Welcome back to day 8 of the 15 Days to an Organized Christmas series! I am so glad that you are here! Because you are taking the time right now to plan out your Christmas, you are going to enjoy the holidays so much more because you won't be rushing around trying to fit everything in!
For those of you who are new, we are taking 15 days to get ourselves organized and ready for the upcoming holiday season. You started by gathering all of the supplies that you need for Christmas and organizing them into a binder. You downloaded the free Christmas planner to keep all of your lists, budget, gift lists, and everything else in. You know what social activities and events are going on and already wrote out a Christmas to-do list. You know the exactly amount you can spend for Christmas and have that budget in place. You know who you'll need to buy gifts for this year, you have a master list of gift ideas, and you've already compiled the list of addresses to send your Christmas cards too. You also have lists of traditions and activities that your family will do this year and you also have a list of crafts that you want to make this year with a shopping list for those crafts. You are getting closer and closer to having everything ready for the holidays! Today we talk all about baking yummy Christmas treats.
About 3 years ago, I had this grand plan of doing Christmas baking and making 4-5 different cookies to give to my neighbors. The only problem was, I ran out of time! You see, that year, we were going out of town and I hadn't planned far enough in advance to have all my recipes out, all the ingredients bought, and a baking day written down on the calendar. So what happened? You guessed it, there was no Christmas cookies to give out to anyone! So what did I do? Yes, I still gave the neighbors something but it wasn't what I wanted to give them. I gave them a bag of mandarin oranges. Yes, oranges. Yes, I was that person who passed out healthy treats for Christmas. You know what? It was so easy to do that I actually planned to do that the next year as well! No joke there! At least I planned to do it and it wasn't a result of running out of time!
Last year, I made my traditional Christmas cookies and all my neighbors really seemed to enjoy them. This year, I will be baking once again! Are you baking this year? Don't be like I was a few years ago and have to pass out oranges because you run out of time.
Go ahead right now and look at your December calendar. Now! It should be easy to do since you've got it in the front of your Christmas planner. Than, decide what day you are going to do your Christmas baking. Depending on how many treats you do, you may need 1-2 hours or an entire day. You can also break it up into different baking sessions if you need to.
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Now that you have the time(s) written down, decide what you are going to bake this year. Write each one of those cookies and bread and cakes down on the "Christmas baking" worksheet in the Christmas planner. Make sure you jot down the source of the recipe and any notes you have about it.
Now that you have the recipes that you'll be baking, go ahead and gather those recipes up. Print off any recipes that you come across online. Put them in a place all together. I recommend putting them in a large zippered sleeve
in the back of your Christmas planning binder. You can also paperclip them together on the side of the refrigerator or next to your everyday recipes. Whatever you choose to do, place them in a safe place and do not loose them! Not loosing them is the important part here!
Than, use the "grocery list" or the "Christmas shopping list"included in the Christmas planner and write down the ingredients that you'll need to purchase from the store. You do not want to start baking and suddenly see that you are all out of sugar or flour and you forgot the red cherries to put on top of your cookies.
Because you'll already have a grocery list started for your Christmas baking needs, you can take advantage of all the baking sales that the grocery store will have. So if you see a good deal on sugar or flour, go ahead and stock up. You'll be able to because you'll know what you'll be baking and what you need in order to make it!
Today's Assignment
Look at your calendar and pick a date(s) and time(s) for your Christmas baking to happen. Look through your recipes and think about what you are going to bake during the holidays. Gather those recipes up all together. Compile a list of needed ingredients for each of those recipes.
Get caught up on any of the assignments in the 15 day's to an organized Christmas series right here.
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