Organized Christmas - 6 Week Countdown to Christmas - Week Three Gifts and Giving & Week 4 Get Cooking

I’m still trying to follow Cynthia Ewer’s Organized Christmas Countdown at Organized Christmas. This is actually Week 4 – Get Cooking Week, but I’m still working on Week 3 – Gifts and Giving Week. My Get Cooking Week isn’t going to happen until we get back from vacation after Thanksgiving. If I can get most of my shopping done by the end of the first week in December I’ll be thrilled. As I said in my last post the point is to keep chipping away at what needs to be done and not stress about being behind.

Tasks I’ve completed in the past two weeks are:

• Purchased Holiday Stamps
• Ordered Photo Calendars for Grandparents (already received)
• Started Selecting Photo’s for the Calendars
• Started Shopping (I’m making some headway here – more to follow)
• Emailed my Sister In-Law for gifts ideas for my Nephew and Niece

Tasks I need to complete this week/weekend are:

• Declutter Décor (remove Halloween and excess regular décor. We won’t be here for Thanksgiving so I’m going to skip decorating for it and will move onto Christmas Décor early)
• Establish Holiday Clothing Needs
• Inventory the Gift Box
• Buy a few supplies for my daughter’s homemade gifts and keep making them
• Get gift ideas for our parents – other than the grandparent type gifts
• Keep Shopping!!!!
• Plan my Baking and Gifts From my Kitchen Lists

Today my daughter has a half day of school and I have a parent teacher conference at 3:40. I’ll be dropping the kids off with my parents at 2pm returning around 5ish for supper with them. My plan is to tackle some shopping before and after the conference. I’ve got some gift cards and coupons to work with so hopefully I can get a lot for less.

Here are some of the deals I am working with:

• Kohl’s – 20% off entire purchase and I have $20.00 in Kohl’s Cash from shopping last week
• Toys R Us - $30.00 in Gift Cards from purchasing Hasbro Games and for purchasing over $75 in merchandise
• Amazon.Com - $20.00 in Gift Cards from Swagbucks

So now I have to get to list making and psyche myself up to head out shopping this afternoon. My goal for this holiday is to have all gifts purchased and wrapped by December 16th. I don’t mind baking and crafting the week before Christmas – I actually enjoy it. But I hate heading to the stores and feeling overwhelmed. I want to enjoy making cookies with the kids, decorating the ‘bird’ tree with the neighbor boys, visiting with family and friends and just appreciating my blessings.

Check out Organized Christmas for great ideas on creating a low stress, high fun, frugal holiday for you and your family.

Organized Christmas - 6 Week Countdown to Christmas - Week Two Reality Check

I’m following Cynthia Ewer’s Organized Christmas Countdown at Organized Christmas. This is Week Two – Reality Check Week. I’m behind on quite a few things this week after having my daughter home sick. So I’m trying to cram some of my Week Two Christmas Tasks into this weekend and will carry the remaining into next week. The point is to start accomplishing what needs to be done and not stress about being behind.

Tasks I’ve completed this week are:
Purchased Holiday Stamps
Ordered Photo Calendars for Grandparents
Started Selecting Photo’s for the Calendars
Started Shopping (ok I only bought 2 items….but I started!)

Tasks I need to complete this week/weekend are:
Establish Budget
Declutter Décor (remove Halloween and excess regular décor. We won’t be here for Thanksgiving so I’m going to skip decorating for it and will move onto Christmas Décor early)
Establish Holiday Clothing Needs
Inventory the Gift Box

I hope to have next week's checklist posted earlier and to devote more time to planning and task accomplishment.   Shopping is a big task for me to get working on.   I have a Toys R Us list and plan to get there in the next few days.

Organized Christmas - 6 Week Countdown to Christmas - Week One Get Organized

I’m following Cynthia Ewer’s Organized Christmas Countdown at Organized Christmas. This is Week One – Get Organized Week. I will be posting weekly updates on my holiday planning and accomplishments. If you have any tips that make your holiday planning, shopping, baking, entertaining or decorating easier and less stressful I’d love to hear from you.

The tasks I’ve completed so far are:
Print out my Christmas Planner Pages and Calendar Pages
Started populating the calendar pages with pertinent dates
Christmas label list is already completed on my laptop
Gift Idea List is started

Other tasks I need to complete this week are:
Compile photos for the Grandparents Photo Calendars
Blitz through my Baking Cabinets, Toss, Inventory and List Needs
Purchase Holiday Postage Stamps
Work with my daughter on her gift creations (secret stuff!)
Inventory the Gift Wrap, Tags, Bows, etc stash

I’m holding off on purchasing Christmas cards right now as we generally do photo cards. We will be heading to Florida for Thanksgiving and the family will be going to Disney (SHHHH…..the kids DO NOT know this so for my real life family and friends don’t say anything!!!!). I think a family photo from Disney would make a great Christmas card.

Check out the countdown at Organized Christmas and join me in planning a great holiday season.