The Planning Is Paying Off

We have three events to attend in the next 8 days! It's going to start feeling a little busier. And it's about this time of year, where I'm very thankful for all the planning I did in November. It's stressful to try to be shopping, wrapping and baking when there are more activities you are invited to attend or chose to attend. 

Part of the 'Holly Tree' in our yard

As of yesterday all of our cookies, bars, and breads are baked and tucked away in the freezer. Our final batch of cookies were Raspberry Jam Thumbprint cookies. I originally planned to bake those this coming weekend. I moved the baking of them up to accommodate my husband's need for cookies to take to work for a cookie exchange. The nice thing is he only needed 2 dozen and I made five dozen, so plenty left for us at home without needing to go to the store. And now I don't need to bake any more cookies this season! 

I've been working on our meal plan for the rest of December. I have MOST of the days complete up until December 24. And a few meals are planned for the last days of the year. It's just those few holiday meal days that I haven't yet firmed up. At least I'm closer. I'm making a bean chili this week that I will have leftovers for another meal later in the month. And the same goes for a rice dish I'm making that I think would freeze well. I've made sure that there are plenty of simple meals in our plans to accommodate for the few busy days we have coming up, one of those being just having a baked potato and salad for dinner. 

We are also done decorating! We took two evenings to put up our two trees. Each one by themselves didn't take more than 45 minutes. (I'm guessing on the time, but that feels about right.) I liked that we separated that task out, rather than cramming it all into one evening...likely exhausting ourselves in the process.

There isn't much left on the Christmas 'To Do' list. There will be the wrapping of gifts once the final ones arrive in the mail. And of course, at least two more trips to the grocery store. I guess I will have to make the lists of items I need at the grocery store too. This task never seems to end does it?

The other big task is to get a couple of gifts mailed. I decided that I'm not going to worry about getting them to arrive as close to Christmas as possible. This would mean going to the post office during the really busy times when everyone else is going. I figure once I have the gifts wrapped they can be boxed up and mailed. And since they are wrapped gifts, the receiver can decide to wait closer to Christmas if desired. Less stress makes me feel better!!

What have you done to reduce your holiday stress? Did planning help in any way? Do you have more activities you attend or participate in this time of year?