100 Days To Christmas | 3 Boys And A Dog

100 Days To Christmas: Christmas Binder

September 16, 2010 By Kelli 4 Comments

Can you believe that Christmas is only 100 days away!? Are you ready? Stick with my site and you will be ready in time for Christmas. I will be participating in the 100 Days to Christmas event started by Jennifer at List Plan It. I will also be doing a 12 weeks to Christmas event at my blog with 3 other ladies. Plus, my Holiday Gift Guides will go on in November. Yep, I am getting ready!

Today’s challenge is to get your Christmas Binder ready. I will be using a binder that I have around my house, but I did do some looking on the internet, and Avery/Zazzle has some BEAUTIFUL premade binders that I just might be looking into for next year.

In order to get my binder cute and ready, I visited Tip Junkie’s Christmas in July post and got busy clicking. Obviously, everyone has specific needs for their Christmas Binder – so be sure you are adding things you need. For example: I don’t put Christmas lists into my planner because I start a new list every year on the day after Christmas and keep it in my purse. I do a bit of shopping on the day after for next year’s presents! Yeah, I know it is a bit odd. LOL! I also don’t keep Christmas Card lists in my planner because I have an address box and again, I don’t see the point in reinventing the wheel. Mostly, my planner has all the household things I need to do to get ready for Christmas.

Here’s mine:

Section 1: Calendars – I simple went to excel, downloaded 2010 calendars, and printed what I needed to help me plan my next 100 days.

Section 2: Cleaning and DeCluttering Lists – Here I will have all my lists of things that need doing to get my house in shape. 12 weeks to Christmas will begin on Oct 2nd and will walk us all through getting the house company ready!

Section 3: Party Planning – We have lots of things that go on around Christmas, so I use this section to keep everything straight.

Section 4: Empty – This section is empty until something comes up that I need to fill it with. LOL!

What about you? Do you use a Christmas Binder? What do you put in it? Are you playing 100 Days to Christmas?

Filed Under: Holidays / Seasons Tagged With: 100 days, 100 Days to Christmas, binder, binders, challenge, christian music, Christmas, Christmas Binder, christmas events, christmas list, christmas music, day, day after christmas, day away, get ready, human interest, ready

92 Days to Christmas + Holiday House Prep

September 24, 2009 By Kelli 1 Comment

I didn’t post yesterday because I didn’t do it. There again, the reason you should not only be following me, but also 100 Days to Christmas. If I don’t do my work, then I don’t post. So, today I am supposed to be coming up with a list of the people I am sending Christmas Cards to. Plus, since I lost my address database, I am going to have to look up addresses. Uggh! This time, I am compiling the addresses on paper instead of relying on the computer. I made one of my tabs “Address Book” and put some printed address pages behind it. I also have a sheet in my spiral notebook with “Names of people to send cards to” at the top and have been jotting down people as I think of them. As I put their complete info on the addy list, I mark out their name.

You can find some printable address pages here:

http://www.samplewords.com/organization-address-book.html

http://listplanit.com/lists/contact-information/ – the 100 Days to Christmas week one sponsor. I am a member of this and LOVE many of her printables!

http://www.calendarsquick.com/printables/download.html?action=addressBook

http://www.donnayoung.org/household/fullsize/ffiles09/hofiles/grettingcardreg.pdf – This is the one I am using! I love the fact that it has a place to mark when I mail the cards

HOLIDAY HOUSE PREP –BONUS CHORE

Last night I had DH pull down our Halloween stuff. Is yours down yet? Do you have decorations to put up? Mine will go up next week. We don’t have much, a rug, 2 blow ups, a table cloth, and a cute little pumpkin girl (which just dawned on me, was not in the box DH pulled down. That means we have another box up there. Oh, he isn’t going to be happy! LOL!)

Anyway, your Holiday House Preparation chore for today is to look through your Halloween decoration, costumes, etc. Does anything need to be repaired? Does it need to go in the trash? Is it not going to fit anyone in the house? Do what needs doing. If it doesn’t fit anyone sell it on eBay, give it away on Freecycle, or take it to Goodwill.

*Photo provided by FlickR*

Filed Under: Holidays / Seasons, Homemaking / Housekeeping, Organizing Tagged With: 100 Days to Christmas, address, address database, christian music, Christmas, christmas holiday houses, christmas music, day, days, holiday house, Holiday House Prep, houses, look up address, prep, prepped, send christmas card

94 Days to Christmas FREE PRINTABLES

September 22, 2009 By Kelli Leave a Comment

Don’t forget to check out 100 Days to Christmas for full details. This is just my take on it and my thoughts as I follow along with 100 Days to Christmas.

Today we are stepping away from the Christmas preparation to do some Fall Fun prep. I have taken a tab in my Christmas binder and made it “Fall Holidays”. Inside that tab, I have all my Halloween planning sheets printed.

Here are my printable Halloween planning sheets. I have never done this before so work with me as I work out the kinks in converting to PDF. I noticed that the pages didn’t expand correctly and every other page is just one line. Please try printing page by page to avoid this waste until I can get better.

I compiled the info from Halloween Countdown into my own plain printables.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: 100 Days to Christmas, Homemaking, Housekeeping Lists, manual, Organizing

95 Days to Christmas + Holiday House Prep

September 21, 2009 By Kelli Leave a Comment

Today at 100 Days to Christmas is all about setting your holiday budget. Be sure to go to 100 Days to Christmas to get full details on it. On my Christmas list, I put an amount I am willing to spend per person. Then, when I finish purchasing for that person I put the total amount I spent beside their name. This helps me keep up and most Christmases, I have kept below the amount I wanted to spend. Yay! LOL!

Bonus Challenge: Holiday House Preparation

Last week we got our left over cabinet all cleaned out and neatened so we would be prepared for leftovers during the holiday season. We take our left over containers with us when we go to Thanksgiving Dinner. This way we bring our own containers home with us and don’t have to worry about getting them to their owners, nor do we have to worry about paper plates spilling on the way home.

Today’s challenge is a bit different. How many toys and clothes do your kids have? This week we are going to work on cleaning some of that stuff out! As I tell my kids, “How can you expect Santa to bring you new stuff when you don’t have any place to put it?” So, today we are going to work on getting a box or bag filled with stuff from the kids’ rooms or playroom. Are you going to list it on eBay, have a yard sale, list it on Freecycle, or take it to Goodwill?

Filed Under: Holidays / Seasons, Homemaking / Housekeeping, Organizing Tagged With: 100 Days to Christmas, amount, christian music, Christmas, christmas and holiday season, christmas holiday houses, christmas list, christmas music, day, days, holiday budget, holiday house, Holiday House Prep, holiday season, meteorology, prep, prepped, santa claus, spent, weather, winter, winter holidays

96 Days to Christmas

September 20, 2009 By Kelli 2 Comments

How is everyone doing in setting up their 100 Days to Christmas binder and preparing for Christmas? I just carrying my binder all over with me, but don’t really have anything in it yet.

Today we are to expand on our lists a bit (be sure to see the 100 Days to Christmas site for full details) but since I am mostely done with my shopping, I don’t have much to put on a list. I have totally completed 29 people on my list and still have the following to finish

Ricky (husband)
Tripp (oldest son)
Zack (middle boy)
Tank (baby boy)
Mimi (exchange student)
Ina (exchange student)
My Mom
My Dad
My FIL
My Step-FIL
My niece (one of them LOL!)
My Godfather

Not bad to only have 12 left out of 49. I would like to finish all but my immediate family within the next week or two. My family, I have to wait because as Christmas gets closer they come up with more things they want.

How about y’all?