It's Not Too Late to Have a Sane Christmas

Throughout the year, my dear BFF messages me how the evil Santa on Twitter has tweeted the latest #shoppingdaystilChristmas or whatever. We're like, yeah, Dude, whatever, it's way too early for that. Then, all of a sudden, like out of NOWHERE, we turn the calendar and it's...duhn-duhn-duhn-DUHNNNNN: NOVEMBER! Just like that. No warning, whatsoever.

Let's just take a moment and google "shopping days til' Christmas," shall we? Go ahead. I'll wait. Did you get the same answer I got? As of this posting, this is what I got:

Probably a little too early to freak out. I'm still way ahead of the game compared to my usual schedule. Here my current strategy, which I will share with you. It is my attempt to have a sane holiday season.

1. Create a calendar using Calendars That Work. I love this handy dandy free tool.
2. Create the Christmas card list. 
3. Calculate and purchase postage.
4. Schedule time on calendar to address the cards and mail them.
5. Create the Christmas gift recipient list. 
6. Create the ideal list of gifts for each person. 
7. Consult with spouse for holiday gift giving budget. 
8. Adjust lists 4 & 5 accordingly, bearing shipping costs of homemade gifts vs. the blessing of Amazon Prime's free shipping. These things must be considered carefully throughout the process, especially when considering the realistic amount of time one has time to actually create gifts from the heart...refer to info-graphic of countdown above.
9. Create list of items to be made by hand.
10. Create list of baked goods recipients. 
11. Compile list of goodies to bake. 
12. Make shopping list of needed ingredients for baking treats. 
13. Schedule said baking day(s). 
14. Schedule time to package baked goodies and put it on the calendar, created in step 1. 
15. Schedule time to create home made gifts from the heart, from list in step 9.

That's about as far as I go today without getting overwhelmed! I  better continue this another day, but this is a good place to start!

Oh, before I forget, there is ONE more step I've taken toward a sane Christmas! I'm having a virtual Scentsy party! You don't even have to leave the comfort of your home. If we're friends on Facebook, I have probably already invited you. If you didn't get invited, please don't be sad. Sometimes Facebook is funny and doesn't display all friends' names to invite to these online parties. You can still ask me for an invitation or simply place an order online through my party link. It helps me earn credits toward Christmas gifts for my family and friends (who knows, you might be one of them!).

I've got my eye on THIS guy right here!

If you haven't heard of Scentsy  before, here is a description of how it works from their website:  "Scentsy Warmers use a low-watt bulb to slowly melt specially formulated wax. With no flame, smoke, or soot, the Scentsy wickless candle system is a safe way to enjoy Scentsy fragrances." You choose a warmer (or two or three or...) and a few bars of bricks of wax in scented fragrances. Break off a chunk and put it in the warmer. I find a chunk scents up a room pretty well. Each chunk lasts about a day or two. A bar comes with eight chunks of marvelously scented wax.

If you are in my local area, I will gladly share some scent samples with you. I have some handy. If you are in the Chico, California area, my Scentsy Consultant, Tabatha can meet with you during the party.