I love the period between Thanksgiving and my birthday in January. There are: holiday feasts (at home and in restaurants), suspension of calorie counting, shopping sprees, Christmas trees. I (mostly) enjoy it all, but sometimes imagining is better than reality!
Feasts require lots of shopping, food prep, cooking, laundry/ironing (all those napkins, tablecloths), non-stop housecleaning (cobwebs! were there really that many spiders in my house last summer?!) There are always menu “hits” and “misses.” In my house, our after-party breakfasts consist of critiquing the dishes served the night before and placing bright Post-it® notes in cookbooks next to recipes…