12 Months of Christmas January Update

Hello there! It's the last day of January 2015. I told you I would be back with an update on how I met the January challenge to get ready for Christmas 2015, and here I am. The challenge for January was to Start putting together a notebook, whether it be paper or digital, put together a list of gift recipients, and make 10 cards. 

Let's start with the notebook. As I mentioned in the challenge post, I am using OneNote to organize all my thoughts and ideas for Christmas. It's still in the process, but this is what I have so far:

1. Gift Recipient List
1. Family
2. Friends
2. Emma Ideas (This is our "elf" that helps out around Christmas)
3. Gifts
1. Ornaments (I make ornaments for my niece and nephews every year)
2. Ideas
3. Inventory
4. Recipes
5. Supplies
4. Menu
1. Recipes
2. Ingredients

I filled out what I could for Gift Recipient List and I started adding recipes to the Menu tab. These are things that pretty much stay the same every year, but I hope to add in at least one or two new recipes each year. 

I am really liking the idea of having a notebook like this. I can continue to add to it, and if I'm good at keeping notes, I can see what I sent to who and not repeat myself. I wish I'd thought of this years ago. It would be nice to have a record of the handmade items I've sent people over the years, especially the ornaments. One of the things I like about using OneNote is that I can drag and drop things directly to the pages and it adds links to websites for me automatically. I can also use Pinterest to help me remember ideas, but some of my gift recipients see my Pinterest boards and I don't want to give things away. ;o) Of course, I could probably make a private board that no one can see but me. 

I also made my 10 cards. Actually, I made 12 just because it's usually easier to make cards in groups of 4. Wanna see? 

I even stamped a sentiment on the inside. :o)

That's it for now. I will be back later with the challenge for February, but right now I'm going to go finish up a cake for church fellowship tomorrow, and then play with my new Occasions Catalog and Sale-a-Bration stuff that came in. Yay! Play time!!

till next time...

God's love and blessings!