Christmas Eve is seven weeks from today!  And our planning continues.  This week’s tasks are pretty easy since you’ll have lots of Thanksgiving things to do:

• Finalize travel for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, purchase tickets, and make hotel reservations.
• Finish your Christmas card list.
• Buy your holiday stamps.  As usual, the U.S. Postal Service has two Christmas designs (one secular, one religious), a Hanukkah design, and a Kwanzaa design.  Buying stamps early means that you don’t have to stand in long lines.
• Check your stock of cards, wrapping paper, ribbons, bows, gift bags, and gift tags.  Make note of anything you will need so that you can be on the lookout for sales.
• Make a Christmas list of presents that you want.  If appropriate, give sizes and colors.  If possible, encourage everyone in your family to make a similar list.  For children, it could take the form of a letter to Santa.
• Make a list of everyone you need to buy a present for.  Put a star by any person whose gift will require shipment. Put two stars by any person whose gift requires shipment outside the continental United States.  For lowest cost shipment to military addresses, packages must be sent by November 13 (that’s next Tuesday).  For international packages, the deadline is December 4.
• It’s a good idea to begin carrying a small notebook. (If you have a PDA, you can use that.) I find that keeping a present list handy allows me to use spare minutes (like the time spent waiting for the subway or a friend) to jot down ideas.
• Begin looking through those catalogs you’ve been saving. If there’s anything you think might make a good gift, turn down the page or attach a sticky note.

This is the last week for basic preparation. Next week, we start fun things.