A few weeks ago I told you that I'm starting my Christmas preparations earlier than usual this year so that I can enjoy this season more than I have in the past. So far it's working!
Most of my Christmas shopping is finished, mainly because we bought things on sale throughout the year. I just need a few more things for stockings and a couple gifts for people I only recently decided to give a gift to this year.
I've been purging all over the house so the house feels less cluttered with all the Christmas decorations and to make space for the new things we'll be receiving in a few weeks.
We completed a deep cleaning of the house last weekend (it's so much easier after purging and before decorating!). It will still need maintaining between now and Christmas but we won't need to do as thorough a job.
Once we finished all the cleaning, we spent an afternoon decorating for Christmas. My hubby and 8 year old son brought in all our bins from the garage. He was so proud to be old enough to climb the ladder and stand up on the shelf (that's taller than him!) to help. My 6 year old daughter was delighted to go through each bin with me as they came in look at all our Christmas items. Then all four of us had fun finding places to put our decorations while we listened to Christmas CD's. We capped the day off watching the animated version of The Grinch. Well, actually my hubby and I capped it off with a hot chocolate with Baileys in Christmas mugs after the kids were in bed :)
This week I'm writing my Christmas cards and starting to wrap gifts. We'll decorate our tree this weekend.
We will be participating in a few Christmas celebrations already this weekend and it's so fun to be eagerly anticipating them rather than feeling overwhelmed with getting everything done.
One thing that has helped me get more organized this week is this Christmas Planner from The Blog Guidebook.
This planner includes calendars, a greeting card list, a gift organizing guide, a wish list, a shopping list, a menu plan, a grocery list, a place to record movies/specials that you want to watch, and a place to record your favourite Christmas games and activities. Plus, there are 2 pages of printable gift tags.
It's a great place to record all the little details you need to remember this month! What I also like is that you can print as many copies of each page as you'd like and then put it into a binder or get it bound. It's really flexible. And not only will it help you get organized this year, you'll have a record of everything from this Christmas when you start preparing for next Christmas.
If you're feeling overwhelmed preparing for Christmas, this is a simple way to get organized so you can spend more time enjoying yourself this season.
Sound good? You can click here to purchase it. And if you buy it today (November 27) you can get it for only $0.99 instead of $2.99!
Thanks to The Blog Guidebook, one lucky From Overwhelmed To Organized reader can win a copy too! There are several ways to enter below. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Note: I received a free copy of the planner to review. The opinions expressed in this post are 100% mine.
Enjoy the planner and I hope you reduce the overwhelming feeling that often accompanies this Christmas season by getting organized now! I know I'm already enjoying myself more :)
Happy organizing!
