I was flipping radio stations on my way home from work yesterday, when I came across a station that was playing Christmas music. I listened for a while, thinking it was perhaps a joke, or they were just playing a song here and there to get everyone into the spirit. It turns out, that starting November 1st, this station plays nothing but Christmas music, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. It is only November 7th. We haven't even had Thanksgiving yet. Gag.

Look, I enjoy the holiday tunes, just as much as the next person, but HELLO? Are we not starting things a bit early? The stores are already stocked for Christmas, and we just finished up with Halloween. It seems as though each year, we start earlier and earlier. If we keep going at this rate, we will have it all year round.

I always start getting uptight during this time of year. I think it's mostly because I think too much about all I have to do. The gifts, the parties, and all of the kids extracurricular activities drive me bat crazy. I've made a vow to myself to try to minimize my stress level by writing down all the things I need to do, and prioritizing them. I figure this way, I'll give myself tasks to complete throughout the season, which will help me keep my shoes on, and prevent myself from wadding up my panties in a ball.

First off, my goal is to have all of my Christmas cards complete by Thanksgiving. This means of course, that I actually have to go out and purchase some before hand. My list isn't long, so that shouldn't be too difficult to do. I think I'll be able to reach my goal if I just stick to writing out a few of them a day.

Back in the day, when I was single, I had a roommate that finished all of her Christmas shopping by Halloween. This included the wrapping. Secretly, I hated her guts. Not all of her guts, just the really organized, anal guts. The rest of her was fine. I'm going to shoot for being complete with all of my shopping (except for the last minute, unexpected things) by the end of November. I'm already gathering ideas for the kids who are becoming increasingly harder to buy for. I'm not sure I'll make it, but I'm going to give it a try and see what happens.

I've also started writing everything down in my calendar which has its good and bad points. Good because I'm aware of everything that needs to be done, but bad, because, well, I'm aware of everything that needs to be done, which causes me to spontaneously combust. Pink wine helps.

These are my goals for the remainder of the year. What about you? How do you prepare for the holidays?

Lastly, would you like to share some of my wine? I have some cheese and crackers to go with it.