Which person are you: The one who starts in on the holiday decorating and music after Halloween, or the one that waits until after Thanksgiving to begin your Christmas season? I am a little bit of both. For me it’s not Thanksgiving and then Christmas, it’s a whole holiday season that starts with a big Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends, and ends with the New Year, with Christmas being in there as well.

Because I have played the piano for years and accompanied many Christmas programs of various sorts, Christmas music has begun in my house sometimes early in October to get my practice time in. But in reality, I enjoy playing a Christmas song now and then all year long! But, decorations for Christmas don’t go up until some time around December 15th and they usually come down on December 26th. I feel like it’s a good mixture although not everyone in my house thinks so.

But, Christmas shopping seems to be an ongoing process in my house all the way from the end of August to December 23. Well, it’s an ongoing process for me. My husband shops for me usually on December 23 or 24, but I’m his only obligation. I don’t know how that happened, but that’s how it works.

The majority of my shopping used to occur in December though, that’s when I was most in the mood to get it done. But as my children have grown, left on missions, and moved out of state and back, I have to think about shipping presents. Thus, I have to be done with at least the shipped items by December 1st unless I’m ordering on Amazon.

August might seem a little bit early, but I have one daughter who finds her Christmas presents at the Alaska State Fair, or the bulk of what I will be getting her, so I am usually finished buying her gifts before September 1st. As my kids have grown though, I also try to be done with all the Christmas shopping by December 1st.

I have found that not having to worry about the presents for Christmas helps me be more present throughout the holiday season and a whole lot less stressed out. So, how am I doing thus far? Not good. This year has been so busy, and I just have a couple people done, a couple more partially done, and most not even figured out yet. That’s alright though, I still have 14 days left in November to get it figured out!