Holiday Journal - Part 1

As promised, I want to share with you my Holiday Control Journal.  I'm going to do this in several steps over the next few weeks.  The original idea comes from Flylady and you can access her actual Holiday Control Journal to download and/or print by choosing The Table Of Contants on the sidebar of her site and than chosing "Flylady's Control Journals" from the Fly Zone Box.  I took her Holiday Journal and morphed it into my own. 

I have two Control Journals, the green one is my every day Control Journal, which I realized I haven't shared yet either!  And the black one is my Holiday Control Journal. 

When building your holiday control journal, don't wait for the perfect supplies.  Just grab a binder, a folder, or even a file folder; some loose leaf lined paper or typing paper, and a pen or pencil!  I prefer to do mine on the computer but you don't have to - just do what works for you!!

I also use page protectors, but that is something you can add later!

So the first section in my Holiday Control Journal is my "Holiday Plan" which you can view here.
My plan begins the first week in November with cleaning and decorating the Dining Room.  Because I decorate every room in my house for Christmas, I have chosen to divide my house by zones, ending with the Living Room.  This way, it isn't so overwhelming when it is time to decorate the tree and we can actually enjoy doing that final touch.  I than spend December working on the other things like taking the family Christmas picture and writing our Christmas letter, baking cookies, and wrapping gifts!  We also have a Birthday to celebrate just a few days before Christmas so the week before that is all for Birthday plans! You may also notice some traditions thrown in during December: 1) Baking Christmas Cookies 2) Delivering baskets to neighbors 3) Searching for the best lights (we drive around, look for great light displays, get the address of the home and send a thank you!) I write those down so I don't forget to do them!   The things that are underlined in my journal are things I need to purchase (please note, that they more than likely will not all get purchased this year but I went ahaed and included EVERYTHING that came to mind!)

Are you ready to start?  First, I would decide how many weeks you need to get things done.  Maybe you really gear up for Thanksgiving - than start your control journal with Thanksgiving plans so that when you get to the week of Thanksgiving you can relax.  That is the joy of it being YOUR journal, write the plan that works for you!  Second, if you are still buried in Clutter, I would take 15 - 30 minutes a day and concentrate on clearing the piles.  Don't do deep decluttering, just clean the piles so you have room to decorate.  Third, just start writing your plan!!

Part 2 will be on Holiday Traditions and the all important menu! 
Part 3 will be on gift giving and traveling
Part 4 will be on other holidays in your journal