I really need to find a reasonable price robotic vacuum, that does a reasonable job of cleaning floors.
I plan on getting last of this year's laundry done tomorrow.
Pulling out my new planner & calendar and deciding how I want to use them
I hope to keep a gratitude journal this year.
I had to be honest with myself and with my immediate family. We moved Christmas Eve dinner with my side of the family to a Sunday Brunch. Doing this made for a more enjoyable time for me.
Working ahead allowed time for me to be with people or not completely freak out when life happens. I had to minor surgeries on my leg and veins which put me out of commission for standing or sitting for long periods of time. I did what was important to me ahead of time and then let everyone else pitch it with the other stuff.
Making and freezing Thanksgiving side dishes and cookies eased the stress of surgery, recovery and dealing with Thanksgiving dinner. I may do just a turkey breast next Thanksgiving instead of a whole turkey. Cooking the turkey the day before was great.
I made less cookies than years prior since we kept our celebrations to a minimum this week. We had the right amount of food for Christmas Eve.
Pre-cooked meals for busy days in November and December was a help. Having a menu plan for the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve helped.
I asked for Christmas gift suggestions in early November. That was very helpful in finding gifts or at least pricing them before Thanksgiving.
Wrapping gifts as I bought them was great. I tracked gifts in Excel and added color coding this year for gifts that had to be wrapped and for those gifts that had been wrapped. That helped tremendously with not losing gifts.
I sent out Thanksgiving gifts instead of Christmas gifts to our service people: teachers, bus drivers, trash, recycling, mail.
Getting enough sleep, eating right and exercising in the months leading up to Christmas kept me energized and healthy. This is my third year of doing this and I haven't gotten sick during the Christmas season. I use to get sick a lot.
Here's what didn’t work for me:
I need to send a written invitation and then confirm with guests the time that they are arriving and what they are bringing. At Thanksgiving we had one family arrive 90 minutes prior to their expected time and I had to keep their food warm while baking our food. It was very stressful on so many levels.
The menu was just about enough for Sunday brunch. I ran out of salad. I will double the amount next time. I made four pots of coffee. I could have gotten away with three pots of coffee.
I will list ornaments, gift certificates, and gift cards on the spreadsheet. That will help me to keep track of whether or not those gifts have been put into a card, a gift bag or wrapped up. I will also work on homemade gift certificates and ornaments earlier in the season with the rest of the gifts.
Circumstances didn’t allow this to happen this year but I would like to make up the dough and freeze the cookies sooner next year. We had a lot of baking to do the week before Christmas.
I need to send a written invitation and then confirm with guests the time that they are arriving and what they are bringing. At Thanksgiving we had one family arrive 90 minutes prior to their expected time and I had to keep their food warm while baking our food. It was very stressful on so many levels.
i didnt get as much done before christmas as i would have liked. stressful at work the getting sick some issues with afew people all settled now. hope to plan better for 2020
Looks like there was great success with this plan in 2019. I have never really followed a plan I just make up my own plan starting in September. For 2020 I have made a note in my planner and research what plan may work for me and I think this one may be best. I want the "fellowship" that goes along with following a plan.
I like the accountability and fellowship too. I've done years where I just followed the plan by myself and wasn't on here. It is more fun finding others who like prepping for Christmas ahead of time. Hope to see you and others here in September!