Christmas is upon us. You’ve finished your shopping, wrapped the gifts, planned the menu and cleaned the house. Ahh. Perfect. Wait a minute. You just talked to your sister-in-law and she mentioned how much she enjoyed those house shoes you got her last year. Then you remember you got the same gift this year. Mom said she hoped Dad didn’t get her that stinky perfume again and by golly, that is exactly what you got her. Your nephew is into Star Wars now and you got something from the Avengers. What is a budding Martha Stewart to do?
A number of years ago a friend got me a red, sparkly journal. I decided to use it for my holiday craziness. This keeps me from making silly mistakes that can stress you out.
- Create list of people who need a gift
- For family I give each person a page
- Individual pages: list each gift you purchase or ordered
- Put a check by the gift when it arrives and a W for when it is wrapped. The reason I do this is so each person gets the same amount of gifts. Kind of embarrassing when little Susie gets 4 gifts and Bobby only got two. Even if you wrap a pair of socks–make it come out even. Kids notice.
- List the stocking stuffers if you do this
Next year you can refer back to see what you bought, thus, avoiding duplicates.
To make my life easier I also wrap family presents a special way. There are 13 of us. I wrap each person’s gifts with their own special Christmas paper. Sometimes the gift is the size of my hand and other times the size of a cooler. But when I stack them together I can see right away if my bookkeeping from above was done correctly. It makes passing out gifts a tad bit easier too. Even the little ones can get in on this. I always get the paper at the end of the season when it is 50%-70% off. Some years there is enough paper left from the the year before so I don’t have to get much. I do ribbon the same way.
Another way to use that journal to make memories for myself is to write about the
experiences from the holidays. Did you go see the Christmas lights? What was the menu? Were there fails to never repeat? Did you try something new? You get the idea. It’s really fun to relive these memories each year and even in July when you drag the sparkly thing out because Hobby Lobby has put the Christmas bug in your ear six months in advance.
Here is wishing you a blessed Christmas. May those you love and cherish be the heart of your week and the joy of the coming year.
2 Responses
I am not as organized as you. Knowing you as I do, I know you are organized in all you do. Unfortunately your habits have not rubbed off on me. Have the Merriest Christmas yet.
You are, without a doubt, the most organized person I know. I do make a list each year of people I buy for because I also want the same amount of gifts for each person. But that’s it. And I get my paper at the dollar store. My brothers, sister, mother, nieces, nephews, etc, get together on Christmas day each year. But we don’t exchange gifts. We buy gag or cheap gifts. We usually only spend two or three dollars, and we do the “stealing” game. It’s so much fun. I collect things from the clearance isles all year long. My mom says I buy too many, but I don’t think that’s possible.