Holiday Organizing: A letter to my people

Friends of Get Organized Already,

I’m looking forward to some down time this holiday season.  You, too want to have a peaceful end of the year I’m sure.  Here are a few (unsolicited, but still awesome) tips from me for keeping your party season calm:

• Say yes to no more than 2 parties per weekend.  I don’t care if you are only invited to 4 all season and they are all on the same day.  Do yourself and your family a favor and only go to two in a weekend and enjoy them completely.  (This includes kid parties.)
• Get out your calendar now and schedule your Christmas dinner shopping trip.  I don’t want to hear about any of you getting a headache from going to Bristol Farms on the 23rd.  Put two hours on the calendar right now.
• Think about the things you love most about December and the advent season.  What are they?  Put up a reminder of those things.  For example:
  • (easy version) Write “football, sweaters, cooking a pie” on a piece of scrap paper and tape it to your bathroom mirror.
  • (advanced) Print out a photo of your family at a game, rip out a picture of some cashmere, and find your favorite pie recipe and put them all up on the fridge.
  • (Martha Stewart style) Make a collage.  Read a novel about football.  Start designing your Christmas cards.

At whichever level you choose to participate do these things with no pressure on yourself about whether or not you do these activities perfectly or even at all.  Just think on them.  See what happens.

• Call a relative or old friend you haven’t spoken to in a while who will love hearing from you.  Ask a couple of open-ended questions and just listen.  When are you going to do this?  Sooner is better.
• If you feel stressed about what to wear to holiday events, take time now to go into your closet and put together a comfortable nice outfit.  Now wear that outfit to every holiday party/gathering this season.  Problem solved.
• Think for a minute about other such things that stress you out over the holidays: gift buying, recipe planning, mingling, holiday card mailing, etc.  Take a deep breath and let yourself decide whether or not you are going to do that activity this year.  You could probably drop it right off of your plate.  Or you could (at least partially) delegate it.
• Don’t buy gifts you aren’t inspired to buy.  This is not the year to be giving frivolous gifts.
• Call me for some relief.  :o)  We can get the kitchen ready for cooking, the guest room ready for your aunt, your shopping done, your menu planned, gifts wrapped, the living room de-cluttered.  YOU NAME IT!  It’s a lot quicker and more fun when you have a helper.

I hope you find some ideas for yourself in these tips.  I’ll be writing more here on my blog about once or twice a week if you want to stay inspired.  Please click the Follow tab up there on the upper left part of the gray bar on this screen.

And let me know what you are up to and what you are going to say NO to this December.

Sincerely,
Nonnahs

323.230.0297