Have you started preparing for the holidays yet? I usually don't officially start until late November or early December. But I always feel rushed. So this year I want to start earlier. I may not do a lot of decorating yet, but I'm definitely planning and preparing.
I love Christmas! I always picture what I think Christmas will be like. I look forward to enjoying special times and building memories with family and friends. But every year I end up overwhelmed at some point by all the tasks on my Christmas to do list.
I want this year to be different. I want to anticipate and enjoy the preparations. There's more to this season than just a massive list of things to be done!
One thing I'm doing is starting everything earlier.
This year, I plan to write my Christmas cards earlier. I may not send them until early December, but writing them can be done in November. When I was working full time, there were years that my cards just barely made it to people by Christmas. But no excuses now!
We buy gifts throughout the year to take advantage of sales and spread the cost out. But we have a lot of people we give Christmas gifts to (and a lot of fall birthdays!), so at this time of year I usually make a list of everyone and go through my gift inventory list to see what I still need. I just completed that process and I'm really happy that I only need to buy a few more gifts.
Those are two obvious things than can be taken care of in advance. But I wanted to see if there were more things I could be doing to make Christmas less overwhelming this year.
That's why I was very excited when I heard about this new ebook.
Doesn't that sound wonderful? A Simpler Season. Yep! Count me in :)
This book is by Jessica Fisher from Life As Mom and Good Cheap Eats and it is just what I need this year. It's not only filled with great editable and printable lists and calendars, it also includes lots of reflective questions to help you truly prepare for the season.
Here's my favourite quote: "Through careful planning, you can create custom-made Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s plans for your family that will help you breathe deeply and enjoy the season more."
Ahhh... sounds wonderful!
We've already celebrated Thanksgiving here in Canada but I will definitely refer back to this book next fall. I don't know how you do it in the U.S. with so many holidays so close together.
I'm really excited about all the amazing ideas in the Christmas section and I'm going to go through some of the reflective questions with my husband so we can make choices together about our priorities this Christmas and then simplify our season around them.
Another quote that inspires me: ""Now is the time to be proactive and make the coming holiday season restful, memorable, and meaningful." Sounds good to me!
Here's what you get in A Simpler Season:
- creative ideas for celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s
- over 150 pages of content: ideas, recipes, and inspiration for planning a special holiday season with your family
- 70+ printable pages: calendars, to do sheets, inventories, and planning pages
- games and activities to do with the kids
- 24+ family activity cards to print and do over the month of December
- printable recipe and gift cards to help you make edible gifts
- a variety of family devotional ideas to explore with your family
- a list of children’s books to enjoy as well as extension activities to do with your children after the reading
- family-friendly recipes for the each of the winter holidays
- questions to get you thinking about how you really want to spend your time this year
- easy downloadable format in pdf or on kindle
Sound good? You can click here to purchase the book. And if you buy it today Jessica has a coupon code for 30% off here. {Update: this coupon has expired but the book is still worth it at regular price!}
I'm also really excited to be offering my first giveaway on the blog! Jessica has generously offered a copy of the book to one lucky From Overwhelmed To Organized reader.
There are several ways to enter below. Good luck! {Update: This giveaway is over}
a Rafflecopter giveaway
{These are affiliate links, which means I receive a small payment if you purchase after clicking the link, at no additional cost to you. I only recommend resources that I believe will help you go from overwhelmed to organized. Thanks for helping me cover some of the costs associated with keeping this site running.}
Enjoy the book and I hope you have a simpler season! I know I'm looking forward to one :)
Happy organizing!
