Here is my 2015 update, followed by a letter I penned to myself a bit earlier today entitled, "Love Note to September Dawn from December Dawn."
2015 Update:
Excerpt of Letter to Myself:
December 31, 2015
Dear September Dawn,
The kids are back-to-school and you are eager to get started on new projects and/or projects that were back-burnered over the summer. This is Katia’s senior year, after all, so there are likely LOTS of projects. Christmas is the furthest thing from your mind. But you have time on your hands now. Things start getting busy in October. They get crazy busy in November. And by December you are stressed and frustrated with yourself for not planning ahead.
Plan ahead this year. Get the holiday greeting card designed now. Plan what you want to do for the holiday craft this year and get going on it early. You absolutely must have it figured out BEFORE you go to Sunriver for Thanksgiving so you can work on it during your time there. There is nice down-time in Sunriver to do this sort of thing, but you MUST PLAN AHEAD to have the craft supplies identified and purchased before the Thanksgiving trip to Sunriver in order to use that relaxing time for crafting time. You are also more likely to get the kids involved and helping you in that environment.
Begin thinking about what you want to get the kids for Christmas. Actually, don’t just think about it, act on it. In years past (2015 was no exception), you made good notes for yourself as to what to buy the kids, but then you waited too long to go out and actually get the items, so you engaged in a frantic last-minute race around town, in heavy traffic and nasty weather to try to find things that had long since sold out. This happened for several items on your must-have list. Don’t do this to yourself this year. Oh, and plan ahead so you can actually send something to out of town family before Christmas instead of the week after Christmas (or later).
It would be so nice if the last few days before Christmas could be filled with some fun outings/activities, holiday baking, and relaxing movies instead of last minute shopping and frantic wrapping and crazed making of crafts for gifts! This will be Katia’s last high school Christmas. Plan ahead so that you can decorate early (instead of having the boxes out for weeks, but no bandwidth to decorate until a few days before Christmas). The kids are getting out of school earlier in December in 2016. Plan ahead so that all of the Christmas hustle bustle is done before the kids are out of school so you can enjoy family time (and friend time) with them once school has ended. Oh, and there is NO NEED to wait until December 31st to make annual donations. Just get them done. They can be done in September. Or October. Send them in and check that off the list.
Okay. That’s it. Realize this was written after a wonderful Christmas, but a Christmas in which the lead-up was somewhat stressful (amplified by the fact that there were work projects and water issues that took more time than anticipated, and weekends in November and December that were full of racquetball and basketball tournaments, so even though you had blocked out what seemed like a lot of time in early December, it wasn’t enough time to get everything that needed to be done, done).
Please consider my advice in the helpful spirit in which is was intended and follow it, September Dawn. Love, December Dawn.
Please consider my advice in the helpful spirit in which is was intended and follow it, September Dawn. Love, December Dawn.
*****
Happy New Year, folks! May it be a year filled with joy, love and laughter (and advanced planning!) : ).
xox December Dawn