I'm dreaming of an *organized* Christmas.....

If you know me at all, you are fully aware of the fact that I am *not* the world's most organized person.  I like to say that there's a method to my madness.  {Hey, if you ask me where the other black boot to match the one in my closet, I'd be more than happy to tell you that it's under the bed, slightly to the left of a striped sock.  See.  Told ya--method.}
Well, we're having Christmas at our house again this year... Tyler's fam, my fam... the whole fam!  I'm pretty excited, but I remember being incredibly stressed out last year & I was looking for a way to avoid that whole frazzled look this season.  I came across a nifty little Christmas planner at Eighteen25.  I loved the idea & decided to tweak a few things & make my own.  Eighteen25 used a compostion notebook.  I'm more of a "type it out" kinda gal rather than a "write it down" kinda gal, so I used a 1" three-ring binder from Wal*Mart & printed everything out.  I'm pretty thrilled with it, if I do say so myself.  Here's how it all turned out!  {Yes, I realize I could do all of this on an Excel spreadsheet or even in just a plain old notebook... but this way is so much more fun!!!}
Ahh, I've been so in love with digital scrapping, I forgot what it was like to actually cut paper & attach things to it.  Got all my spiffy scrapbook paper & stickers at Scrapbook station. 

Here's the cover...

This is the inside pocket.  It's where I'll keep catalogs, flyers & ad filled with gift ideas.  {Note the super-sweet little countdown sticker I added.  Yup, ♥ that.}

Tabs to let you know what's inside... These were super easy to print out using the Avery Tab dividers.  Another fabulous Wal*Mart find. 

I added my Christmas Card address list {Not posting a photo since everyone's full names & addresses are on there.}  I just made a table using Microsoft Word.  Easy peasy.  I have a column for the names, one for the addresses & also a place to check off "sent" & "received."

Weekly calendar pages printed from CalendarLabs to keep track of all the holiday festivities & our usual suff too.  I printed out pages for Nov. 28 all the way through Jan 1, 2011,

Don't you just hate it when you try to do some early Chrismas shopping & you end up forgetting what you've already bought?  I've done this plenty of times...so I'm glad I included "The List" in my planner.  Notice that it's blank for the moment.  I've done plenty of early shopping... just didn't want any peering little eyes to find out what they're getting this year. :)

Since the festivities will be at our place this year, that means I'm in charge of figuring out what we'll be eating.  I found this menu idea at Organized Christmas.  It lets me see what all we're having & who's making it.  Love, love, love this idea.  ♥

Also included under this tab is a way-cool grocery list {who knew that existed?}  I used one of these babies for the first time the other day when I went to Giant Eagle.  Made my shopping experience SO much more relaxed.  I didn't have a hodge-podge list of this, that & the other thing & I wasn't calling Tyler at home to see if we needed milk, or ketchup or baby wipes.  Everything's listed the way you'd find it in the store.  I found this idea at MomReady.com & tweaked it for us & things we normally buy (oh, and I made the font super-cute too).

The next two parts are awesome.  I've become quite a coupon-clipper lately & I love that I can stash all of my gift-coupons in one spot.  Also, it's fancy.  Woo woo.  To make it, I got some small manilla envelopes at the Dollar Tree & double-stick-taped them to the divider.  Simple as that.

I'm not the best at keeping track of receipts & I'd feel horrible if someone wanted to return a gift I got them... but couldn't because I'd thrown the darn receipt away.  (Seriously, though... I give *ahh-mazingly* thoughtful gifts.  Who would want to return them!?!?)  This is the place to stick those little slips of paper... just in case.  Follow the same instructions as the coupon pocket.

And there you have it,  Hopefully this will come in handy & mak this stressful time of year just a little bit easier!