It’s Project Day!  Each week I have a day set aside to do the things I either don’t have time to do, or avoid because I don’t want to do them.  During my countdown to Christmas I use this day to do things that will help make the holiday season easier for all of us.  I had planned to work on a closet that needs shelves but a more important task is getting my office moved.  We still have to paint and it is a complicated move - daughter to our room, our room to lower level, office to upper level…. so that is NOT getting done today but I am going to switch and setup the desk so the move will at least be easier.  My husband is taking over the old office along with the treadmill and hockey table (the one noone plays with!) and I am using his old desk when I eventually move my office upstairs.  So, today the goal is to get the other desk setup so I can work there, get my current office cleared out so he can move his stuff in and finish getting my scrapbook stuff out of the way.  Once this is done, I will have gotten rid of a lot of junk and feel a lot more organized!  Wish me luck!

If you don’t have a plan for today look around and pick something that will make you feel more organized and move you one step closer to being ready for the holiday season!

Helen

For those of you who are following along, I hope you got some wrapping done yesterday.  I know SarahN prefers to wrap all at one time, and I think if you have found something that works well for you, like it does for Sarah then you should stick with it.  For me, wrapping all at once, especially on Christmas Eve was just not working.  So if you find another way works better, share like Sarah did so we can all learn from one another!

OK - now on to today.  Tuesdays is my scrapbooking day but I have decided to work on organizing my scrapbook stuff instead of actually scrapbook photos.  I am moving my office so the scrapbook portion of my room is a little crazy right now.  So, tonight I am going to prep the scrapbook portion of my office so I can easily move it later this month when the painting is finished.

What are you doing?  Remember, if you are making gifts they will get done if you carve out a little time for the creation of each item.  So, if you don’t have plans today or tonight, consider tackling one of the projects so you can get another task crossed off your list!

Enjoy your day.

Helen

It’s Monday again! See how fast time goes! For those of you reluctant to jump in to Christmas prep, think back to years past and consider some of those rushed feelings - maybe missed opportunities - or the feeling of exhaustion! We are not celebrating right now, simply doing some of the things that can eat up our time and prevent us from the things we most want to do with our families during the holiday season. So…. why not join us as we begin a new week!

This past weekend I had the opportunity to join some friends at a Crop (scrapbooking day) and I spent most of my day creating a fun countdown calendar for our family to enjoy this holiday season.

We do the usual countdown with chocolates (I have a cute felt hanging countdown that we have had for years) but this one is small and will be used to encourage us to dive into our collection of holiday story books.

Even though my kids are now 12 and 12 they still LOVE picture books, especially at Christmastime. So, inside each little drawer I will put a slip or two of paper, or maybe even a small photocopy of the book cover to guide us in our selection of books. We always read but I think this will be fun surprise each day for all of us. If you are interested in making this project, watch the CPO memory section for step by step instructions, coming next week!

OK - on to today… it’s wrapping day and a great opportunity to get a jump on the one thing many of us leave until the last minute. If you prefer to shop at the last minute or have your budget setup to shop in December then today can be used in preparation for your wrapping. Do you have supplies? Make a master list and add it to your shopping list so you can pick things up this week when you shop or pick things up a little at a time.

For those of you who have been making gifts or picking them up a little at a time - pick a time today and get your supplies out so you can get these items wrapped. Some of these items are a surprise so find a spot that you can store them. I use black garabage bags that can be easily recycled year after year. I find sorting by person is easiest and I use some inexpensive string or yarn which is color-coded so I can easily see what is what. I keep a master list of the gifts so I know what I have purchased, what is wrapped and I even use small stickers to help me identify what is in the package because I like to put things under the tree in a way that helps the opening order! An example of my list might be Name|TonkaTruck|Purchased|Wrapped|*Santa Sticker.

If you have an unwrapped gift in your house - please wrap it. When you can pull out your finished bags on Christmas Eve, open and place under the tree - then sit down and enjoy a quiet moment before heading to bed, you will be so glad you did!

Enjoy your day!

Helen

My week is so busy that I have found Sunday is my best day to pick up my groceries. This is also the day when I do a few errands to drop envelopes into the mailbox and at this time of year, I also take a bit of time to check a few gifts or holiday items off my shopping list.

Today my focus is just getting groceries - so I have my list with the ingredients I need over the holidays on hand. I will not buy everything but I will pickup a little at a time so I am not going out to buy a huge amount of stuff at one time.

When I get home I put the freezer stuff away but I keep it separate so it is not consumed - a bag or a basket is a good idea - if you have older kids who help themselves or a family who help with meals (I don’t!) then you might want to leave a note too!

As for the dry stuff - I recommend keeping these items together in a bin or a shelf where you know they won’t be consumed or used. When I get around to Wednesday, my project will be putting some shelves in a closet that I would like to use for storage like this . So for now, I am putting a basket into the closet in my room and will tranfer when I have my weekly project done.

If you are buying gifts be sure to keep a master list of your gifts and check off what you have purchased. When you wrap the gifts on Monday you can store them knowing you have an updated list which will save you wondering later - or worse, unwrapping because you can’t remember!

Whatever you do - just do something. When December rolls around and you are able to sit and enjoy your family and home you will be glad you did! A little at a time makes a HUGE difference!

Saturday is my baking day - this is my opportunity to bake the things I like to have over the holidays - but don’t want to leave until our fun holiday times to bake.

I am scrapbooking all day so I picked a simple recipe that freezes well and is pretty quick to make after dinner. My daughter actually loves this recipe so I do most of the stove work and then she spoons the mixture onto wax paper and when cooled we pack and freeze. Easy!

If you are interested - here is the recipes. We have been making this since I was a kid!

Butter Scotch Quickies

Ingredients

• 2 pkgs butterscotch Chipits
• ½ cup peanut butter
• 2 cups cornflakes
• 1 cup medium coconut (unsweetened)

Combine butterscotch and peanut butter and melt over medium heat. Add coconut and cornflakes and mix well. Spoon onto wax paper by teaspoon.

Let set. This recipe freezes well!

Have fun!

Helen

So… did you make a list of people you want to send cards to? How many are you sending this year? 50, 100, 10, none? If you want to pass on sending cards but still want to send something other than an email, hop over to CPO’s smilebox and check it out. A smilebox is a pretty fun and easy way to connect with family and you can take a picture of your family on Christmas morning and send it off to everyone that day! You can even put some video into the smilebox to bring your friends and family closer to your morning experience.

For me- we will be sending those morning photos like we did last year but I really want to send cards to friends and family. I went through my list last night and split it into cards and CD/DVD. I know the people we see on a regular basis don’t need to see photos of our kids and family but some we haven’t seen in a long time would. I have most of the addresses but have to get the few that I don’t have on hand. Glad to get that list done. Next week I am going to put the montage together. It is not going to be fancy - just fun and simple. I am including some “we are a normal family” photos with some captions. So, I have been busy taking photos of some of our daily lives so our “letter” will be the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Ok - so what’s on tap for today? Well in my preparation for the holiday season I don’t usually do anything on Fridays because it is our family day. I am going to take a few minutes later tonight to go through my collection of kid activity magazines and pull out a few ideas for us to enjoy in December. And for those of you who like to make gingerbread but dread the process - keep your eye on Canada Cooks in early December. The Cookerydoo is working on a spectacular video to help all of us create simple but fun gingerbread houses and extras!  Right now you can see the Halloween treats video!

For those of you planning your weekend countdown tasks - if you are following my lead - Saturday is your baking day. Do you have a recipe that you can freeze? Not sure what you want to bake? Look for ideas if you don’t feel like baking yet. Sunday - I do some of my shopping between hockey games. Make sure your list is ready - I am sure there are some food items you can pickup so you can spread the extra expense over the next several weeks. Just make sure you put the items where noone will eat or use and where you can find them! I have a habit of finding a safe place and then I can’t remember where I put it when I need it.

Have a great weekend!

Helen

Before we dive back into more Christmas/Holiday season planning I want to share a couple of photos from my project day accomplishments!  Yesterday, my plan was to pull the wedding keepsakes from a blue rubbermaid tote and transfer them into an old hard sided suitcase that I picked up on the weekend.  I love love love keepsakes but don’t want them to be stored where we can’t get to them or in a way that it is hard to get to them.  By dividing them up into people or in this case our marriage we can pull them out on birthdays or anniversaries and look at everything.  For our kids, this means that the boxes of keepsakes will be part of their memories as much as they are mine.  If you have ever opened a box from 20 years ago and wondered what everything is - you will appreciate that you can create a memory in itself by opening the box annually.  This also helps you to keep the collection to only the favourites.

This picture shows you that our new suitcase sits ontop of my son Cale’s trunk in our family room.  Just seeing it there makes me remember so many great times.  Right now,  I only have our wedding bits and pieces but I am sure as I go through the piles of junk that are cluttering our storage area - I am sure to find some other special items from our marriage.   My other accomplishment was my order to Sears for two more trunks like the blue one (that was mine when I was a kid!) for my other two children.

OK - now on to Christmas planning.  Last week I shared that I use Thursdays as my planning day.  I look over my gift list and modify and check off things I have purchased.  I also plan the meals and baking.  I am a creature of habit so my meal plan and baking plan have not changed in 20 years so with the exception of maybe adding a new dish here and there I am set so this part is really done.  The other area I focus on today is making sure my three shopping lists are up-dated.  The gift list which is a master list of all things gifts needs to be updated and kept in my purse (that spreadsheet gift list I keep in my daytimer out of site!)  The other two lists are food and stuff - one list I chip away at a little at a time from mid October until Christmas and the other is the list I use a few days before Christmas, on the last shopping outing before the big guy arrives!  Because my lists are pretty set I am also using Thursday (and an hour each week at the pool) to do Christmas cards.  Last week I checked my stock of cards and this week I am going to go through my list of friends and family and make sure I have addresses.  Canada411 is a great site for address lookups. One thing I wanted to do last year and didn’t is to create a photo montage instead of a family letter.  For the people who we see often they know what we are up to - it is the people we don’t see we want to update.  The photo montage would certainly give them an inside look at our life and be fun for me to make!

So if you are looking for a task - pick one of these.  Plan the meal and add the ingredients (even what you have) to your master list.  If you have ingredients pick a spot to store them so they are there when you need them.  Cross these items off the list.  Remember to put the perishable items on the last minute list and the rest of the items on the main shopping list.

For cards - if you do send cards check to see if you have cards, if you don’t put that on the list.  Then check your addresses and spend an hour online getting the addresses together.

Have fun!

Helen

Now that it is getting a bit cooler outside I am feeling a little less crazy knowing I am getting ready for Christmas!  Actually, have you noticed that the Christmas stuff is already in the stores?  It use to be that this wouldn’t happen until after Halloween but things are changing.  While the commercial side of the season bugs me a bit - I do like that I can get some of the supplies I need!  I actually bought a few things on Sunday from my Holiday Shopping List and some wrapping supplies too.

OK - so if you are just joining us welcome.  Starting today you are going to scale back a little so you can have what you NEED to do done - leaving you lots of time to enjoy your kids and family this holiday season!

Today is project day for me - and one area of my house that drives me nuts (other than the huge pile of laundry that is always calling my name!) is the storage area.  I have worked on this a little at a time for the past several years but I realize that I love to keep things.  I have a bin for each of us for keepsakes but I have found this has not worked - the bins are not large enough for my needs and I have decided to get the kids each a trunk which we can use as tables in our family room (this fits our look and feel).  We like to look at these items on their birthdays but the bins have made it hard as things are really tight and I don’t like to get them down for fear of not getting everything back in.  For my keepsakes and my husbands, well we don’t have a lot and most of what I have can easily be put into scrapbook, so I am not going to get a trunk for us.  I did however, pick up a cute old hard sided suitcase for our wedding keepsakes.  So my goal for today is to order the two trunks (Sears has them on sale until November!) and to go through the bin with our wedding keepsakes and transfer the stuff I really want to keep into this cute trunk.  I will share a picture tomorrow.  I won’t worry about the kids stuff until the trunks come in so I can pick and choose what will fit and then get rid of the rest.  I find photos can capture a memory as much as keeping the actual item.

What is your project for today?  Remember - this project should in some way help you on your journey to Christmas.  For me, it clears the path to the decorations.

Have fun!

Helen

Tuesdays at our house is busy like most days, but I do try to carve out a little time for personal stuff on this day.  I would like to say it is my scrapbook day but I don’t seem to get to scrapbooking as often as I want to - but today I am working on a scrapbook for a gift so I am a bit more motivated to make some time!

If you are planning to make anything for a gift now is the time to do it.  If you leave it until December you will spend the month getting ready for Christmas - and our goal here is to enjoy Christmas… so get ready now!  Watch your list of special gifts isn’t too big and if possible, get the kids involved if the special items are not for them.  ** Tuesday’s might not work for your schedule - but if you want to make gifts you have to have a plan - so pick a day or time each day when you can work on these special gifts!

If you are close to finishing a gift, like I am, make a goal to have it done by the time you get to “wrapping day” so you can wrap the gift and be happy it is finished!

It’s week two already! If you are just joining us don’t worry - the point to my countdown is to get things done early - not to be perfect or put pressure on yourself!

Today is Wrapping Day. If you have purchased any gifts today is the day to wrap things up so you are not left with a pile of gifts to wrap on Christmas eve! I know - we have all been there and wish we had planned ahead - now is the time! If you do not have a gift to wrap you might want to use the time to work on your gift list if you didn’t get to it last Thursday (my planning day). Think about your budget, who you have to buy for and make a note of each person. If you are a computer savvy person you might want to make a small spreadsheet so you can check off or cross of items as you purchase them.

Another task worth jumping into today is making sure you have wrapping supplies ( we did this last week but you might have got busy and put it on the list…. tackle it today!) Think about what you need and add these items to your shopping list. Cloth bags are becoming more popular as are paper gift bags. Both items can be reused so they are good choices. I also like the big gift bags that can wrap a BIG gift for a child. The bags can be put away each year. Don’t forget tape, gift tags, bows and ribbons if you use them, and tissue if you like to put it into gift bags.

Have fun!

Helen