99 Days Until Christmas!!!

...Well, actually, technically it's 100, but when I do my Christmas countdown I count down to Christmas Eve, so it's 99 days for me. I know it is probably terrifying to some people that I listen to Christmas music year-round, start shopping in September, and that my favorite movie of all time is Home Alone (which I consider to be a quintessential holiday film), but hey, that is me. There are worse things to have an addiction to than Christmas.

Another thing that is "me" is being obsessively organized to the point of absurdity. In this vein, for the last few years I've been taking part in OrganizedChristmas.com's holiday countdown plan. Starting in October, it is a six-week plan to get you ready for Christmas and keep you sane as the holidays approach. The key to this plan is budgeting and doing things a little bit at a time (like for instance, for each week of the plan you are supposed to buy gifts for a certain percent of your gift-giving list and write out a certain number of cards). I swear by this plan. I am telling you that it is the sole reason I can afford to spend so much time in December off the roads where snow + idiots driving = insanity, and instead be inside by the tree with some tea, the husband, the cat, and a Christmas movie. Without it, I would be lost.

In keeping with their plan, for the last couple of years I've been using a Christmas planning notebook to keep track of all the stuff I need to get done before the holidays, people I need to send cards to, etc. It's basically a red three-ring binder with sections inside it for all the categories I need to store info in (recipes, gifts, cards, etc). But recently, I went on Organized Christmas and saw that they had built a new sister site called ChristmasPlanner.com, so I went over there and basically reached nirvana. Christmas + organization + paper-craft project = happy Grace! Christmas Planner collects some really neat ideas from craft bloggers all over the web who have made nifty customized Christmas planners out of plain manila file folders, composition books, spiral-bound notebooks, and other things. These things are so cool. So, since I have infinite time to add another paper-crafting project to my life (can you detect the sarcasm up in here), I've decided to make one. I don't know if I will get it done in time for this Christmas, but I definitely want to have it finished by next year. Because in looking at the Christmas planner I've been using, while it is functional, it's not really "me". Yes, it has the lists and spreadsheets and stuff, but where are the sparkly scrapbook embellishments, fun paper, Home Alone and Christmas Vacation quotes, and photos to remind me of just how exactly I decorated the house last year?

So I am going to get started on this nifty project soon, hoping that my as-yet-incomplete wedding scrapbook, which is a HUGE project that I seriously need to devote more time to so I'll actually have it done by our 25th anniversary, will not fall by the wayside in the process. I'll try to post some pics as I work on it. Any suggestions or comments from people who have done something similar would be greatly appreciated!