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Have Yourself A Proactive Little Christmas!

© Julie J. Murelle

With the arrival of Halloween, I feel as if I am at the top of the holiday hill. The view from the hill is good but then it is time to start the downward decent. I do not mean this in a bad way, it is just that as you move into the holidays, the momentum many times is like walking down a hill. You try to maintain your pace but there is a struggle and sometimes you break into a run and you careen out of control down the hill until you reach Christmas, or the flat surface at the end of the hill. (Every hill eventually levels off, just like the holidays.)

Okay, as we stand safely, ready to take that first step down the holiday path, I have a few ideas to help you to do some proactive un-stressing.

First, plan, plan, plan and then plan some more. Try this: Give yourself until thanksgiving, to get all of your shopping done, pick out all of your holiday outfits, and plan the meals. Today is November 5. That will give you sixteen days, not counting today or Thanksgiving to get it all done.

1. Sit down with a pen and pad. This is a notebook only for the 2001 holiday season.

2. Make a list of all the holiday meals and dishes to pass you must provide. Get a good cookbook or for the Internet savvy, cheek out www.epicurious.com, for some really great recipes. All you have to do is put in an ingredient or several, and this website provides you with a world of ideas. Not only that you can print them out and voila. Add them to your notebook under the heading, holiday meals and or dishes to pass. You can even have a notebook page for each event.

3. Next, write out that Christmas list. Make sure that you have five extra gifts on hand for those who you might have forgotten and or, those who just might drop by with something for you. (Being caught without a gift to give is way stressful. This you don't need.) To accomplish the feet of getting all of your shopping done by thanksgiving, you can try the old fashioned method of hoofin' it from store to store, or you can let your finger's do the shopping. You can do this with the traditional catalog approach or you can hop on to the Internet. I did all of my shopping on-line last year. With an infant in my home and a youngster who I cannot take with me shopping, for her own gifts, without shattering the whole santa fun, this worked out great! Okay, where do you begin? There are tons of places for you to shop on line and perhaps you are afraid of the shipping costs. Well have I a site for you. Check out: www.WhenU.com. This is a free utility that you upload on to your computer and any time you go to a site they have reviewed, When U tells you about all available coupons, shipping standards, customer service, etc. It is a plethora of helpful shopping tips. The next thing I will tell you is that many of these sites have some great deals on there sales and clearance pages. And it is really great to open your door to find all your Christmas shopping at your door. They will even wrap it for you, but in my opinion, this gets expensive and is not something I opt for.

The copyright of the article Have Yourself A Proactive Little Christmas! in Relieving Stress is owned by T. Darlene Cheek. Permission to republish Have Yourself A Proactive Little Christmas! in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.