Christmas shopping and planning

Not only am I a planner and list maker, but I love Christmas. I try and start my Christmas shopping early, not too early, but well before the Christmas rush starts.

I write down present ideas throughout the year, I just make notes on my phone and usually list the what the gift is, where to buy it and how much it is. In previous years we've bought for all of my husbands family, aunts, cousins, grandparents as well as his mum, brother and sister. Shopping for that many people means I need to be organised or it turns into a last minute frantic shopping trip. When it comes to my family there's only my parents, brother and sister in law that we buy for, but they're so hard to shop for!

Wrapping paper for this year and next year!

I've gotten a bit of a late start this year, it's already late October and so far I've only bought one present. But I have sorted out my wrapping paper, gift tags and cards. I like to buy two giant rolls of wrapping paper, I try to coordinate the colours but get different patterns. I'll all of my family's presents in one roll and all of Tony's family's presents in the other roll. They next year I'll use the same wrapping paper but swap the family's around so they're not getting the same pattern as the year before. I hate buying wrapping paper, the rolls are awkward to carry and roll about in the boot of the car. Plus this way it makes it so much easier when it comes to sorting out presents and loading up the car.



We're also crazy and visit both our families on Christmas day. It's a long day that starts too early, involves a traditional cooked Christmas lunch with Tony's family (which by dessert I've usually fielded one or two phone calls from my family asking when we'll be at their place!) then we head out to my parent's place and have a Christmas dinner of cold meats, seafood and salad or some years a barbecue. By the end of the day we've usually driven about 250kms, spent around 3.5hrs in the car and eaten way too much!

Christmas for me, takes some coordinating and planning. One tradition I love is baking Christmas biscuits. Every year I make gingerbread and shortbread. When my grandma was alive she always made shortbread for Christmas and special occasions and it just wouldn't be Christmas without it. I love gingerbread and there's just something about the spicy, gingery biscuit that says Christmas to me. I can't bake the biscuits too early, as my husband has a huge sweet tooth and baked yummies never last too long! I also have to make double batches of both biscuit mixes as there's a lot of people in my husbands family and my family like having left over sweets to nibble on in the days after Christmas.

But this year I've also been asked to bring a dessert dish. Dad asked if I could bake mini pavlovas, I made them earlier in the year and they were a hit. Even my brother who usually hates anything with fruit ate them! Well, he ate them after picking off the berries and kiwi fruit. My husbands family love the dark chocolate cupcakes I make so I'll be making those too.

I've already planned out the things I have to do during the week before Christmas. Luckily, I'm a relief teacher so I'll already be on holidays that week. My husband isn't as lucky, but he does have a week off starting on Christmas Eve. The only thing is, I've already got a list of things he'll have to do on Christmas Eve.  He'll probably grumble but it's Christmas, how can you stay grumpy for long when there's yummy foods, time with loved ones and not to mention presents!

Christmas can be a lot of work and can be totally overwhelming but if I break it down and plan it all out then things run much more smoothly. For now I just have to work on shopping for presents. Once December 1st is here the tree will go up and so will the lights along our balcony. Each year we add more and more lights to our little balcony. I love Christmas lights, one day we'll buy a house and I can be totally obnoxious with the amount of lights we have. But until then we put just a few strings of lights and make sure they're all packed away by January 2nd.