ad<\/strong> Drink 32 ounces of coffee. Tidy the house to get ready for visits from friends and family. For the Hockenberry’s, this means <\/span>a spotless main living floor and absolute chaos upstairs. <\/span>I am not <\/span>a miracle worker, people. <\/span><\/p>\n

Determine the menu for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and make <\/span>a list of necessary ingredients. Bake cookies (or, be lucky enough to find <\/span>a cookie exchange and cut your work time in half). Let\u2019s be clear, by \u201cbaking cookies\u201d <\/span>I mean doctoring up <\/span>a slice-\u00adn-\u00adbake if you have to. The secret is dipping in melted chocolate and sprinkling some crushed peppermint on top…looks like <\/span>a million bucks and nobody’s the wiser. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sssssshhhhhhh.<\/span><\/p>\n

TUESDAY<\/strong>\u00ad: Go to Longwood to see the lights. It wouldn\u2019t be Christmas without shelling out $100 dollars to soak in the beauty of that magical place. It makes me feel <\/span>a tiny bit guilty for the light\u00adless display in my own front yard around the holidays.<\/span><\/p>\n

WEDNESDAY:<\/strong>\u00ad Finalize holiday outfits. Determine any last minute accessories (for me this list could be infinite…for the men in my life, not so much). While <\/span>I would love to have them wear festive, plaid pajamas on Christmas morning, <\/span>I have abandoned that dream in\u00a0<\/span>order to preserve my energy for the fight with my children about why they cannot wear basketball shorts and <\/span>a hoodie to church. Wash, iron, and lay out said \u201capproved\u201d outfit on Wednesday night to avoid the inevitable, last\u00ad-minute wardrobe mishaps.<\/span><\/p>\n

THURSDAY<\/strong>\u00ad: Line up the luminaries in front of the house for the neighborhood display. After going to church, it is wonderful to walk around the development when it is glowing with candlelight. We come home and <\/span>I force our boys to listen to the same books we read to them when they were little guys waiting for Santa. No matter how old they get, this ritual will remain the same. <\/span><\/p>\n

If <\/span>I have not accomplished my wrapping (which, let\u2019s be real…the fact that <\/span>I said that would happen Sunday night is HILARIOUS) <\/span>I will be frantically slapping tape on gifts until I\u2019m bleary\u00ad-eyed. But, tradition is tradition for <\/span>a reason, right? Climb into bed at <\/span>a ridiculous hour and relish the fact that with teenagers, no one will be breathless beside the bed at 4:45am ready to go downstairs. Dream of sugarplums.<\/span><\/p>\n

Enjoy the next four days of scrambling to get ready. Devise your own list of tasks to make life easier. <\/span>I hope that you all have <\/span>a very Merry Christmas filled with love and togetherness!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How things will play out at my home the next few days By Kelly Hockenberry, Columnist, The Times Christmas Eve is four\u00a0days away! Are you ready? I know,neither am I. (And for all of you who answered in the affirmative, well\u2026.aren\u2019t you a candidate for Santa\u2019s team. Bah humbug.) Therefore, in order to quell the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[6752,6751,6750],"class_list":["post-12825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-featured","tag-checklist","tag-christmas-week","tag-holidys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12826,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12825\/revisions\/12826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}