Bring on the Holidays--I'll be Ready this Year!

For some reason I'm on top of things this year. I had my Christmas cards done in August through TinyPrints. The photo cards and envelopes are printed and just waiting to be mailed. (We had professional family photos taken while on vacation in Laguna Beach this past July--hence all the cool photos up on my blog).

And get this--it's only November 16th, and I'm done Christmas shopping for Ava. Yep, you read that right--I have no more gifts to buy Ava. And as an extra precaution from her curious eyes, I've even wrapped them all!

Next on my Christmas gift buying list is Ian's family. And since I have to mail all of their gifts to Tennessee, I'd better get moving! Last year I was queen of procrastination, and didn't end up mailing their gifts off until a week before Christmas. As a result, I gave FedEx way too much of my money, and I swore I would never do that again! This years goal is to have everything purchased, wrapped, boxed up and ready to be mailed by December 8th.

I want to beat the crowds, the traffic and the headaches and just sit back and enjoy this time of year. I'm going to bake things that make my house smell yummy. I'm going to blast Christmas tunes throughout my house. And I'm going to decorate, decorate, decorate. And Ian and Ava will probably tell me I'm nuts, while they secretly love every minute of it. After all, life is what you make of it.

And while I'm joyful this holiday season, I'm not going to forget that for some families, this time of year is very sad and stressful. It's not going to be easy for many families to put presents under their tree, or have a tree at all. We always pick a few tags off the Christmas trees in the mall to buy a present for a couple children in need... however, I think this year we need to do more. I'm just not sure what that something more will be. Any ideas?