Christmas Countdown To Do List

It is officially the Christmas Holiday Season!  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and that you have started getting into the Christmas Spirit!  Last week I talked about how my Mom, sisters and I go Black Friday shopping every year and this year was no different.  We stayed away from the big crowds and went shopping during the "off hours" this year and still got all of our door busters!  I was wanting and planning on not shopping at all on Thanksgiving Day but by 9pm when the kids were asleep I figured why not check to see what was left at Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Target, and then that led us onto Kohl's, JCPenney, and the rest of the mall.  Thank goodness the mall was opened because that gave us something to do until the stores that were closed on Thanksgiving (which I think is great for stores to do) opened on Friday morning.  Black Friday seems to get earlier and earlier every year but I know retailers get so many more customers by opening earlier.  It is sad, but true.  Like I said, we've been Black Friday shopping for the last decade and it is unbelievable how many more people Black Friday (or Thanksgiving Day) shop now, then when the earliest a store would open was 5am.

But enough about Black Friday, it is time to share my To-Do list for this week.  My goal by doing a few things each week is that I'll have a low stress Christmas and Holiday Season when it comes time to actually celebrate with family and friends.

• Shop (If you don't like crowds or waiting in line I hope you took advantage of some Cyber Monday deals!  I am planning on doing some more shopping this week and maybe even finishing!  If you are still looking for ideas (which I personally like to get finalized and done the week of Thanksgiving) check out some of these ideas.)
• Christmas Tree (If you haven't gotten your Christmas tree yet (which we haven't... the plan is to after we visit Santa later this week) then get your tree, or if you do have your tree, crank up the Christmas tunes, chill the egg nog and decorate your tree.  My plan is to get all of this done at the end of the week!)
• Christmas Letter (If you write a Christmas letter start writing and get it printed this week.  I'm planning on getting this done mid-week this week and then hopefully getting them printed by the end of the week.)
• Christmas Cards (Be sure the select your Christmas cards if you haven't already (I always get ours in early November when Hallmark has a buy one get one free special).  If you are creating a card online be sure to choose your design and order your cards this week.)
• Christmas Photo (If you haven't selected a photo yet, you better take one fast.  We are actually planning on waiting for the next snow fall to take ours so we have a fresh layer of snow on the ground - it is one of our family traditions.)
• Christmas Card Recipient List (Review and finalize your Christmas card list.)
• Christmas Baking (Start making all of your favorite Christmas sweets and then freezing some of each batch back that way you will have a variety to choose from to make cookie platters close to Christmas.  We have sadly already finished our first batch of Peanut Butter Balls today :(  I better make some more!)

What do you have on your to-do list this week?  Do you send out the traditional Christmas card and letter or do you send them online?

Christmas Update

Wow!  I have not been good about blogging since Thanksgiving!  I guess, just like all of you, I've gotten busy with getting ready for Christmas, going to Christmas parties, directing our Children's Christmas program at church, etc.  Plus we've been busy with things for my sister-in-law's wedding that is at the end of the month.  I know I don't have to explain being busy during December.  December always seems to be a busy month.

To brighten your day, I thought I'd share some of our Christmas card photo out-takes from this year.  For the last four years since My Farmer and I got married, we've taken a Christmas Card photo in front of our west wind break using the self-timer on my camera every year.  It is one of our Christmas traditions.  Here's a look at this year's Christmas card photo:

Looks like our dog Bailey would rather look at us than the camera.
(This seems hard to explain to her every year...
Bailey you have to look at that random camera on tri-pod in the middle of the yard, not us.)

This ones great, both LP and Bailey are not wanting to look at the camera.

LP and Bailey talking to each other - "Hey Bailey, how are you doing?"

It's not just our dog Bailey and LP that make a photo not a keeper.
Not sure how both My Farmer's and my eyes were both closed on the same photo?

And the winner!
Merry Christmas from our family to yours!