Day 16 – Organized Christmas: Catch Up on Your Project

This is Day 16 of our 31 Days To An Organized Christmas. To read all the posts in order, start with this post, then visit the Landing Page to see the outline for the whole series.

Assignments:

• Read Project 16: Catch Up on Your Project (pages 75) in Get Yourself Organized for Christmas.
• Tell your Organized Christmas buddy to “Keep it up!”

Some Thoughts:

If there’s something you haven’t finished, or you need to go back to and complete, take today to do that project.

What project did you not have time to complete? What is your motivation to keep going after this halfway mark?

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Day 15 – Organized Christmas: Get Your Recipes Together

This is Day 15 of our 31 Days To An Organized Christmas. To read all the posts in order, start with this post, then visit the Landing Page to see the outline for the whole series.

Assignments:

• Read Project 11: Get Your Recipes Together (pages 72-74) in Get Yourself Organized for Christmas.
• Check in with your Organized Christmas buddy.
• Gather your holiday recipes together!

Some Thoughts:

For this project, here are some printables from Life Your Way that is useful:

• Baking Planner
• Menu Planner

(Melody getting ready to make baked fudge circa 2010)

I love this idea of having the holiday recipes with all of the holiday stuff! Growing up, we didn’t do the typical foods for the holidays, because we just didn’t know anything other than Chinese food. And I’m not even sure when we started making the “traditional” Thanksgiving and Christmas and wintery foods, but they are so yummy and fun, right? 🙂

We don’t have a whole slew of recipes, but there are a few recipes that we make every single year, but just once a year during the holidays. So now it makes complete sense to have these recipes stored in the holiday binder because it is the only time I will cook or bake that dish!

I’m still in the midst of gathering my recipes, but cookies sure are popular around here.

• Cake Mix Cookies
• Sugar Cookies
• Baked Fudge
• Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here are some Thanksgiving menus from the past in case you are in Thanksgiving planning mode:

• Thanksgiving 2009
• Thanksgiving 2010 Meal #1
• Thanksgiving 2010 Meal #2

No one gets the prize for collecting the most recipes they will never use. Trim your binder down to only the recipes you use and love. – Get Yourself Organized for Christmas

Do you have some favorite holiday recipes? What are the traditional foods at your Christmas table?

 

 

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Day 14 – Organized Christmas: Gather Your Elf Supplies

This is Day 14 of our 31 Days To An Organized Christmas. To read all the posts in order, start with this post, then visit the Landing Page to see the outline for the whole series.

Assignments:

• Read Project 10: Gather Your Elf Supplies (pages 69-71) in Get Yourself Organized for Christmas.
• Check in with your Organized Christmas buddy.
• Figure out what you already have (gather it in one place) and what you really need to buy.

Some Thoughts:

For this project, here are some printables that are useful:

• Christmas Labels from Get Yourself Organized For Christmas site
• Gift Closet Inventory from Life Your Way

(Emily with the elves circa 2010)

I love Kathi’s reminder that being prepared will save us time, money, and stress. Doing a little each day will go a long way.

We don’t have anything that is Pin-worthy, but what we have has served us well in the last 10 years of marriage. I think the year that we got married, we ordered some gift-wrapping paper and other items from a fundraiser of a cousin’s kiddo. We have been keeping all the things in the box since then. And if gift bags are reusable after we received a gift, it is reused. We used bags from bridal shower, wedding, baby shower, and birthday gifts for a long time! I also scored on some free baby shower gift bags in the swap/sell group I run. With all the items in one place, I can see what I have and what I need for the holidays.

It is all kept in the bottom of our linen closet. Our house does not have a lot of closet space so we do what we can with what we have.

• If you are tired of using the same old wrapping paper year after year, maybe you can find some friends to swap a roll or two with. Of course, the amount may not be even, but at least your brother won’t be receiving a gift with the same wrapping paper like the past three years. :p This could also work with holiday cards if you don’t do photo cards.
• Wrapping gifts not your thing? Swap holiday tasks with a friend…maybe she doesn’t like addressing envelopes? I don’t go to the stores enough to know, but when I was in high school, our service club wrapped gifts for a donation. That may be an option.

Get all this stuff in one place so that when you have to go into elf mode, you’re not running all over the house. – Get Yourself Organized for Christmas

Wrapping gifts – love it or hate it? 

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Day 13 – Organized Christmas: Gifts for Out-of-Town Friends and Family

This is Day 13 of our 31 Days To An Organized Christmas. To read all the posts in order, start with this post, then visit the Landing Page to see the outline for the whole series.

Assignments:

• Read Project 9: Gifts for Out-of-Town Friends and Family (pages 65-71) in Get Yourself Organized for Christmas.
• Check in with your Organized Christmas buddy.
• Add mailing dates to your calendar.

Some Thoughts:

For this project, you may refer back to the Gift List you made in the earlier project. And then think who you need to ship or mail gifts to. I’m not super familiar with shipping gifts, so you definitely need to refer to the book for this one!

Think about what you are going to get for whom and by what day you need to have it in the mail. – Get Yourself Organized for Christmas

You will also need to refer back to the Calendar you printed out in another earlier project. Make sure things get to the right person in the right place at the right time.

 

There are so many options for mailing out gifts nowadays. What are some of your best tips for sending packages during the holidays?

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Day 12 – Organized Christmas: Catch-Up Day

This is Day 12 of our 31 Days To An Organized Christmas. To read all the posts in order, start with this post, then visit the Landing Page to see the outline for the whole series.

Assignments:

• Read Project 8: Catch-Up Day (and a Bonus Project) (pages 62-64) in Get Yourself Organized for Christmas.
• Tell your Organized Christmas buddy to “Keep it up!”

Some Thoughts:

Something I am learning this year is that having some margin in my life for rest actually helps me to be happier and more productive. Go figure! :p I am thankful for a catch-up day, and if I had been “on it” each day, I would have been even more thankful for some rest, but today I am thankful to not have a new project. 🙂

 

How do you create margin for rest in the midst of busy? How do you slow down? 

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Day 11 – Organized Christmas: What’s Your Budget?

This is Day 11 of our 31 Days To An Organized Christmas. To read all the posts in order, start with this post, then visit the Landing Page to see the outline for the whole series.

Assignments:

• Read Project 7: What’s Your Budget? (pages 56-60) in Get Yourself Organized for Christmas.
• Check in with your Organized Christmas buddy.
• Save a date on the calendar to plan your budget. A little here and there can add up to a lot. Prepare now so you don’t start the new year in debt. o_o

Some Thoughts:

For this project, here are some printables that are useful:

• The Get Yourself Christmas Organized Budget from Get Yourself Organized For Christmas site
• From Life Your Way
  • Budget
  • Order Tracking

There are so many fun things to do and foods to eat and people to see and places to go (you get the idea) during the holidays, but all of that probably takes a little money, whether it is buying something or having transportation to get to a destination. Since we came up with a holiday mission statement and a list of activities we want to be involved in this holiday season, we can go back and look at that to help determine how much is really practical for us to spend this holiday season.

Here are a few budget items:

• Food
• Gifts
• Donations
• Decorations
• Cards

Food and donations are definitely big items on our list, so we need to make sure we know our limits. Gifts, not so much. We’ve been buying things here and there each year during Black Friday, so I don’t think we need to buy anything this year. Yay! And for cards we do use a lot of coupon codes, but there are always shipping fees to deal with. If anyone has recommendations for quality photo cards at the stores, let us know. Wrapping paper last forever around here, and I think we have a few rolls from the Target Dollar Spot.

If we’re making a magical Christmas with late nights and overdrawn accounts, the magic only lasts so long. – Get Yourself Organized for Christmas

What tips do you have for being money-wise during the holidays?

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Day 10 – Organized Christmas: Get Your Gift List Together

This is Day 10 of our 31 Days To An Organized Christmas. To read all the posts in order, start with this post, then visit the Landing Page to see the outline for the whole series.

Assignments:

• Read Project 6: Get Your Gift List Together (pages 48-55) in Get Yourself Organized for Christmas.
• Check in with your Organized Christmas buddy.
• This one is all about the lists (see printables below), so keep them handy especially if you are tempted to buy all the things when you hit those sales. Track who you are buying gifts for (there are some great tips in the book!) and we’ll talk budget in the next project.

Some Thoughts:

For this project, here are some printables that are useful:

• The Get Yourself Christmas Organized Gift List from Get Yourself Organized For Christmas site
• From Life Your Way
  • Gift Ideas
  • Gift List
  • Handmade Gifts
  • Shopping List
• A personalized spreadsheet might work well for all you details people especially if you are following a budget!!

If you know me by now, I do not like shopping. I don’t even do our grocery shopping. Shopping might be more enjoyable if I had money to shop, or can find clothes that fit, or if there weren’t so many choices, or if there were fewer people at checkout…so many things… I have issues. There must be some kind of support group for people like me. :p

So…you can imagine that Gifts (both giving and receiving) is NOT my love language. It takes me a whole lot of brain power to muster up gift ideas. Unless I know what you really, really want, you will most likely get cash/gift cards. We also so lots of donations to charity as gifts. We usually just do gifts for our own families.

Some other great resources for gift-giving:

• Amazon Wish List
• Wishpot
• SecretSanta.com

Some of my best gift ideas came from things my family posted on social media. – Get Yourself Organized for Christmas

Who do you buy gifts for? What strategies do you use to find out what to buy family or friends? 

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Day 9 – Organized Christmas: Schedule Your Time for the Holidays

This is Day 9 of our 31 Days To An Organized Christmas. To read all the posts in order, start with this post, then visit the Landing Page to see the outline for the whole series.

Assignments:

• Read Project 5: Schedule Your Time for the Holidays (pages 44-47) in Get Yourself Organized for Christmas.
• Check in with your Organized Christmas buddy.
• Schedule in “set” activities.
• Go back to some of your initial thoughts on the Christmas season and you pictured as the perfect Christmas…not someone else’s perfect Christmas, but yours.
• Decide on what activities you will do this year…what are the favorite holiday activities this year…not last year…not for future years…just this year.

Some Thoughts:

For this project, here are some printables that are useful:

• November-December calendars from Get Yourself Organized For Christmas site
• From Life Your Way
  • Calendars (Sept-Dec)
  • Family Traditions
  • Planning Calendar (Sept-Dec)
  • Master To-Do List

For this year, we decided some of our favorites we will be doing are:

• Putting up Christmas decorations
• Visiting with family at gatherings
• Baking cookies
• Reading the Christmas story*
• Sending Christmas cards
• Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes
• Going to look at Christmas lights
• Open presents with the kids
• Reading holiday books
• Watching holiday movies

*Love Comes Near is the Advent study we are doing this year. You can get a PDF download HERE or get the paperback or Kindle version HERE.

 

It’s so easy to have great ideas and let them all slip through your fingers because of the craziness of the season. So along with all the chores of the season, let’s schedule in some fun! – Get Yourself Organized for Christmas

What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions or activities? 

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Day 8 – Organized Christmas: Prep Your Christmas Card

This is Day 8 of our 31 Days To An Organized Christmas. To read all the posts in order, start with this post, then visit the Landing Page to see the outline for the whole series.

Assignments:

• Read Project 4: Prep Your Christmas Card (pages 39-43) in Get Yourself Organized for Christmas.
• Check in with your Organized Christmas buddy.
• Gather addresses and gather/order stamps.

Some Thoughts:

Sit back, close your eyes, and tell yourself, “I’m not sending Christmas cards this year!” How did that make you feel? – Get Yourself Organized for Christmas

*Read the book, and you will see that Kathi will give you a Christmas card “pass” if this just isn’t your year to send them out.* If you are sending them out, read on!

I love printables, but sometimes it can be a little overwhelming to choose from all the cute designs out there. And sometimes the designs can take away from the purpose of the printable…and it can also take up a lot of ink! I am always going back to Mandi’s printables. She has lots of great stuff on her site – Life Your Way.

Here are some pages for this project:

• Address Book
• Card Tracker
• Card Worksheet

They are fillable forms, so you can type the info on the sheets, and print them out. If they are useful to you, print them out and put them in your binder!

Avoiding the post office this holiday season? Get your holiday stamps from the website – usps.com. I’m not sure how much of a difference location is, but shipping is $1.30 for us. And it looks like it doesn’t matter how many books of stamps I put in my cart, it was $1.30 for all. Tip: See if anyone wants to go in with you on purchasing the stamps. If you can get 12 other people, it would just come out to be 10 cents, which would definitely be worth it to not have to drive to the post office and wait in line!! Anyone (I see weekly) want to put an order in together?

Are you sending out cards? What kind of cards do you send out? What stamps will you be using?

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Day 7 – Organized Christmas: Pick Your Christmas Card Picture

This is Day 7 of our 31 Days To An Organized Christmas. To read all the posts in order, start with this post, then visit the Landing Page to see the outline for the whole series.

Assignments:

• Read Project 3: Pick Your Christmas Card Picture (pages 32-38) in Get Yourself Organized for Christmas.
• Check in with your Organized Christmas buddy.
• Choose one or the other:
  • Pick a Christmas picture
  • Set a date to take a family picture

Some Thoughts:

I don’t think we’ve ever had the chance to get family photos professionally done, but we usually like to do a collage of pics from the year anyhow. It is fun to show a few snippets of our year. There are lots of choices for having your photo cards printed, but here are some suggestions:

• Shutterfly – This is the one we usually use. If you are a new to Shutterfly, don’t sign up so fast. Use THIS LINK to get 50% off holiday cards –> https://invite-shutterfly.com/x/JJ5eZx (They always have coupon codes, so the earlier you have your card ready, the more likely you are able to take advantage of the codes and even get FREE cards!)
• Costco – A great option if you are not too spendy on Christmas cards.
• cardstore.com – We used this once before because we found a coupon code for it, and the quality is pretty good.
• Tinyprints – This is also another popular one we’ve seen. We receive a number of cards from family and friends from this company. If you are new to Tinyprints, don’t sign up so fast. Use THIS LINK to get 10 FREE Holiday Cards when you make your first purchase –> https://share-tinyprints.com/x/CKbCqX

We won’t be sharing our photo card for this year on here just yet, but here are some from the past!

And I’ve seen it done in lots of different ways. Some opt to just use plain Christmas notecards. Some print out regular prints and glue dot them to cardstock. Some make their own cards. Some do a newsletter. Some sent e-greetings. We get some professional ones. We get some completely silly ones that make us laugh every time we see it when we flip through our Christmas Cards Book. (You know who you are!) Do what works for your family!

Here are some DOLLAR STORE ones we made one year.

And here’s a sneak peek at one version of our cards this year:

I love some humor, some highlights, and some truth. That’s the kind of Christmas card and letter I want to get. – Get Yourself Organized for Christmas

If you are getting pro pics taken, Kathi has some fantastic tips for you in the book. Make sure to read them!

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