Twelve Weeks

Each year Christmas comes faster. And each year our family grows. We are 21 now, with all our 6 children, our 4 sons-in-law, our 9 grandchildren (and one more to arrive in March 2012!). Add my father, and my husband's brother (single), plus a son's girlfriend, and we possibly could be 24 people for Family Christmas this year.

And Family Christmas does not just "happen". As mom and grama, there is much for me to do to prepare. I was reminded this week (through a blog featuring twelve weeks of baking before Christmas), that it really is 12 weeks before Christmas already - this week.

It is usually my intent to begin early with preparations, but this year I am hoping to be a bit more purposeful about it. Wanting to be able to have more time in December to relax and savor the season, I hope to focus on the preparing throughout these next twelve weeks. Of course, the rest of life continues on as usual, and I love the fall season and do not want to distract attention from it - so we will see how this goes.

This week I made up some charts to help keep me on track, reworking some existing charts that I already had in My Planner. (The charts for October and November are shown here.) I also have started looking through a magazine of "food gifts" that I picked up last Christmas season, and didn't have time to use then. Also this week as I was walking through Sam's, I could not resist picking up their latest "Best Holiday Recipe" magazine (at 30% off).

How about you? Are you already working on Christmas plans and preparations? I would love to hear what you are doing this week/month - leave me some of your ideas in the comments, or send me an email.

Linked to 52 Weeks of Organizing