We were blessed to have a relatively commitment-free weekend, and had the opportunity to go sledding and work on a gingerbread house with our children. Speaking of our children, they have been checking our calendar a lot lately. At one point, our daughter ran up to us to double-check that she was at the right window in her advent calendar. I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous when I realized that there are only three weeks left until Christmas!
Hopefully you’ve done a better job at planning than I have, but if not, I wanted to turn you on to several products and ideas that can help to make the rest of this holiday season (and future ones) more enjoyable for you, and help to incorporate memorable family traditions. Here at ShopforMom, for the next three weeks, you will find tips that will streamline the planning process. You will also find budget-friendly and timely products and gift ideas. My goal is for your next three weeks to be relaxing, enjoyable and budget-friendly so that you can create wonderful memories with your family.
START WORKING ON YOUR PLAN
The best way to guarantee success is to start with a great plan. Thankfully, others have done a good amount of the work for us! Free holiday checklists and planners can be found in abundance online. I’ll tell you about a great source for these below, but first I wanted to share with you an inexpensive and useful tool that will help you, in the midst of chaos, to maintain some semblance of normalcy by having nutritious and tasty family dinners each night of this beautifully busy season.
Emealz.com is an excellent resource to use when you’re strapped for both time and cash. This service does all the meal-planning for you. Each week it provides a full week’s worth of family-friendly dinners, including recipes and grocery lists. Subscribers can choose between several different types of weekly menus, including regular, low-carb, low-fat, or gluten-free. Subscribers can also choose meals designed around the selections at a particular store such as Walmart.
Click here to view a page where you can select a sample of their regular menu.
Think of how many times (especially during this busy season) that we busy moms are tempted to settle for more expensive yet less healthy meals, just because they are more convenient. Well, even a trip to McDonald’s is less convenient than cooking dinner when an easy, satisfying, dinner is planned out for you and you have all of the ingredients on hand. So, consider the great help that e-mealz.com can offer. At only $1.25 per week, it will save you much more in grocery costs and headaches.
CHRISTMAS AND HOLIDAY PLANNERS
If you have a solid day to put together a custom planner (such as the one above), you may as well do it right. The folks over at ChristmasPlanner really know what to do when it comes to planning. The abundant (and free) forms and checklists available at their site are a compendium of the best of the web, and include everything from Martha Stewart holiday forms and checklists, to artsy and colorful Shabby Chic pages, to super simple black and white printables.
If you don’t have the time to wade through all of the selections above, perhaps you would be interested in copying Ann and putting together your own version of Ann’s Amazing Holiday Planner (instructions are found here)
The materials required include only a three-ring binder (or scrapbook), filler paper/pages, tabs, and markers. In spite of the name (amazing!), it is really quite simple to put together, and should only take an hour or so once you get your materials together.
You’ll thank yourself tremendously if you make a planner that can be reused next year. Perhaps one into which you can insert gift ideas throughout 2011?
If you’re in need of materials to make an extra-special planner for future use, hop on over to Addictedtoscrapbooking, which in addition to their already low prices, is having a 50% off sale on scrapbook supplies through Tuesday December 7th.
Best wishes to you as you plan out the next few weeks. Remember to always place your family at the top of your list of priorities! Stay tuned to ShopforMom this week as we keep the focus on family and friends with deals on photo cards, holiday baking and crafts, and gifts for hubby.
