My survival guide to Christmas 2013

Along with spreading cheer and organizing my work world, getting home focused and fully prepared for the holidays is another mountain to concur. Reading, the lovely, Livwithroses 25 days of Christmas Bucket-list. Now I'm not exactly that organized, however I have found some great ideas around the web to contribute to this year's wonderfulness.

TO GIFT:

I made these crocheted socks last year for my sister, shes always cold, I've made her two new pairs this year, they take me about 45 minutes per sock so a not too intensive project for gifting! 

I love the idea of gifting more than just a gift. So encouraging my future nieces with an excuse to enjoy a bath I packaged some cute little spa things an these adorable Peppermint Sugar Scrub from Mommy Musing.
For my "always the hostess" cousin, who has a beautiful bar I found this great Mrs. Lilien's Cocktail Swatch Book in the retail shop at work and had every plan to make this fantastic Homemade Limoncello... but who would've guessed it needed 10 days?! Guess it will have to be attempted next year.

TO FEED:

I'm cooking Christmas Eve dinner for my folks and I'd love to share with you my plans... if they had been finalized. However I always love to have something to share to that's easy to make early and pick up after work. Two great appetizers that are tried and true or me: Prosciutto Wrapped Melon and Chevre Fig Spread

TO DECORATE:

I wanted to incorporate some green aspects into our decorating this year... yes besides the giant fir in the living room. This may or may not have been inspired slightly by the Christmas episode of "Glee". So here are some great ideas from a few bloggers I love this Broken Twig Tree, I think it would be a wonderful idea for P to decorate and for the fireplace the Bows on the this Pine Cone Garland make it a delicate and beautiful touch to bring a little outdoors in.   

TO INDULGE:

When all is said and done some of my favorite times with my family is just spent sharing stories and reminiscing. Nothing like some new Spiced Cider recipes to try share.

Now that I feel like I have  hold on things, I'm off to Lake Tahoe on Sunday for a few days!

 What was your favorite find to help you out for the holidays?

Are you traveling anywhere this week? 

What TV show had your favorite Christmas Episode this year?

The happiest season of all - just try to catch your breath

My coworker just found out there is a town named Center Sandwich in New Hampshire... We are now making plans to go there, sit in the center of town and eat the center of a sandwich... I think the holidays are officially affecting our sanity. 

In the wine industry we are currently  nearing the end of OND (October, November, December). I have prepared for this season reorganized my files and stocked my desk with sparkling water and Larabars, found extra care for Little P and have countless to-do lists floating around. This is crunch time were incessantly busy for 12 weeks trying to process thousands of orders and ensure every single customer's Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Kwanza, Christmas, and New Years tables hold the exact perfect wine to make their holiday season.

Yountville's newest #charliebrowntree

Please don't take this all as a bad
thing. Its my favorite season at work really. I thrive on chaos and constant movement, and in January when it's all said and done the members that call us back just to say thank you for our recommendation, sweet note, or extra-effort that helped their family celebrate the way they should. Which helps but doesn't completely account for the stress, because there's still a bit of a disconnect. So on Monday our team took a mini field trip out of the office to the overpass we're closest to in Yountville. Under the overpass is the sweetest little scraggly tree (fern?) that seems to have been there forever. We felt the sweet little tree needed some love and decided to do something about it.

How do you all spread cheer this time of year?

What is your busiest time of year? 

Where is the strangest city name you've heard lately?

Delicious autumn!

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. _George Eliot

Autumn has finally joined us in Napa. We have reds, oranges, and yellows everywhere, on the trees on the vines and on the people. Well mostly me maybe, I really have a slightly unhealthy obsession with the colors mustard and cranberry right now.

Here are some of my favorite views from our valley this week:

My walk into work right now

The sky blew me away the other day

Two wonderful pictures from Thanksgiving:

Princess playing at the Napa Riverfront

The newest cousin to our Thanksgiving table

And one stunning, utterly typical Napa Valley picture that make working on Black Friday so much less painful: