a novel idea...planning ahead!

This year, unlike others for at least the past 6 years (while I was homeschooling), I AM going to be ready for Christmas ahead of time. While I can't exactly get excited about Christmas as early as July (like some of my especially organized friends are), I am happy to say that it's not even Halloween yet and already I am kicking into holiday mode. I have already purchased my cards, and got a great deal on them at Ollies. Normally I am scrambling to buy whatever is left half-way through December, and mailing them out on Dec. 24th! Not this year! In fact, being such a gloomy, rainy day today, I might actually start addressing them this afternoon!

I'm also trying to think and plan ahead for some unique and special, and even homemade gifts so that we will be able to stay within (and hopefully even below!) our Christmas budget...which really isn't all that big to begin with. But so many other years it seemed like it just came down to the wire, I needed a gift, and so ended up spending more. Hopefully some forethought will help alleviate this.

I do realize to many (maybe even most?) of you, these things are no-brainers. For me, however, who is severely organizationally challenged, I feel like I'm making huge strides. Even got out a little pocket notebook today that is now my designated 'Christmas Log'...no, not like a yule-log, but a record-keeping log... who I need to buy for, ideas what to get, requests the kids have dropped along the way...that kind of thing! I'll keep you posted as we get into the holidays full-swing to see how well I'm doing with keeping my holiday organization. And maybe I'll even post a few fun gift ideas...though, it might be tough because I don't want to give away any of my surprises!! So, we'll see...