Holiday Grand Plan Notebook

Many visitors are coming to this blog to take a gander at my Holiday Grand Plan Notebook from last year. I thought that I would update ya'll and show you what my new binder looks like and how I'm using it through the summer, fall and winter season.
Here we go!
Isn't that binder Pretty In Pink?


Opening the cover and on the left we have my return address mailing labels that I ordered earlier in the year when I got a special free deal. Of course they are turned over for the sake of privacy.
On the right is my schedule for this week that tells me what area of my house I'll be cleaning, what events are happening this week and what Christmas planning I need to concentrate on.


The section after my 14 week schedule is my Christmas Card List and I use this regularly throughout the year as I do not have the list computerized (a task for another day).
Unh Unh UHHHH! No peeky!


The next and most accessed section of my notebook is the Gift Section. I use it almost daily and it's so helpful in keeping organized. As I think I mentioned on my blog before, last year I gave hand knit winter hats to the ladies in my family. This year I decided to give them all matching change purses, so I looked up the list from last year to see what color hat I gave to each person and now I've completed all the matching change purses.
Here are the pages in my gift section...

Internet Order Tracker (this list has grown since taking the picture)


Gift Closet Inventory (probably my least used page but should I do away with it? I tend not to forget what exactly I have).
No peeky again - too much info is listed for sneaky family members.


Gifts To Make (this list is much longer now and I'm not worried about sneaky family seeing this one - Surprise! You're getting a scarf!)


Master Gift List (this is the largest section where I list each person and their individual gifts and how much they cost which helps for budgeting). You can see that I highlight certain columns - those are the action columns and I check them off as they are done - this is so helpful that it makes me giddy!


Copies
All my regularly used pages I keep a blank page to copy from.


Menu Planner
I'm normally hosting Thanksgiving but not this year so this section is not getting used at all. It probably will next year though.


Recipes
Only a few tried and true recipes go here


Receipts
Always keep your receipts! You never know when you will need them. I keep them nice and neat in an envelope marked for each year. I tend to save the receipts from the previous year only.



Misc.
In the back section of my notebook I keep fun items that I may utilize again in the future such as this Reindeer Poop poem and also an invitation to an annual party my husband and I use to host. Once we truly get settled into our house and establish some roots here we may reinstate our annual North Pole Party. Elf Poker anyone?


Here is a small cookbook that Mil gave me, I keep this in the back pocket of my folder to access when needed. I'll probably use it next year when we host Thanksgiving again.



Well I certainly hope that you enjoyed this tour of my new HGP Notebook. After 6 years of using my old one I figured I needed a new one for the next 6 years! Over time my notebook has become very streamlined and you can see there aren't many sections. I like to keep it simple, it's much easier to stay organized that way and it truly helps in having a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas for this family.

**Don't forget to visit my old HGP Notebook to see just how much (or how little) I've changed it up over the past year.**
Thanks for stopping by!