A Very Special Christmas Edition of My Nerdiness

There are just a handful of days left before Christmas. I'm not saying that to freak you out, I'm merely thinking out loud (as I so often do on this blog). I need to make sure that I'm on track for Christmas 2011 and to do that, I must break out my most favorite guilty pleasure Christmas song: George Michael's 'Last Christmas'. Mmm … get the fondue pot because that song is chock full of cheesy 80s goodness.

Oh, and I need to crack open my Christmas spreadsheet and make sure I've accounted for all my purchases.

Christmas spreadsheet? Yep. A Christmas spreadsheet. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm a nerd. A big, organized, on budget, on time holiday nerd. With a small dash of geek thrown in, you know, for fun.

As both an avid participant in Black Thursday/Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and an anal retentive, compulsively organized gal, I feel the need to keep my shopping lists, purchases, and budget neatly arranged and at my fingertips. Enter Excel, my most favorite of all the Office applications.

Seriously. I have a favorite. And it's Excel.

My Christmas spreadsheet delights me to the center of my very nerdy core. It makes me swoon. My spreadsheet contains a section for every single person on my shopping list (from husband and children to piano teacher and school bus drivers) as well as any gift ideas I have for that person (even down to ye old stocking stuffers). There are columns for the cost of the gift, whether or not it has been purchased, and a box to check if I'm officially done shopping for that person. On the right hand side of my spreadsheet o' holiday efficiency, there is a column that counts the number of people that qualify as being complete and checked off my shopping list.

Here's a shocker: I color code parts of my spreadsheet. True story. The gifts I still need to purchase are highlighted in yellow. My total budget is listed in boldface type at the bottom of the spreadsheet, right next to the total of what I have spent. And (nerd alert) the total spent cell is green if I'm on or under budget and red if I'm over.

Simply put, my spreadsheet is beautiful. And I love it. You may make jokes now. I don't care. Because my Christmas spreadsheet is fabulous.

I've created a Christmas spreadsheet every year since 1997, without fail and with little changes in format. And every year, again without fail, I name the file 'Christmas Expenses' and include the year. Last year's spreadsheet was a file called 'Christmas Expenses 2010'.

It never dawned on me that one day my children would find the file, open it, and take a peek at what I had purchased for everyone for Christmas, including them. I know, right? How naive am I?

Very naive.

Obviously.

Although how those kids cracked my labeling code of 'Christmas Expenses 2010' I will never know. Smart little buggers, aren't they?

This year I implemented a change in my 'Christmas Expenses 2011' spreadsheet. It is now password protected and only I know the password, so take that little peekers!

It would be really great if I remembered said password, but I don't. So I now have a new spreadsheet labeled 'Christmas Expenses 2011 Take 2'. It's also password protected, but this time I remember the password.

Now, if I could just remember where I hid all the presents ...


Pin It Now!