Christmas preparation | organised castle

WordPress kindly reminded me of a post I wrote on this day 10 years ago.

You can read it here.

Christmas has been a relatively simple family affair for quite a number of years and continues to be even more so.

This year we are travelling interstate for a week at the beach with our 2 adult daughters and 2 granddaughters. They are now 17 and almost 19 so there will essentially be 6 adults. And a dog……..as the accommodation is pet-friendly.

The accommodation is booked. We will have a rough idea of a possible menu a week or so before we leave. Our gifts will be the time spent together and some cash for everybody. I will write a Christmas email to friends and family.

None of us need or want an over-the-top, consumerist event to celebrate.

This is a photo that the house-sitters sent last year when we were in Europe. Islay will be included this year and is sure to be the centre of attention.

I foresee a relaxed and fun time together and lots of beach time with Islay.

This photo is from when she was 7 months old.

Early in January, I wrote a post about my Christmas plans for 2012. It is here.

As I suspected I did not get everything done on 25th January as planned but I am making progress. Here is what I had on the list.

January

Sort and file Christmas cards and letters – DONE
Make sure any contact details are updated in address book – DONE
Update Christmas card list – DONE
Set up complete contact list for 2012 e-cards – NEEDS A BIT MORE WORK

In conjunction with updating the contact details in my address book I embarked on another project which took me a couple of weeks. I have made sure that I have current contact details for all of my friends and relatives in my physical address book as well as my email contacts address book and my mobile phone address book. The Duke checked that he had the relevant ones in his mobile phone and we also have some that we need at our fingertips in the home phone speed dial. Now all I have to do is make sure that I update all locations when I am given new contact details for anyone. I really hope that I keep on top of this issue as I do not want to have to do the sorting and cross-referencing of the past couple of weeks. The memory of that should be enough to keep me on track.

I have also been doing some sewing today and have finished making the first 2 of my Christmas gift bags. They are not for anything or anyone in particular but my aim is to have a collection in a variety of sizes so that I will have one suitable for whatever the gift happens to be.