We have 100 days left until Christmas. This may sound like a lot, but not for me,
I celebrate 2 daughters, a son in law, a husband and a son’s birthday within 2 weeks of Christmas. I can get stressed out if a don’t do a lot of pre-planning. This means doing everything I can before December. If I am worrying about Christmas duties, I can’t celebrate birthdays and the true meaning of Christmas.
One year I got my Christmas shopping done in August and I didn’t step foot in the malls all of December. It was too weird. It didn’t even feel like it was Christmas. So in my opinion, that early is a little extreme.
I do think it is nice to get as much done before Thanksgiving as possible. So I have between now and Nov. 27 to get everything done. I like to mail my Christmas packages out the day before Thanksgiving when there is no line. I also like shopping in the stores with few people and easy parking.

For the next 6 blog posts I am going to give you tips to prepare early so you can enjoy time with your family. Here is your first one:

flylady has a booklet to help you get ready for the holidays.

My husband is not one of those naturally organized people. I have helped him organize things and helped him create systems for his papers. We start businesses and sell them. That means we are buying properties, fixing them up, hiring, and running one business while we are, selling and finishing up another business. Long story short HE had piles and piles of papers. I say he because a few years ago I started working on my own career instead of being a partner with him. His papers had become soo overwhelming he wasn’t able to touch them. I offered for months to do them together but he wouldn’t do it. Finally because we needed to get things to the accountant, I began.
As I was putting like items together, and labeling file folders, I started handing him little stacks of papers that only he knew about. I worked on the rest for 12 hours straight. The problem was he had active papers and inactive papers together. This actually made him think all the stacks were things he needed to do, when in reality some of the items were old and just needed to be stored away. I put all the items that he rarely needs in a filing cabinet, (travel, keepsakes, cycling, laptop phone, properties, church, titles). And boxed all the items dated before 2006 and put them in the basement. We whittled the stacks down to one plastic container with files in it. I cannot tell you the difference in his demeanor from morning till the evening. The quantity of papers he was shuffling through was really weighing him down. I feel guilty that I didn’t help him sooner. I felt like if he wanted to do it with me I would, BUT if he wanted me to sit there and do 12 hours of paperwork while he went on a bike ride NO way! Looking back I can see it was just too big of a job for a person that hates paperwork and organization. What a difference in his stress level!!!!
What is great about men and women is that they compliment each other. What I am good at he isn’t and what I’m not good at he is.
He did leave me a little note this morning it said, “Thanks for all the paperwork you did today! You did great! LOVE YOU!”