Christmas Eve is 4 months from today!

If you follow this countdown, by the time Christmas Eve arrives, you'll be rested, prepared, and ready to celebrate. Here are your tasks for the coming month:

•  Keep saving toward your holiday budget. Ideally, you'll have completed your saving by Halloween.
• Make your holiday travel arrangements. Airfares often fall after Labor Day. But keep in mind that prime tickets for Thanksgiving are already gone.
• Make your Christmas lists, specifically, your Christmas card list, a craft list, your gift list, a list of recipes you want to try, a list of decorations you need to repair or replace, and a list of any entertaining you plan to do from Halloween until New Year's.
• If you are especially ambitious, begin developing your master calendar for the season. List social events, work events, school events, travel, etc. Keep everything anyone in the family needs to do on the calendar. It will help more than you can imagine.