Being Prepared - Christmas Style

Okay, I have talked a bunch about preparedness in the sense of emergencies, weather-related disasters, economic disasters, but today I will talk of preparedness for the holidays.  This blog is truly meant to be for all things family, preparedness, and ready for whatever comes my way.  The old boy scout saying is "Be prepared" and they truly mean to be prepared for anything and everything.  If you are prepared then there ARE no emergencies, right???

With the holidays in full swing now that we are in the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas if you are like me you are in a mix of household chaos, emotional chaos, and scheduling chaos.  If it were up to me, all extra curricular activities would cease to exist between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  There is just so much more going on in this time that it adds to the chaos of our house.  We have Christmas lights to see, shopping to do, friends to visit, parties and dinners to attend, along with decorating our home, and continuing other family traditions.  Just so much.

Right now my focus is on organization in my home.  I am working on decluttering and organization.  However, last week 15 boxes came down from the attic with Christmas decorations, three Christmas trees, and other holiday items like glassware, dinnerware, table linens, etc.  All my decluttering just went out the window. {sigh}

So here is what I am doing.  I am list making.  I have made a ton of lists and I keep these lists close with me.  I have shopping lists for gifts, lists of things I need to do, grocery lists, and decorating lists.   I mark off what has been done, sent and completed.  I add to the lists as I think of them.  Right now they are my saving grace.  I have done this in the past however, I never saved the lists.  This year I want to save them and then use them for next year as well.  In the least I will remember what I have given others as gifts.

I am also making a time line of things that need to be done by a certain time.  This allows me to not get too freaked out by everything that I want to get done.  I have divided it all up by day and week.  If I stay on track then I won't have to worry too much the last week before Christmas and I will be able to sit back and enjoy the time with my family.

In addition to my preparations for the holidays, I am also still thinking about food storage and I am taking advantage of the sales right now for baking items.  I have added 20 lbs of flour to my storage.  I have added 3 cans of baking powder, 3 boxes of baking soda, 1 lb of yeast, and many bags of chocolate chips.  I have also added extra sweet bread mixes, pumpkin (canned), and 5 lbs of sugar, 2 lbs of brown sugar and 1 lb of powdered sugar.  I also picked up two turkeys during Thanksgiving time and I have saved these in my freezer for later cooking.

As I have been making my lists of items for family and friends as well as for me, I have been focused on thinking of items that they would like and that could help them and me in an emergency situation.  Everyone in my family will be getting small pocket flashlights.  My sister and her boyfriend will be receiving paracord survival bracelets.  I want a multi-tool for my purse, and a new freezer (because we need more freezer space).  I thought about asking for a wheat grinder but we are not there yet in our storage.  We have no whole wheat to grind yet.  So I will get one when we are ready to start storing whole wheat grains.

This month of December I have some preparedness goals.  I will have two weeks off for Christmas and I not only want to enjoy my time but I also want to use it to accomplish some things.

1.  Continue to use sales to stock up on food storage.
2.  Reorganize my food storage areas.  Explore other areas of the house to store items and food.
3.  Continue to declutter the house.  Look for areas where we need more storage units (furniture) and more effective areas for storing appropriate items. (ex. my closet is not the place for our steam cleaner)

Do you have items on your Christmas list that are preparedness related?

Do you have goals for preparedness for December?