November 15, 2011

When we opened our doors for business at 4:30 this morning where I work, Christmas trees and beautiful decorations were revealed, Christmas Blend was brewing, our holiday packaging filled the shelves, red aprons were donned, and, yes; the Christmas music began.

BUT, am I ready? No.

Is it time to start getting ready? Yes!

After Halloween, it seems like the days fly by, even faster than normal. I'm never quite ready to think about Christmas when the retailers fill their shelves with Christmas items, which seems to get earlier and earlier every year. With so many other things on our minds; Christmas, which is supposed to be a joyous time of year, just seems to add more stress to our lives. My goal is to not allow that to happen this year.

For a lot of us, myself included, there's going to be a tighter budget for Christmas this year. So, what that means for me is better planning and getting my list ready earlier. My intention is to try to make a lot of my family's Christmas gifts this year, which means that I need to get started now!

Over the next few weeks, we'll be talking a lot about the big Charity Bake Sale benefiting In-Sync Exotics, but we'll also be sharing some tips to hopefully help make your Christmas planning and shopping go a little smoother.

To get you started, this 4 Top Tips to Get your Christmas Planning Started that was posted by BigSis last year is worth taking a peek at again in case you want to get started early. And this one on how to Make a Christmas Game Plan has links to sites where you can download free printable planning pages.

It may seem too early to start talking about all this Christmas planning, but the best way to avoid stress and last minute chaos is to be organized and plan ahead. So, I'm getting started; how about you?

~LilSis