Christmas is the day after tomorrow. I have taken the rest of the week off, after working 12 hours yesterday. I am, however, very relaxed. Everything is done, the grocery shopping, the gift shopping, the gift wrapping, the winter concerts, the parties – it’s all done. As I look back on the last 30 days, I realize that I did a few things to simplify this year which have all helped me to feel so relaxed today. Here are a couple of simplification ideas I implemented:

1. I only went to parties I wanted to attend, not because I felt obligated to go.
2. I reduced the number of people that I bought gifts for. I talked to certain people and we mutually agreed not to exchange gifts, our friendship is more than sufficient. I also chose not to participate in the gift/ornament exchanges. Every year prior I did it because I did not want to be singled out for not “playing”. This year I did not play, and I was just fine.
3. I did not bake. I purchased sugar cookies “chubs” and cut out the cookies and baked them. Then I left them to the teenagers to decorate. I did not make chocolate as I normally do every year. I had my 18 year old son follow the fudge recipe and it worked! I purchase chocolate covered Jo Jo’s from Trader Joes and gave those to the teachers this year – ahhh, easy!!
4. I had friends over to dinner, but I did not make anything gourmet or experiment with new recipes. We had ham and played a few games -easy!
5. I wrapped gifts as I purchased them, so no more 1am Christmas Day wrapping frenzies!
6. I did simple photocards from Snapfish. I created a family blog and had the url printed on the photocards, thereby eliminating the drudgery of creating a Christmas letter.
7. I invited my husband to take part in the Christmas preparations. He took 2 days off in December, did some of the errands and did the major grocery shopping for the month – very easy!!

I know that everyone has different things they do during the holidays and my traditions are not yours. But reflect on what it is you do each year during these holidays. Step back and see what you can simplify. I don’t know about you but there’s about 36 hours to Christmas and all I have to do is read my new book!

Merry Christmas!