Christmas All Year Blog

It seems like January has just gone by so slowly and February isn’t moving much faster, but I’m hoping since it’s a shorter month it will move a little faster.  Not that I want the year to go by quickly, just want to pick the pace up a bit.  Maybe it’s because there’s never really a lot of things happening in January which makes it seem so long.

We took our Christmas decorations down this past Sunday.  With February 2nd being the official end of the Christmas season, I figure I should take them down.  Although we did it a little reluctantly.  We all wanted to leave them up, just to have the Christmassy feeling a little longer and, of course, my oldest didn’t want to do all the work to put everything away.

Hubby and I decided to move where we store the decorations from a place under the stairs to the closet in the spare room.  That, of course, meant having to clean out the closet and then to clear a way to get to said closet.  It took almost the whole day to do it all, but now it’s done and looks great.  The Christmas decorations are now easier to get to when I want them and not have to wait for hubby to come home to help me pull them out.

I only see a few things we missed - some flowers on the buffet, a couple of books, a light-up snowman winter tree decoration, and a little snowman nativity set.  There are a few items I leave out, like my snowglobes and some angels.  It’s always nice to see a bit of Christmas all year.

Well the first week of the new year is almost over and things are just starting to slow down a bit. Still have a few holiday visits to make, but otherwise winding down.

Of course my Christmas decorations are all still up and twinkling. I usually don’t take them down until near the end of January; I like to get about 2 months of holiday colour before the winter blues start to come around.

As part of my New Year’s Resolutions, I’ll be working on the Christmas plans and notebooks again this year, but a little bit differently. Last year I made it the farthest in my 3 years of working the plans, so I was thinking of starting a little earlier and making it an all around household book with Christmas being a very large part of it. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Here’s wishing you and yours the best for 2009!

Christmas is approaching so fast!!!  Only 35 days to go.

It’s been quite the busy time in my household.  I thought perhaps I’d be able to catch up with the Christmas Notebook Plans, but now am just going to prioritize areas and pick and choose through the plans.  Although I did make it farther this year than other years, so I’m happy about that.  And there is always next year; I’l lkeep trying.

80 days until Christmas!!!!

Up here in the north, the weather is starting to cool, the leaves are changing beautiful, bright colours of yellow, orange, and red, and the days are getting shorter. All signs that Christmas is not far away.

Wow - I can’t believe I’ve made it to week 6!  Although last week was rather a bust for me, as I just got minimum work done - not really any notebook work, but I’m just going to keep plugging along and add all the unfinished stuff from last week to my Leftover List.  Now on to Week 6:

HGP: Week 6 - Kids’ Room.  Ah my children, they have many of my  and my hubby’s characteristics - I just wish they hadn’t inheirited the “messy gene” from us.  Oh well, at least they’re young they may be able to unlearn some of our bad habits.  The biggest issue with their room is their clothes, which carpet the floor (literally).  I’ve tried some different things over the years but nothing is really working.  They pull clothes out to look at them and then just put them on the floor rather than back where they belong.  They now have a cube system in their closet for all their shirts and sweaters so it’s easier for them to see what they have without having to pull everything out of a drawer.  We’ll just have to keep working on that one.  The Holiday preparations are pretty simple this week - bake, shop, and ship.  Bake some goodies, shop for some presents, and prepare gifts to be mailed.

HHP: Week 6 - Wardrobe Week.  What clothes do I and the family have for the holidays?  Are they appropriate for the events we will be attending?  Time to go through the closets to see exactly what we have.  Every year we buy our kids a new Christmas outfit, which they wear to their school concert and on Christmas Eve/Day (depending on where we’ll be).  I usually like to find a nice Christmassy top and hubby has a couple sweaters which are wintery in style.  We try to buy clothing on sale or at consignment shops.  This is also a great time to look for pajamas, especially if you give them as presents.  We are continuing to work on our Christmas cards, buying “Secret Santa” type gifts, and beginning our online and catalogue shopping.

Christmas Notebook Yahoo Group.  Do you send out a Christmas letter?  Now’s the time to start writing.  It’s also time to start baking and freezing those Christmas goodies.  If you have children, what type of craft projects would you like to do with them this year - start searching for a fun project, begin gathering the supplies you need and mark a date for crafting with your kids.  My family usually has a few Christmas projects to do during the season.  We have such a good time together as a family.

How’s your Christmas planning going? Feel free to share your thoughts about it here or at the CAY Forum (HGP, HHP, other plans).