I know this is something none of us what to plan for, the loss of a loved one. It’s our worst fear! But putting a plan in place with this Final Wishes Estate Planner Printable can make things easier.
It’s a hard topic to bring up, but important. I recently had to help plan for my Dad’s funeral. He just wanted to make things easier for me when the time comes.
I created this planner, so I could keep track of all the plans we made together, that way I wouldn’t forget. I lost my Son when he was 24. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with, looking up all the insurance policies was the last thing I wanted to do.
Cover
Planner For
Family Contacts
Friends/Neighbors Contacts
Pet Information
Important Things Locations
Final Wishes Lined Paper
Funeral Arrangements
Funeral Arrangements
Letter To Family
Bank Account
Credit Cards
Will Information
Trusts Information
Property Deeds
Vehicle Information
Investment Accounts
Life Insurance
Notes
Home Security Logins
Internet Passwords
Security Questions
Social Media Logins
Electronic Devices Logins
(All pages are 8 1/2 x 11″)
Take A Look Inside!
I hope this Final Wishes Estate Planner will help you put a plan in place for your loved ones. It sure is going to help with mine.
It’s Christmas time already! We have the tree up and decorations started, even have a couple of presents wrapped. To help you stay organized this year I created a 23-page Farmhouse Christmas Planner to keep everything straight.
I can remember when I was small, we would get our Christmas tree from a farm down the road from where we lived. We would walk all over the place to find the perfect tree. After we got home mom made us hot chocolate, the old recipe kind of with real cocoa powder. Picking out our tree was one of my best memories growing up.
You can plan your Christmas decorations inside and out with these planner pages. If you find things on sale after the holidays jot those down for next year.
Christmas Gifts Tracker Pages
If you’re like me you like to buy some of your gifts early. Just don’t forget where you stashed them. With these Christmas gift tracker pages, your gift-giving will be a snap!
Christmas Wall Art
With countdown, Christmas Paper Chain, and Gift Tags round off this planner with some fun craft projects you can do with the kids. When my kids were little we made these paper chains because my son’s birthday was on the 22nd. Each of us would make paper chains with red and green construction paper. I would cut out the paper strips and let the boys decorate each day. My son would make a special one for his birthday. Every morning they would run to their chain and take one ring off. It was super fun to watch our chains get smaller and smaller. What a fun memory!
I hope you enjoy this Farmhouse Christmas Planner, I really loved creating it, with the calico fabric theme going with it. Totally reminds me of my childhood Christmas!
I think the best part of making Christmas decorations with the kids was the memories we made, and each year when we unpack the ornaments, we remember those times together with each treasured creation. Below are 4 fun and easy old fashioned Christmas decorations to make with your family.
One of our traditions during Christmas was to make old fashion handmade ornaments for the tree. We would be so excited to decide on what to make. I found simple projects to make with the kids while listening to Christmas music. We made paper ornaments, clothespin airplanes, and paper chains to name a few.
Popcorn Stringing
If you like strung popcorn, it’s really simple to make. Start with a big bowl of popcorn (unbuttered, of course) and string it piece by piece using a standard sewing needle and thread. Make sure there’s plenty of popcorn for your tree and make one for outside for the birds to eat.
Cranberry Stringing
Much like the popcorn stringing method, many people used to string cranberries using a standard needle and thread. Again, make sure there’s plenty to go around if you’re going to use it as garland. Most importantly, and I know it’s tempting, don’t eat all the decorations. Save some for the Christmas tree.
Paper Chains
One of the greatest memories of decorating for Christmas, as a child, has to be the old fashioned paper chains decorations. I carried on that tradition with my own kids. My son’s birthday was the 22nd. I wanted his birthday to be special. Not just Christmas and Birthday all in one. So we created 25 chains, and he made his own ring, decorating it with crayons for his special day. Then each day he would take off one ring for a countdown to his birthday and Christmas. We all loved that tradition. Now that he’s gone, that memory is a cherished one to me.
Using green and red construction paper, cut horizontal strips of each color. Fold them into a circle and seal with tape. Scotch tape is recommended and, if you use this when your child is young, the smell will always remind them of Christmas. It will likely become “Christmas tape” to them. Once you have a complete circle, take another strip in alternating color and run it through the first circle. Next, fold it around and seal with tape. Complete this step until you have a big strand of paper garland in red and green. You and your child will enjoy doing this together and it will create wonderful memories for you both.
If you love the look of a lighted wreath, but don’t quite have a budget for one of the more expensive ones, consider another option. You can purchase a plain green wreath very inexpensively. A small strand of lights can cost anywhere from $1.00 to $3.00. But, put them together and you have the look of a professionally lighted Christmas wreath. For this project, you could use either clear or multi-colored Christmas lights. Simply take the plain green wreath and wrap the lights around in a design similar to the stripes on a candy cane. Once you’ve gone all the way around, tuck the last light into the green of the wreath. Make sure that you place it near an electric outlet because there won’t be a lot of extra cords. Now that you’re ready, plug it in and see your very own design. A red bow is a nice touch, but not necessary. As people drive by, they will see a beautifully lit wreath in your window and they will have no idea that you saved a few bucks by wrapping the lights yourself.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my post on some easy Old fashioned Christmas Decorations To Make. Why not start your own family tradition by creating a paper chain countdown this year.
Coloring is a perfect way to relax this holiday, in between shopping and decorating the house find some quiet time alone to reflect on the holiday with these beautiful Christmas tree printable coloring pages.
But first here’s a look at some Traditional Christmas Tree History!
The Art Of Decorating Christmas Tree’s
Evergreens were used to decorate homes during winter long before Christmas became a holiday. Evergreens were believed to keep witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illnesses away from homes where they were displayed.
Germany is credited with the traditional Christmas Tree celebration of decorating trees and bringing them into their homes. It was so popular in fact that due to so many people cutting down tree’s they opted for Feather Tree’s made out of duck feathers instead of cutting down the trees. I have a few feather tree’s in my house year-round.
By 1890, Christmas ornaments were arriving in America from Germany and the Christmas tree became popular in the U.S. In the early 20th century most Americans were using homemade ornaments on their trees. While Europeans liked their trees to be small, Americans liked their trees to reach from floor to ceiling. Popular homemade ornaments included popcorn strings decorated by being dyed bright colors and laced with berries and nuts. Electricity changed the tree to include electric lights and trees began to glow in town squares and in homes all across America, making the Christmas Tree, an American tradition.
Many cities claim to be the first city to have a Christmas tree in America including Windsor Locks, a city in Connecticut. They claim that a Hessian soldier put up a Christmas tree in 1777 while he was imprisoned at the Noden-Reed House, making it the first Christmas tree in New England.
Easton, Pennsylvania also claims that German settlers put up a Christmas tree in 1816. There is a diary entry made by Matthew Zahm, of Lancaster Pennsylvania, which says a Christmas tree was put up in 1832.
A German immigrant living in Boston, Charles Follen, claimed the custom itself of decorating the Christmas tree. Another German immigrant from Wooster, Ohio is said to have made popular the practice of decorating the Christmas tree by cutting down spruce trees from a wooded area by his town, and having a tinsmith construct a star, he placed the tree in his house, decorating it with paper ornaments and candy canes. He was recognized by the National Confectioners’ Association as being the first to put candy canes on a Christmas tree. Those first candy canes were all white though and had no red stripes.
The Christmas tree today is a very important part of the celebration of Christmas. The tree symbolizes life.
It’s something no one wants to talk about. I just finished making arrangements with our funeral home for my Dad. He wanted to make things easier for me. I thought I would put together a final wishes checklist, so you can talk it over with your family and learn what their final wishes are, it will make everything a little easier in the end.
You Never Know What Will Happen
My son passed away when he was 24. It was one of the worst things I’ve ever had to do in my life was to pick out things for my baby’s funeral. Dad was with me and watched me fall to the ground in the casket room. Because I didn’t want to put him in the ground, I didn’t want to buy a cheap outer container for the casket. No mother should ever have to purchase those things for their children.
Talking things over with your family is important. Decide who will care for your children if something should happen to you and put it in writing. Make a planner and keep it updated, with important information about your life. You never know when your health might get bad enough that you need some help paying your bills from your accounts. That’s why is super important to Keep passwords and logins for bank accounts written down as it can be a lifesaver for a family member down the road.
Here’s A Final Wishes Checklist:
Here is a list of things I thought of and talked about at the funeral home. Some I’d never even thought to ask about. Like how long did he want the funeral to last, where do you want to be buried? What about being cremated. That was a big fat…No! Big funeral for my Daddy, go big or go home he said. Lol!
Who will be the person in charge of your funeral?
Who can you count on to help out with things?
Did you make arrangements ahead of time?
What do you want your funeral to be like?
Do you want a funeral or just a day of celebration?
Will you have a church service as well?
Who will you call to do your hair?
Will you be buried in a casket or cremated?
What picture do you need for the funeral?
Who will put some pictures together, around 30-100?
What will you wear? What jewelry will you keep on?
Are you a veteran? Do you want a military funeral?
Are you a member of a church or organization, will you want them to perform?
What about pallbearers, you will need 6 to 8 names and contact information.
Who will take care of your pets after you are gone?
Where do you want to be buried? Or your ashes placed?
Do you have a living will?
You’ll need your Social Security number and Life Insurance Policies.
During our meeting with the director of the funeral home, we found out that Dad can get a plaque stone as a grave marker from the military because he’s a veteran. He wanted to have them come to the gravesite. I’m glad we had a chance to talk all this over and find out what his last wishes are, we were able to make arrangements with the funeral home.
Nothing is set in stone, we are free to change anything we like later on. But we did all the hard parts taken care of, so when the time comes, it won’t be so overwhelming. I hope you enjoyed this post about talking things over with your family about your Final Wishes Checklist. It sure helped me and my family. I hope it helps yours as well.
You Might Like My Final Wishes Estate Planner Printable!
I also created a Final Wishes Estate Planner that I printed and filled out with Dad. So much information that I had no idea about. Insurance policies, where all his important papers are located, passwords, and logins to websites for his financial stuff. I’m grateful for that planner. I’m going to print one out for me, to keep track of my important information.
Fall is a time of year where the family can get together and do fun activities together. It’s a time of harvest and things winding down before Winter. I have many fond memories of doing things in the Fall so I thought I would put together a fun Fall Bucket List Printable for you. Start creating some new memories this year!
5 Fall Bucket List Ideas
To get you started I thought of 5 fun things you can add to your Fall Bucket list. I even made a printable you can add to your planner. Sweet!
Visit a pumpkin patch! We have a local farm where you can pick up your pumpkin and have a nice home-cooked meal at the same time. We make a tradition to get our pumpkins here each year and invite our family to enjoy a nice meal together. It’s fun to watch the kids pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.
Go to a park to see the Fall colors! One fun thing I like to do is take a drive out in a state park. We have several locations around where we live. One time I took a photography class in the Great Smoky Mountains and stayed in a cabin during the Fall Colors peak.
Camp out in a cabin! Camping in a cabin is really fun! Especially during the Fall, when the weather is perfect for a cozy sweater! And did I say that some of these cabins are AMAZING! Check out some of these in Nashville Indiana. So fun!
Roast marshmallows over a campfire! What would a night in the cabin be without roasting marshmallows over a campfire? Am I right?! One of my all-time favorite things to do when out camping.
Make a new pumpkin treat! Why not try a new pumpkin recipe? I found a few you might like to try and even a special treat for your beloved dog.
