Eight weeks from today is Christmas Eve.  It sneaks up, doesn’t it?

So, beginning today, I’ll move our "countdown" to Mondays so that you’ll have the full week to accomplish the tasks.

The first thing to do this week is to develop your holiday schedule.  If you don’t already have one, get a large calendar that goes from at least November 11 to January 6.  Write in ALL your commitments — school holiday pageants, office Christmas parties, business trips, doctor’s appointments, religious services, bowling league, etc.  EVERYTHING your family will be doing for those 7 weeks should be on that one calendar — EVERYTHING.

Second, using that calendar, decide what, if any, travel you will need to do during the holidays.  If you plan to fly or take a train or bus, buy tickets now.  Because Thanksgiving is almost here, you will not be able to get good deals on flights, but you don’t want a sellout.  If you are driving, decide when you’ll need to leave, accounting for the fact that there will be an overabundance of traffic and the weather may be bad.

Third, decide if you will throw any parties over the holidays.  If so, let folks know so that they can write the dates on their calendars. Weekend nights in December will go fast so you want to claim them early. (The Elf party is on December 8th — y’all come. Please RSVP.)

Fourth, if you work outside the home, check to see how much vacation time you have left and how much time you can carry into the new year.  If you stand to lose vacation time or personal days (and you don’t get paid for them), make sure that you schedule them in now.  There’s a lot to be said for Christmas shopping in the middle of a weekday.  The crowds are much smaller.

Fifth, looking at the calendar, draw a big X through 2 or 3 now empty days.  Schedule nothing on these days.  These are "enjoy the season" days.  You will stay home and drink hot chocolate, mulled cider or wine, and eat cookies while listening to music or watching movies.  There is no purpose in planning for the season if you forget to enjoy it.

Since all these tasks are calendar specific, I’ll leave you with two more things to do:

• Order any craft supplies you will need to make presents.
• If you plan to send Christmas cards, check your current address list to make sure that the addresses are up-to-date.  If you don’t have a card list, start to compile one.  It takes longer than you’d think to prepare a Christmas card list, so starting now will reduce the stress.

I promise that next week we’ll start fun things!