My Christmas Binder came out of the closet during the final weeks of August. Inside it I have some of the best ideas from the web to get a person on track for the fall and Christmas/New Year holidays. I have the room-by-room plan and chore lists from the Holiday Grand Plan, the Christmas Countdown with its six-week checklists, reading recommendations, recipes and CEO's entertaining and helpful articles that I come back to year after year. It also contains two newer additions that I added two years ago, FLYLady’s Holiday Control Journal that has some wonderful meal and gift planning forms and CEO's Houseworks Holiday Plan that uses her book to help catapult the Christmas preparation plan.
Although I had brought the binder out two months ago, I have come to the conclusion this year that I do not want to hyper-focus on Christmas from August to October. In August and early September I like to squeeze every last drop of summer out of each day, so when working on the Holiday Housework Plan I am only focusing on the things that are only indirectly related to Christmas. This past week was the focus on the family areas areas. I still need to get my amaryllis bulbs started for here and one for my grandma. We have also decorated for Halloween and tonight the boys are carving jack-o-lanterns. When October hits, I do like to have the idea in my head that I will be prepared for Christmas, but I do not want to miss out on what autumn has to offer. I appreciate Christmas Countdown's emphasis on fall holidays and preparing the home so that when December arrives, the final touches of execution are all that are required.
So now I am going through the Christmas Planner web pages to see what needs an update before the first week begins tomorrow. I am going to use my binder for all of the lists and reading materials and the planner pages for the things that would be nice to be portable like shopping lists for gifts and holiday meals.
No comments:
Post a Comment