More Holiday Organization

Yesterday I was thinking about writing a post on staying organized during the Christmas season. I'd been pulling things together for holiday food prep and was feeling super on-top-of-things. Then today came. With no bread in the house (even though I stopped at the grocery store yesterday) I scrambled to pack lunches for my girls. I scrounged up a couple of hamburger buns, slapped on mayo and cheese and called it good.

Then close to pick up time for kindergarten I realized that I hadn't planned what to feed the Uber-Princess and her two friends. No bread, supply of mac 'n cheese questionable - what to do?! Thankfully my freezer contained a dozen chicken nuggets and multiple bags of french fries. Stocking up in quantity pays off sometimes.

I think I've recovered from the bread fiasco now. However, any tips I share here on staying organized between Thanksgiving and Christmas... well, don't take it from me as an expert. Instead take it from one who needs it as much or even more than you.

Here's my tip: if you have more than one cookbook or recipe file you use for things like Christmas cookies and other holiday cooking, save yourself the stress of trying to locate all your special recipes. Instead copy the recipes for all the foods you traditionally make and place them into a binder along with all of your other Christmastime information (Christmas card lists, gift lists, etc). I like to keep the Christmas morning recipes on one page, party foods on another and cookies/candies on another. Then at the end of November when I'm making a list of ingredients to stock up on, I'm less likely to forget one of our favorites. I can easily scan the pages and plan my list. This is especially useful for those recipes that you only use once a year. It's such a relief in the midst of the busyness to have all this information at your fingertips.

Now if I could just find that holiday binder... Just kidding! Hope you're staying sane in the midst of all the preparations, packages and parties.