It's Friday! A checklist for you and me=less stress

I first want to thank all of you for joining in on Trim the Tree Thursday and for commenting on each others blogs-this was so much fun! I loved looking at all the decor-I still have some to look at today! We will be having this event every Thursday.

If you have been following my blog you know I have been working on Christmas and Thanksgiving for a while now. I have several goals this year and I would like to tell you why I have these goals. I know many of you can relate.

My first goal is to have ALL Christmas shopping finished by November 30th. I want to finish the day after Thanksgiving, but I will give myself a couple extra days. (we might be going somewhere special on the 30th and they have a giftshop-more on this later) Do know that I start the day after Christmas every year. I have done this for several years now. Our family is ginormous and I absolutely could not afford Christmas if I didn't start that early and shop sales throughout the year. I refuse to have a credit card and pay for Christmas 08 in 09!

My second goal is to scale back on the parties. I am still hosting Thanksgiving, my annual cookie exchange, & Christmas Eve Brunch. However, instead of hosting a different group of each of our families on a different night I am having an Open House. All of our family is welcome and so are our friends and neighbors. This Open House will take 3 parties I hosted last year off of my list!

My third goal is to enjoy Christmas. This may sound funny for a person that lives for December, but last year both my husband and I simply gave out on Christmas Eve-it was miserable! So this year less=more!

I will include that last year we moved into our home on August 3'rd and had 3 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, dining room, hallways, & entry way painted. The painting lasted until Thanksgiving! So I was definitely behind schedule!

In order to reach these goals I have finished the following:

• Most gifts are bought
• Gifts are wrapped
• Christmas cards are done
• 1 tree is finished-upstairs of course
• 1 tree is almost finished-upstairs too
• Christmas linens are washed
• I have started washing my Christmas dishes
• My holiday recipes are organized and sorted together
• My fall cleaning is finished-thank you Katie
• I have started buying holiday baking essentials
  
• My Thanksgiving menu is planned
  
• I bought almost all items for Thanksgiving Menu
• I DELEGATED several side items, desserts, bread, & even the sweet tea!
  
• I finished Thanksgiving gifts
• I started making Thanksgiving dinner-Frozen Cranberry Salad

This weekend start on a few of your to-do's. Doing a little now will save you from having those always present midnight wrapping sessions and freak out moments we have all had!

Only have 5 minutes? Start stamping your envelopes and addressing them for your Christmas cards-don't seal them-you may become real festive and include a pic or a newsletter at the last minute!