Baking Day A Fall Tradition

Today my husband and I made plans to have a baking day on Sunday. This fall baking day is a tradition at our house as it enables us to get all the bake goods made, put into tins, and ready for handing out during the holidays.

We will bake all day to get ready for Thanksgiving and the upcoming holidays. We have several bushels of apples so all of our family recipes for apples will be made. Apple walnut cake, apple muffins, apple pie, apple cranberry pie, apple turnovers, and more apple goodies will be made on our traditional baking day.

All of our baking will be done in our small kitchen, and we might get into each other's way but I hope not.  I think the day will be fun and will be setting up the dining room table and buffet as the holding station.  Everything will be cooled there and then put into holiday tins.

Do you have a baking tradition that you do with your family?

Here is a recipe for Apple pie made with fresh apples and not store-bought in a can.

Organizing and Storing Holiday Decorations

This morning I ventured into my husband's domain and realized that the garage needed organization. Know that straightening the garage is a thing that I do every autumn because it makes finding the holiday decorations easier.

My husband says he knows where everything is but to tell you the truth it looks like a fire hazard. Clutter everywhere and stacks of old newspapers that are being saved to recycle, nothing in place, storage boxes not organized, and golly I have no idea what is in them.

Everything in the garage needs to be gone through and it is time to get rid of what we have not used in the last two years. I prefer to not hold onto things for a rainy day. I think it is better to donate to a charity so that somebody can put good use to the item.

To make the garage easier to go through we will divide it up into section. Take everything out to the covered carport to go through the boxes, take out what we do not use, and then repack the storage containers and label the outside.

Once the garage is organized and the cement floor swept and mopped then it will be so organized that the holiday decorations will be easy to find.  The last thing I want to do come Christmas is looking through containers in a cold garage. 

All items in cardboard boxes will be removed and repacked
into plastic storage containers

Know that we are unpacking the cardboard storage boxes and restoring items into plastic storage bins with locking lids and they are on wheels. I found them at Lowes.com and they are great when you have to transport them to your home for packing or unpacking holiday decorations.

It is helpful to buy large storage containers in a variety of colors.  You can find the colors at the end of the season.  After Christmas it is easy to find red or green containers, after Halloween orange containers then the rest of the year the containers are blue or clear.

Here are some storage labels for your containers that will help you to find what you are looking for.

Red is a good color to use for a storage label because it is easy to see. Use a black waterproof marking pen to write on the label. Then highlight in yellow.

Subtle Floral U Pick Color/Food & Storage Labels by DelaineK
Design your own custom labels and stickers at Zazzle.

Easy Outdoor Thanksgiving Decoration Ideas

Greet your holiday guests with outdoor Thanksgiving decorations. This porch or yard display is eye appealing and easy to make. You do not have to go crazy with buying stuff for a feature yard display when it comes to Thanksgiving less can be more.

For this easy yard or front porch display, you will need a bale of straw, a potted mum, pumpkin and 4 to six stalks of dried corn that are tied together so they stand upright.  I use craft wire to secure the corn stalks the wire is strong and you can easily look the wire so that it can attach to the support. 

If you plan to use feature this display in the yard then dig a hole, insert PVC pipe or plant stake into the ground. Make sure the upright plant stake is at least three feet tall and then tie the corn stalks to this support so that they stand upright. For a porch you can tie the bunch of corn stalks together and set them in a corner, use the porch wall as support.

In front to the corn stalks set the bale of straw, on top of the bale of straw set a potted mum and a pumpkin. Make or buy a welcome sign or “Happy Thanksgiving” greeting sign. And the display is done.

Other outdoor Thanksgiving decorations that you may like: