Are you all thinking, “stress free entertaining, Hailey? There’s no such thing.” Then this one is for you. Because there can be stress free entertaining and I’m going to share with you how I keep the stress down around the holidays.
Here are my three tips:
1. Attitude is everything.
This sounds hokey, and I used to hate when people told me “attitude is everything.” But y’all it’s so true! I choose not to be stressed. When I feel it bubbling up, I take a second to recognize that I’m getting stressed and talk myself off the proverbial ledge and make a choice to let it go.
Also, if you’re recipe is good and you don’t burn a dish, it doesn’t matter what it looks like – if it tastes good it’s gonna be okay.
2. Have a plan
You know that saying, “measure twice, cut once?” You have to have a plan. You have to go through it 100 times, write it out, type it out, wrap your head around it. Read the recipes 100 times and make sure you write down every ingredient you need. Then go through your pantry and refrigerator to make sure you know what you have.
Basically, don’t be like me and need to go to the store for 1 thing you only thought you had.
Once you know what your plan is, make sure you have time to prep anything and everything you can ahead of time – and use those sticky notes! Mark your dishes, your prepped ingredients, your dishes you’ll use.
3. Don’t over commit & know what’s most important to you
Learning to edit my menus has helped keep my stress level down tremendously. I’ve learned to not make every single thing from scratch, and really pick instead what I want to make myself and what I can, let’s say, outsource.
Knowing what details are most important to you are key, too! If you know that you can’t have dust on your baseboards, clean them the weekend before. If you have to have a beautiful table set, do it a few days prior.
Bonus: 4. Wine helps ????
