Christmas Planning - Week 8 and 9: Guest Room and public spaces.

sorry sorry sorry, I may be having an organised Christmas but the rest of my life is completely disorganised.  It also doesn't help that the site I base my posts on (Organized Home) has a glitch or a virus or something and constantly throws me to an 'update Adobe Flash" page with an instant download.  Please delete this download as I am concerned it's a virus as I've gone thro the proper adobe site and should be up to date yet it's still showing up all the time.

Anyways I battled round it and thankfully (as I'm soo behind) there's not a lot to add to my list.  I'd like to say check the website for the full lists but.......

Of course weeks 8 and 9 are also Halloween prep so they have some great ideas for getting you organised there too.  We don't do Halloween massively here so I'll not be covering it in this post.

I have sorted out the boys letters from Santa already though thanks to Offiical Lapland, check out my post and competition here.

If Halloween and sweets are more your thing then I have a Spooky competition from Swizzles live too, here.

 - Declutter, clean and organize the Living Room and a Family Area (such as the playroom).  Basically pick a big room and declutter/ deep clean it.   Technically we have made a start on this this week as gutted the small ones bedroom.  he is now in with his brother and his room will be a playroom so a great time for re-organising and de-cluttering as we go along.  The living room was started earlier on in the routine, but need to be kept on top of.

- Organize media and entertainment.   Our media is quite tidy ... the kids lives are not worth living finds a playstation game out of its box.  Their DVD's on the other hand were all over the place so I tidied them up.

- Make sure you have great Christmas music lined up.  Every year I say I will buy a new Christmas Album and every year I cannot justify it as I still have the one I bought years ago and lets me fair there are no decent 'Christmas' songs released any more.

- Check you have a supply of good Christmas Films.  We have Muppets Christmas Carol and Miracle on 34th Street .... we don't need any more ..... do we??

Fortunately we only post a couple of hundred miles up the road but do you have to post anything overseas???  check the international mailing deadlines as some can take weeks.

Uh Oh this is the bit I hate (and I must crack on with - thankfully nothing new to add this week/ fortnight) ...... hows the to-do list?

1) complete Christmas card list

2) sort out the living room - must shift/ sort out the Lego .... I started ... well ok I did 2 small models  Lego is now upstairs and the room is getting there.  I must remove all the paper bits that get dumped around and prepare to switch the books over to winter themed.

3) make up the Christmas cards .... do I need any more?

4) decide on/ start the kids Christmas cards

5) get a couple of box of chocs and some snacks in ready.  - now have 2 tubs and a few bags.  Moving to 'shopping list'

6) start meal planning

7) sort out the Christmas crockery/ table covers etc

8) Toys in the Argos sale.Unfortunately most of Argos stuff my boys like is now home delivery only and they let us down this way a couple of years ago not delivering a Christmas present then telling me lies and making it a horrible experience.

9) tidy/ sort my room - started

10) take a look at last years wooden advent calender. I'd like to do 'something' to it but at the moment I don't know what.  Perhaps I'll do 'it' over the Christmas season ready for next year.

11) Medicines  Moving to 'shopping list'

12) First Aid  Moving to 'shopping list'

13) Get new Christmas Towels  Moving to 'shopping list'

14) get rid of old toys/ books.   Now under number 18

15) Start planning the Christmas gifts for boys. - started.

16) Look at what clothes are in Ben's 'bigger' box and what they are outgrowing.   Now under number 18

17) check smoke detectors - hubby's job as I can't reach them easily.  Safe to say they don't work, hubby needs to fix them!!

18) Kids room tidy  (from week 6)

        Shelves/ cupboards -  examine, toss/save/donate, replace onto shelves. 

        Games/ Puzzles - sort them out and bin any with missing pieces.   

        Get rid of old magazines, old McDonald toys, toys in pieces, broken crayons, non-functional pens. 

        Clothing - too small, old?   

        Wash curtains - yay I did this.

        Clean/ tidy under the bed   - tick - moved the furniture so had to.

        Clean the windows,  dust any wooden furniture.  

        Clean the floors/ hoover - tick, when we moved the furniture.

19) 

We are pretty prepared for Christmas present wise now... just a few bits to get....

Christmas shopping list

1) Kids - Tablet...each/ between them?  On the lookout for a good deal if anyone sees one.

2) Kids - Santa bath bombs (x3) from Lush - Christmas Eve Hamper and 1 each for stockings.

3) 2 x Olaf T-shirts (please Primark get them in in a larger size then 5yr)

4) some more jelly sweets

5) hubby's presents ... whatever they end up being

6) A waffle maker (on Grandad's behalf for the kids)

7) Lush - build your own snowman, for my niece.  (soo cool)

8) wrapping paper

9) Medicine stash

10) First Aid stash

11) New Christmas Towels