C-Day minus 1 week

It's time to enjoy yourself now. If you haven't done it by now, it's probably not important. However, there are a few days left to finish get ready for the Big Day.

Sat 22 Dec Final food shopping.  Collect beef from butcher's. Wrap last minute presents.

Sun 23 Dec. Church - Sunday school make Christingles. Clean and tidy the bits of the house the guests will see.

Mon 24 Dec. Make chocolate Yule Log. Prep veg.  Go to church Christingle Service. Take presents for Sisters-in-law and cousins to Christmas Eve dinner at Mother-on Law's. Hang Stockings. Leave glass of Baileys for Santa. Sprinkle Reindeer food on the lawn and hang Santa's Magic Key (we don't have a fireplace). Wait for children to fall asleep. Play Santa. Sleep.

May you have the merriest of Christmasses. Thank you so much for playing along. You’ve made my planning so much more fun this year.

C-Day minus 2 weeks

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 We're almost there!! Lots to do now.

This weekend is when we traditionally decorate our Christmas tree, but we actually did it last week as we have a family party on Sunday. So, if you haven't already, get out all your decorations and stockings. Buy white lights, because I left it until the last minute last year and couldn’t get any. (Cue major tantrum - from me! Not pretty!)

Task 2:  Wrap your gifts. I love to do this on my own, so I took advantage of a quiet evening last night before P finishes for the holidays. I usually have a colour scheme - kraft this year plus a few sheets left ovcer from 2011, and I make a point of never buying non-recyclable shiny wrapping paper.

Task 3: Finalise festive menus and write a comprehensive shopping list. Don't forget serviettes, crackers, cream (I always underestimate how much cream we'll need) and everyday basics. Panettone may be nice - but you still need sliced bread to see you through the next few days. Pick up all the non-perishable stuff this week, and your final shop won't be quite as traumatic.

Task 4:Make sure all your cards are posted. Last posting date for UK 2nd class is 18th December, and no-one wants to pay an extra 10p for every clard, now do they. Obviously, overseas dates vary so get them all in the post now and then you'll be safe.

Do please comment. Apart form the fact that I love reading any comments, I am curious to know whether this 10-week series was of any use/interest to anyone. Has it reminded you of anything you might otherwise have left too late, or are you all more orgsanised than me and a couple of weeks ahead?

Have a good week!

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C-Day minus 3 weeks

We have already had 2 school fayres, and a Rainbow Xmas party at the Bowling Alley. The school term finishes late this year, so this week heralds to the Church nativity play, Cubs' Christmas party, End-of term dos, the Carol Service at P's school, M's Christmas lunch,  a family get-together and a ride on the Santa Express. R's school will have their Christmas lunch and Secret Santa next week. (BTW; for those on you on PTA committees - Secret Santa is one of the best money-making scams around. I have donated unwanted nearly-new goods to the school. I will give R money to choose one of these unwanted items  to pit under the tree for me and P. I will also give up 2 hours of my time to help the children choose and wrap said unwanted gifts. It raises loads of money!)

Make sure you have a comprehensive list of who needs to be where and what costume they will need. I loathe making costumes, so I need to be organised with this. I have volunteered to bring paper cups and plates for every children’s party this year so a) I can’t turn up with the wrong thing and b) bought a job lot cheaply from Poundland.

Your main job this week is to finish writing all those cards, if you haven't already done so. Mine were sent off on Thursday. If you have presents to post, make sure they are wrapped and packaged up. Last posting date for UK 2nd class is 18th December, and no-one wants to pay an extra 10p for every card, now do they? Obviously, overseas dates vary so get them all in the post now and then you'll be safe.

Jobs for this weekend, chez nous? I need to get the kids writing cards for their friends as the school post boxes have arrived. Chilli jam needs to be made, ready to take as host gifts at various parties over the next few weeks.

The tree will also go up on Saturday. Normally I do it the first weekend of the school holidays, but that is ridiculously late this year, and we have a busy schedule next weekend. As soon as it is up, I can get wrapping the presents to put under it. They are all bought, including wrapping paper and labels, so I just need to find a quiet window of time to indulge myself with a job I really enjoy.

C-Day minus 4 weeks

Woo-hoo! It's December at last!  First opening of the Advent calendar and my first Prompt for Journal Your Christmas. I can really start getting excited now!

Why do people always say ‘I can’t believe it’s Christmas already?’ News Flash – it happens every year. The mad party season is coming,  ready or not, so it pays to be prepared.

Check your calendar – don’t double book lunch with a friend, when you are meant to be watching your son’s Christmas concert, or one of them will never forgive you! After 14 years of marriage, I have still not trained P to use a calendar, so I sit him down and insist he tells me every date he has made for the month of December to avoid last minute babysitting crises

Also, why not be a bit selfish this week? Book yourself in for a haircut or a manicure before all the parties get under way. Ring the people you really want to see over the Christmas season and make a firm date with them.

Get all your children’s cards written, ready to give to activity leaders and friends as the occasions arise in the last 2 weeks of term.

Last week of shopping. I've only got 4 gifts left to buy and I can do them all in 1 trip to Argos so I won't go near the Town Centre again after that.

C-Day minus 5 weeks

The most urgent job this week is to get your Advent Calendars ready, if that is part of your traditions. In my family, both children have a fabric calendar with 24 little pockets. My job is to fill these pockets with sweets and gifts, so I need to buy some chocolate coins etc. They must be the same in each child’s pocket, or there will be arguments. My Mum usuallu buys them each a commercial chocolate calendar, so they can open that each morning after breakfast and the fabric one after school, but it hasn't appeared yet, so I might need to fill that omission.

My Advent Calendar is Shimelle’s Journal Your Christmas. If you haven’t already got your album and kit together for that, you need to do it this week. I've done JYC for the past 5 years, so I'm going to change it up a bit this year. Instead of a daily minibook, I'm going to use the prompts to help me scrap Christmas photos from this and previous years at 12x12. They will fill in the gaps in my yearly albums, so I can use a mix of stash instead of limiting myself to the same supplies as I have to in a mini book.

Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving celebrations, if you’re American. I’m guessing this is the time you can now start thinking properly about Christmas. Scroll down to find previous C-Day posts is you need help.

Tomorrow is Stir-up Sunday. Don’t forget to get everyone in the family involved and making a wish as they stir the Christmas cake mix. I will be grateful that Mother-in-law is making the Christmas cake - too much pressure.

Christmas 2012 Plan-along C-Day minus 6 weeks

Next week is Stir Up Sunday in the  UK; last Sunday before Advent and the traditional day on which to make your Christmas cake, so it’s time to think about Christmas food. Make chutneys, mince pies to freeze , Christmas cakes to keep or give away. Plan your menu, if you’re hosting, and make a complete shopping list, including table decorations, napkins, soft drinks etc. If you do your food shop online, book a delivery slot now. You can continue to change your order up to 24 hours before delivery with most UK supermarkets.

My sister-in-law has promised me a jar of her Christmas chutney and I won't be making Christmas puddings as P is usually given at least 1 as an end-of-term gift but I will certainly make some of Nigella's  Chilli jam and Spiced nuts  to take as hostess gifts when we're invited out over Christmas, and the kids and I will spend an afternoon making minced pies later on.

We are hosting this year for 7 adults and 2 children. P has requested Beef Wellington - which is his speciality, and mother-in-law will also bring a turkey. I'll ask my mum to make a trifle and father-in-law to be in charge of nibbles, which leaves veg, cheese, children's pudding, crackers and table decorations to me. Sound like a manageable plan at the moment!

Can we talk about the etiquette of giving money rather than presents? My eldest nephew, whose birthday was this week, asked for money for birthday and Christmas because he's saving up for a computer. I can totally understand his thinking, and of course Auntie Kirsty obliged, but it got me thinking, as his brother and my son have both done the same this year. If I was shopping for my nephews I would be looking in the region of £15. I might go up to £16.99 if I found the perfect gift but I'd be very happy if I got something for £12.99 and I wouldn't feel the need to top up that extra £2. However, when gifting money, or indeed vouchers, I can't do less than £15, and even that looks a bit mean. Should I go up to a £20 note instead? Of course, it's much easier to put a note in a card than buy a present and wrap it, and I know the more elderly members of the family love it, but for me the stress of Christmas doesn't come from the shopping but from the financial burden. I need to find bargains where ever I can.

What do you do? I have thought I might write the boys cheques so they can't cash them immediately, but that seems a bit churlish. I'm sure I'll end up giving them what they want, but it might be a tenner and an IOU for the other tenner! I'll make a couple of personalised paper wallets to present it in.

On a similar theme, I have decided that (when I get paid) I will buy a couple of £5 Amazon vouchers for those embarrassing emergencies when someone I haven't bought for gives me a present. Everyone can use an Amazon voucher these days, can't they? And if I don't need them, I can use them myself as cash in the new year.

C-Day minus 7 weeks

Sat 10 Nov  You have my permission to shop till you drop from now on!

Having done all your online shopping, it is now time to grasp the nettle and actually brave the shops. It will still be relatively quiet for the next few weeks, before the real chaos begins.
I've bought most for most of the children and Secret Santa. I've still got a long way to go, but will have to wait until my next pay day now.

Don’t forget to buy wrapping paper and gifts tags. Choose your colour scheme, if you like to have one. I've ordered mine from a catalogue which benefits R's school, but i forgot to write so I never buy the shiny metallic paper – it isn’t recyclable. If you like to get ahead, wrap your presents as you get them. This also reduces the chance of anyone discovering their gift before the big day. But make sure your name tags are securely attached (I speak from experience!!)
Personally, however, I really enjoy doing all my wrapping in one evening late in December.

I have to admit to not having written many cards yet though. I have been very tired this week by the time the children are in bed. I need to practise what I preach!

C-Day minus 8 weeks

Task 1: Secret Santa. (yes, you might have seen this paragraph last week. Sorry - really careless. This is the true place for it!) Amongst my in-laws we buy for all the children, but run a ‘Secret Santa’ so each adult receives just one gift costing up to £10. We drew these names this weekend, whilst sharing a post-Fireworks display curry, so that the girls can start shopping and the men have plenty of time to time to forget who they are meant to buy for! I have learnt to take charge of P’s slip of paper as well as my own for safekeeping! It’s also the girls’ job to make sure that everyone gets what they want, so non-subtle emails are sent soon after the name drawing saying, ‘whoever has me – I’d love a mini sewing machine – they’re£9.99 in Hobbycraft, and P has seen something he wants on Amazon, so vouchers would be good’. I know exactly what the person I've drawn wants. Easy!

It would, of course, be even easier to just go and buy ourselves what we want, but this is Christmas – it’s meant to be fun, not easy!

Task 2: Get those online orders out of the way. If you knwo you will be buying books / electronic gadgetry from Amazon, you might as well do them now so there is no worry about whether they will arrive or paying extra for express delivery. (Although I do acknowledge that January sales usually start before on the HIgh Street and you could wait if you are brave enough)

I have already ordered my printed Christmas cards. This week I placed orders for 4 postal cakes to family who I will probably not be seeing over the Christmas period. Although the Baker Days cakes which I reviewed recently are pricy, they are no more so than spending £5 on each of 3 children (children I see rarely and whose tastes I don't know) and then paying postage. This way I send a family gift which will be enjoyed by all of them, and rely on someone else to deliver them.

I've ordered wrapping paper and chocolate items (presents and for Advent Calendars) from catalogues which help raise funds for the children's schools.

It is worth remembering that you don't have to reinvent the wheel for every gift. I know 3 6 year-old boys and 3 11-year old girls. They don't know each other so they will get the same gift.

I have also booked a trip to the Harry Potter studio tour for the 4 of us, as the children's main present. I would much rather spend money on giving them experiences than on a gadget which is obsolete in 6 months or toys they will play with 3 times. They have grandparents to buy these things for them (and anyway, I have Harry Potter stickers burning a hole in my stash box, but don't tell enyone!)

For the aforementioned grandparents, I've created photo calendars on Photobox for the children to give them. I know both children will have school photos arriving before Christmas, so I can get some of those too to send with cards.

This ticks quite a lot of names off my list. And I don't even need to wrap them. I'm sure there are lots of other things I could order from Amazon, and I might, but I want to spend some time looking round the shops first.

Task 3: Start writing your cards. Half a dozen every evening in front of the TV makes this an (almost) pleasurable chore, and allows me to write a proper note instead of just scrawling my name.

Good luck. Wishing you a happy week on your laptop!
Kirsty

C-Day minus 9 weeks

Hi, so how did you get on with your lists? Did you manage to get fanily members to agree on where/how to pspend Christmas?

This week is Half Term for us, so you’re allowed to spend it doing Hallowe’en and/or Guy Fawkes Night activities. But why not try to whip out a couple of Christmas cards at the same time, with or without the kids' 'help'?

Task 1: Get your Christmas craft stuff out and put it somewhere accessible. I love to spend an evening going through all the lovely sparkly stash I haven’t seen for 10 months. I have kept all of the cards I received last year, so a couple of weeks ago, my daughter and I went through and cut off any embellishments, pictures etc that we might be able to recycle into new cards or gift tags.

Task 2. Cards! If you are planning to make all your cards, you have probably started already. If not, it will feel less like a chore to do a few every week from now on.. Personally, if it is a chore, I would say buy them, or try the digi route. Easter is about martyrdom –Christmas is about fun!

I got a disappointingly small haul from last year's cards- far too many robins and Santas for my liking. They will be fine for M's Christmas crafting and for tags, but I prefer to use religious themes on my cards.

In addition, I am at heart a scrapbooker, not a card maker and I have started to feel pressure to produce these lovely handmade things which are not really appreciated. So I have decided to do it differently this year. I designed a digi card featuring my children with their Christingle candles last Christmas Eve and ordered fifty of them from Photobox.

I have started to write a few every day.  I hope this will give me more time to actually write something personal in them. It will be interesting to see what sort of response I get. 

Please leave a comment to let everyone know how you're getting on with these tasks. I'm trying to visit everyone who's joining in at least once a week.

C-Day minus10 weeks

Welcome to my Christmas 2012 Plan-along. I don't start planning Christmas in August like some people, but neither can I leave it all until the last  minute - it's just not my style. So today, the week after my birthday, I consider the perfect time to start thinking about Christmas.

There are just 10 weekends until the big day!!

So, every weekend for the next 10 weeks,  I will document my planning and help you plan yours. If you want to join in please leave  a comment and link here and link to my blog on your post. Everyone’s Christmas is different and some of the things which are crucial to making mine work will be of no importance to you. I will post every weekend, giving you a list of things to accomplish that week. Of course you don’t have to work to the same timescale as me – you can leave it all until the first week in December if you like, but I would be panicking long before that. Feel free to ignore and adapt any of my plans as it suits you.

Task 1 this week– talk to everyone involved in your Christmas and firm up plans for who will be where when. Knowing whether / when you are hosting is crucial to forward planning. It’s been several years since I hosted Christmas Day itself, so I got in early to do so this year, although I don't know yet exactly how many will be there. We will probably be spending Boxing Day at my Mum’s as usual (if they don't decide suddenly to take off on a cruise).

Task 2 - Get out your address book / Christmas card list or whatever you use. Count up how many cards you will need to send and decide how many of those will be handmade (if any. There is no obligation after all) My daughter likes to make cards for her friends. My son doesn’t, so I buy charity cards for him to give out.


My beloved Christmas planner, which contains my card list and my present list for the last 4 years (so I don't buy Auntie Valerie yet another cyclaman) It only has space for 5 years, so I will need a new one next year.

Task 3. Now you know who you will be seeing, make a list of people you need to buy for. Don’t forget to include your kids’ teachers, your work Secret Santa and any other extras. If you need to post any of your presents, bear in mind final posting dates and weight.  All the Christmas planning magazines will tell you to set yourself a budget too, but I’m not that good. I do write down how much each gift costs as I buy it, so I can keep a tally. I don’t think it necessary to spend equal amounts of money on each person, just equal amounts of love, but if you like to keep things equal then writing it down helps with that too.

If you are going to hand-make any of these gifts, you need to get ahead with them. I've found the necessary bits to make bespoke ID lanyards for my colleagues and kids' teachers, but I need 8 of them so I'll have to get going as soon as my order arrives.

I keep a notebook in my handbag throughout the Christmas season, because I am perfectly capable to finding 2 or 3 'perfect' presents for certain friends and overspending wildly on R and M, whilst forgetting the male relatives completely. I have decided not to buy the children's big presents until the last minute as, last year, I went out and bought the main gift on the list they wrote in October. By December they were both asking for something completely different, which I then couldn't afford.

So, that's your homeowrk this week. Talk to family and friends (not too tricky, I should hope. I know for some, deciding who to spend the day with is a big issue, but it is still better done now than at the last minute) and write some lists in your notebook. Christmas planning really needn't be stressful, and I haven't even asked to get your glitter out...yet.

Leave a comment and link up with your blog. I look forward to keeping up with how your preparations are going
 

June in Numbers

It's hard to believe, but we're over halfway through the year - time to start counting down to Christmas! In October I will start a new weekly Christmas 2012 Plan-Along post on this blog. (I need to start working on this during the summer hols, including a better name!)

June was a busy month - which meant lots of numbers so I decided just to print them out. Here are the stats:

·       4 mufti days at schools

·       1 street party at M''s School to celebrate the Queen’s 60th Jubilee

·          10 people in France for 7 days

·       £140 spent on children’s shoes

·       £37 spent on Mary’s new glasses

·       2.5 hrs French written exam

·       7 bowls of strawberries picked in the garden

·       4.5 hrs in the Chinese restaurant to celebrate my father-in-law's 70^th birthday

·       2 school fairs (at the same time)

·       122.3 mm  of rainfall – 2x the average for June

·       £15 of food shopping put back because of the Natwest bank crisis

·       8lb – the weight of my new 2^nd cousin, born 25.6.12

All the 'Months in Numbers are linked to over on Julie's Blog (and it was her idea in Papercraft Inspirations that I stole for putting a tag through an aperture.

                                      

The last few days of JYC. The first few days of the year (and a leg up for Christmas 2012

I combined the last 6 JYC prompts into my last few SMASH pages.

2nd January. The children went to see the pantomime with their Nanny while I did some revision for my French oral exam. They do believe in fairies. They do. they do.

3rd January. A restful day spent naming new clothes for school. P and I shared a Chinese takeaway inthe evening to celebrate the end of the holidays.

4th January. Back to school for M and me. R had an extra day and P doesn't go back until next week. Not fair!!

5th January. R went back to school. My colleagues came over in the evening for a 'post-Christmas Do'

6th January. I took my French AS oral this morning. Not sure how well it went,  but I know I was very nervous. Now to revise for the written paper in 2 weeks' time. The tree, cards and all the decorations were taken down today. The house looks very empty and bare without all that Christmas sparkle.

And that's it until next October, when I will start preparations again.

For those of you who expressed an interest in my Christmas 2012 Plan-Along, here's my first tip for you. When you take down all those gorgeous glossy cards you received this year, don't just recycle them. Pack them away somewhere safe and WRITE DOWN WHERE YOU PUT THEM!!! In you JYC journal, perhaps, or on the Decmeber page of your 2012 diary / calendsar. Anywhere as long as you will look at it in 11 months time.

Do the same with any leftover wrapping paper or tags so you can find them again next year (and the paper you bought in the January sales, if you're that kind of girl. But on second thoughts, if you are, you probably don't need my help!)

Here's a look at my finished Christmas SMASH book. I've really enjoyed doing 'll definitely be getting myself another SMASH book for this year. All those little events that don't warrant a full 12x12 page.

It will be nice to get my non-Christmas stash back out, although I do still have some pictures I want to make into full layouts.