kattitudes

So sorry about my absence, dear friends. Things became mad, but oh my goodness, I accomplished things that I have not accomplished literally in years.

My last few posts inspired ME. I got to thinking about everything I had been talking about, and by golly, I decided that I really needed to make sure that I practiced what I preached.

So, as a result, to be blunt, I spent January working my butt off.

My house - no. This place is finally my home. My home is well on the way to being completely organized, as it was when I lived in London. I have been in the process of literally touching every single possession I own, determining if it brings me joy or not. If it does not, out the door it went.

The process is probably half done, but the house looks 100% better already. It literally looks like a different house.

The enjoyable part is that my husband is on board with this entire change. Bless his heart, he has waited patiently while I picked paint color after color after color….. after color all the while knowing that he agreed to paint the entire house from top to bottom. I am just a wee excited at this point!

I love, and I mean I LOVE the fact that I am finally digging deep into all the various supplies I have for making utterly incredible things, both for myself and for others. As I am opening drawers and pulling out the back of closets, I am finding the most amazing caches of horded treasures. Seriously.

I actually ran across a stock of gemstones that I had collected for years, forgetting that I had them. I was waiting both to learn to set gemstones and purchase the tools I needed to carve the gold, and I am finally ready…but I forgot that I owned this stock of gemstones. This is the beauty of organizing…I have literally saved myself a significant amount of money with these finds. And the upcoming items to share with you all? Oy. I cannot wait to get working.

I have family visiting from the other side of the country at the end of this month. I am trying to accomplish some major home DIY renovation projects before they arrive. As I work on these projects, I intend to keep you all in the loop.

Some of the projects that we have planned include building my own built-in bookcases (which should be interesting, to say the least). I need new window treatments, to reupholster at least three different chairs, build an ottoman, and I have a number of art projects to finish for different walls around the entire place.

In the meantime, we have Valentine’s Day that I need to start to address tomorrow. Plus I have a family wedding that was just announced in July, so lots of wedding planning and crafts this year too. And of course, as always, because I am obsessed, lots more jewelry. Oh man, I have been embroidering with beads lately and experimenting with a few different techniques. I will have to dig out the camera and try some shots for you.

I just cannot get over January. We finally picked themes for both guest bedrooms and are in the process of renovating and decorating.

Oh! I forgot this. We both went through every single pieces of clothing we owned. Amazing. Everything in the closet and drawers were re-cleaned and re-evaluated. If we did not wear it, it went out. If it was serviceable, it was donated. If it was no longer wearable, we are either using it ourselves for craft projects (so many of those coming up with the house renovations and redecoration) or for the DIY projects. Our wardrobes still have work, but they are well on the way to being more organized than they have been in many a year.

I found that as I worked all through January, it became a self-sustaining work. I would go through a project, thinking I had done it and was happy with the results (my wardrobe for example). But then, after I was finished, I would start thinking and realize that I would be happier if I were to let go of more of my older and/or more tattered clothing. I am finding that over and over. As I work, I find that I am willing to do more, clean more, go just a little further, organize just a little more. It feeds into itself. And as I get more done, there is less and less to do, so it gets easier and easier. The trick is just to start.

That is where January went. 2008 has started so well. I hope you are having as much fun in your year!

While we are in the beginning of the year, if you are anything like me, you do not want to take down Christmas. You waited and waited until the last acceptable moment, until you feel like your neighbors are looking in the windows at your Christmas display and laughing.

Or, if you are smart, you go for the full and official twelve days of Christmas. Either way, a lot of people still have their Christmas displays proudly up.

The only reason why I do not is that long ago I set aside New Years Day as the day to take down Christmas. It gave me a goal on the day itself, something easy to work towards that would give me a sense of accomplishment when the day was done.

On New Years Day, I spend the day de-constructing Christmas. And as I did, I thought so much about what I wrote on New Years Eve, about bringing JOY to life by organizing myself. And I found my first (and our first) way.

By taking some extra time (yes, it was a little more involved, but not that much), I organized all my Christmas storage. That is to say, I did this:

Before packing anything away, I put all the storage boxes on the kitchen floor and cleaned off the kitchen table. I then pulled the empty garbage can close and I was ready. I evaluated my Christmas items and broke them down like this:

Christmas tree (each tree got their own ornament box broken down and labeled, so now instead of one huge ornament box, the different trees I put up are pre-segregated into their own boxes and I can put them up as I choose)
house decorations (multiple boxes, divided by size of decorations)
outside decorations
fabric everything (stockings, tree skirt, table linens, costumes etc)
lights

Then, this year, I broke the Christmas display of my entire home down in pieces. I picked one section and put that box on the empty Christmas table. Then, before I started, I created my first piece of JOY by emptying out that storage box of the years of accumulated everything. Old pieces of broken ornaments. Crumpled tissue paper. Rusting metal ornament hangers. Tinsel from a kazillion years ago. Everything - out of the pool. And started over again with a clean storage box so I knew each and every thing that was going into the storage box.

This year, I went with the Flylady admonition - if it did not make me smile, I got rid of it. Period. That is going to be my mantra this year. And no worries. If you are not familiar with Flylady, you will be oh so soon. Anyway, back to it.

I took down the trees and packed them away individually, each tree’s ornaments in their own box. Then, for the first time, I actually taped the boxes shut for my poor Mister, who always wrestles to get these into the attic without disaster. He adores this year already for that addition alone.

Outside decorations finally were segregated into their own box so that I can set that aside on Thanksgiving Day and get it done a little bit sooner than this year (you don’t want to know. Really).

Finally all the house decorations ended up in the same box instead of sprinkled throughout all the boxes as a surprise addition. It wasn’t that my boxes were a mess. It was that at the end of packing, I would push in additional decorations wherever there was room. This time, I just got the extra box I needed and used it to bring JOY to my Christmas decorations and as I am encouraging you - Just Organize Yourself!

Fabric went into a separate box so that I could put the heavy stocking holders in that box in safety. I wanted a box that could safely be moved (or dropped) without anything breaking. I say this because my Mister tripped coming down the stairs this year (he is fine, thank goodness, just stumbled) and dropped the box with the heavy stocking holders in it down the stairs. And as I heard crashing and banging all down the stairs, I thought to myself “hum, as I pack this year, I need to make sure that does not happen again”. So I did.

Planning ahead is a most important part of finding JOY! I have a mental file (as we all do) that runs in my head all the time. I list all types of things, plans, activities, hopes, dreams and occasionally, I remember to do some of the things there.

What I am trying to accomplish this year is making the transition from recognizing when I first approach something that by the time I am finished with it, a change needs to be made. Instead of waiting to act, if I do it NOW when I recognize the need, before I know it, I can tell myself that I have found JOY because I will have Just Organized Yourself. Finally.

I do not need perfection. I already know that. I have talked about that. But disorganization brings disquiet to my life. Disorganization brings discontent. And disorganization brings wasted time, wasted opportunities and in my case, wasted money.

On New Years Eve, I wished for you all to find just one moment of joy and hold on to that memory. My idea was that if you find just one moment, even if you are having trouble finding joy on a regular basis, when you feel that one moment, you get hungry for it. You remember it and you long for it. And you want it and you will find that you are ready to do what you have to in order to recreate it.

My moment of joy was in London. I was prepared for the Christmas season. We were having a true wave of guests coming to visit from America literally week after week after week from October through January with no break between. I was so excited but I knew I needed to be ready as we lived in an oh so small two bedroom home in downtown London. So, starting early that year, I literally went from attic to the cupboard under the stairs in that house. I went through every drawer. I would say I went through every box, but by the time I was finished, there were no boxes. None. I had touched every single possession we owned and every possession we owned lived in its place.

It was incredible. There was no superfluous in the house. Everything we did not need was donated to charity or went to the dump or recycled. By the time our guest season started, there was little for me to do. Even my Mister remembers the JOY with so much fondness. I had so much time every day to fix dinner. Every day I would light the candles in the house and wait for him to come home from his walk off the Tube. I had so. much. free. time. every. day. that I can scarcely describe it. I had nothing to clean because there was nothing to clean. Everything was in its place. I knew where everything was. And I loved everything in my house.

It was a time of perfect peace. My Mister and I both agree that we want the house back to that in the worst way. That is our mutual goal this year. We want that JOY back. It is going to mean some extra work, I admit now. But honestly, in the great scheme of things, I did not spend that much more time yesterday putting away my Christmas display than I did any other year. I was still done at the end of the day. And this time, at the end of the day, my Mister and I sat together and just grinned at each other over the taped and labeled boxes like - well, like kids on Christmas morning.

There was a lot of joy there. And it carried over this morning when my Mister had to go back to work. Already I am ready to tackle another major project, buoyed by the good feelings of yesterday. This might not be a miracle where you live, but trust me. Around here, this counts under the 1862 Goodwill Act of Miracles, Wonders and Phenomenons.

Even with Thanksgiving happening in two days, we are thinking Christmas still. I talked a lot about Christmas organization, even going so far as to post a big list suggesting easy (well, maybe) ways to prepare yourself for the Christmas holiday season. Where are you on it?

If you have down time (I will pause for a moment to give you time to laugh yourself silly), take a minute to read over the list and take mental inventory. If nothing else, running a list in your head will often help calm the chatter. Hey, I am list maker from way back. If I can make a list, the panic goes away. Now, whether I do anything about the list is a different matter - but by golly, that list gets made and the panic recedes.

So if you are reaching Mach 9 on the panic stage about everything you have to do, stop. Have a rest. Make a list. Give yourself five minutes of intentional downtime. Gather your thoughts. Then pick it up and go again. It will help. I promise.

There is a lot to do for Christmas and it always seems like not enough time to do it. We are taking on too much and stretching ourselves too thin.The name of the game here is preparation. Plan ahead. Take steps to make life easier on yourself and you will find that the holiday stress reduces and you find more joy throughout the season.The end goal here is to find the time to sit down calmly, Christmas carols on in the background, fire if it’s cold enough (and you have a fireplace), and enjoy the lights twinkling on the Christmas tree in your relatively clean home. I didn’t say organized or perfect or spotless or quiet. I said relatively and calmly. Big difference in all those words. We all want calm and we need to appreciate that what works in your house might not work in my house and that is A-OK.

This is the season of peace for mankind and by golly, it is also the season of peace for you. Make peace with your home and what you have done. Make peace with the fact that this might just not be the year that you Martha Stewart your house. So be it.

Hell, I push and pimp and two-bit dealer market making your own gifts all year long, but you know what? If it doesn’t happen, who the hell cares? This is all about peace here ladies (and gentlemen). If you weren’t able to make every single stinking last present this year, meh. The world still spins. Want to hear a confession? More than one year goes by that I purchase all my gifts. It happens.

So enough with the game day pep talk. On with the organization.

Here are some basic things to do now to get ready for the holidays. Seriously, take some time over the next few nights (now, while we are winding down from Halloween and time is still loose) and put this all together. You will thank yourself repeatedly through December for doing this.

1. Organize your gift wrap accessories: find a carryall type bag or bin (something with straps) and put everything you need but the wrap itself (too unwieldy) in there. I am talking scissors, tape, tags, bows, frills, tiny ornaments, fripperies, absolutely everything you need to wrap a present, with the exception of the big rolls of wrap themselves. That way when it is time to wrap, you can just grab that bag and run. I keep my stuff in a huge totebag with a zipper (bows included). When I am ready, I just pick out the roll of wrapping paper I want, sit myself down in front of the tv with the presents I’m going to work on, pop in a movie and do my thing.
   1. As part of that gift wrapping preparation, when you are sitting in front of the television, start making those cutesy little gift tag embellishments right now. We have all the little things we need. The tiny decorations somewhere. The stickers, the markers, the big tags. If you are going to make your own labels, start making them now so you aren’t in a panic later. You don’t have to fill in the TO: part yet, but you can make the cutesy gift tag embellishments while you are watching tv.
   2. Yes, long before the holidays hit, I will put up posts on how to make bows with blow by blow (oh did I want to make word puns there) illustrations. There are links all over the net and I have found some particularly fantastic ones, so I will include those too. If you aren’t up for that, I also have a mega huge list of ways to decorate packages without all the purchased doodads. I’ve talked before about the ongoing joke around the house with regards to the Mountain of Greed that gets left behind on Christmas morning. The huge pile of wrappings and bows and ribbons and such. It’s such a waste and the older I get, the more it bothers me. So this year, I’m going to start adding alternatives to wrapping so as to reduce the Mountain of Greed.
2. Get out all your decorations and put them all in one place as soon as you feel ready. You don’t have to put them up, but get them out and together. I put mine in the garage. We don’t use the whole garage, so it allows me to have a staging area. I get them out so I can go over what I have and what I feel like I need. That way I am ready to decorate. I can do this because I have decluttered to the point where I don’t have eleventy hundred boxes anymore. Just eleventy dozen. I also do this so that I can start accessing the boxes for the little pieces I need to make the handmade stuff. I don’t keep the little bits and bobs out all year long - I store it in with Christmas so I know where it is. So getting out the Christmas decorations right after Halloween means time to buckle down and get stuff made.
3. Now. Get your card list done now. I know. It’s one of those annoying things that is a pain sometimes because it means you have to go digging for addresses and such, but if you do it now, you don’t have to spend the beginning of December panicking that you don’t have an address. So just do it, ok? This step literally takes the longest time for me. Every year I make this list and put it away carefully so next year I won’t have to go through the crisis again. Every. Freaking. Year. I. Go. Through. The. Crisis. Again.
   1. Part of getting your cards done now is deciding if you are going to make them (I love this option for the creative side) or have them made (I love this option because it is less stress on me) or if you are going to buy them (I love this option because it is no fuss no muss and frankly the option I usually use because I have a stockpile of eleventy billion cards I have been trying to work through each year and I think I’m almost done finally).
   2. If you are going to use a photo in your cards, time to find one. This always takes time, so hurry.
   3. Figure out if you are going to write that Christmas newsletter. I always do a little movie, so it’s time for me to start gathering my photos and music and begin the process.
   4. If you have a mailing list and envelopes, start addressing those cards. Me, I broke etiquette long ago. I use address labels. I just do. May Emily Post come to my house and strike me down. It takes me five minutes to run my computer program and print out a gorgeous label set with clip art and print them out and five hundred hours to hand address each card. Guess which I do. And no one has fainted dead away from the Christmas card faux pas yet.
4. And on that note, make your gift list now. Right freaking now. You should know exactly who you need to be giving a gift to and have an idea of how much you want to spend on each person. It’s the beginning of November which means that if you don’t have a basic idea of how much you can spend at Christmas, you only have two months to work that out. We do not want to end Christmas with massive bills. Oh, no we do not.
   1. when you purchase and/or make your gifts, put them all in the same place. Oh trust me on this one. You do not want to lose them in your house, then spend Christmas Eve trying to figure out where you put them. Or Christmas morning. After presents have been opened. And there you are, wandering around, opening drawers and handing your sister one more present. And then finding just one more and handing that one to her. I’m just saying.
   2. Oh, and when you wrap ahead of time, for goodness sake, put a gift tag on the danged present. To be a smartass, one year I didn’t label wrapped presents to keep curious eyes from figuring out what present might be what. All that happened was that I forgot what present was what and I had to unwrap them all, identify them, then rewrap the damned things. Not one of my more brilliant Christmas maneuvers. Sheesh.
5. If you are making kitchen gifts, now now now. This is one area that you can get almost everything done this month!
   1. Preserves can be made now and put up in the cupboard to wait.
   2. All those amazing mix in a jars? Lasts easily through until December 25th. And if you purchase your supplies now, you don’t have to deal with the crisis grocery shopping (and pricing) near Christmas.
   3. And I know it sounds a little eeww, but it is true; cookie dough lasts up to three months in the freezer (and we are looking way under that at best). Ask Martha. So it is perfectly safe for you to make your Christmas cookie dough now, freeze it, then thaw it closer to the holidays and prep your gift baskets. Talk about a time saver. This has saved my anxious little tush on more than one occasion!
6. If you are planning parties, set your dates now. My Mister comes from a broken home and trying to balance all the families and their families and those families families? Oi. This is why we have our annual Bash on Boxing Day. The time crunch is over and besides, I like the alliteration. The sooner you can let friends know about potential parties, the easier it is on their schedules, and trust me, they do appreciate it. Sure, you always have that one person that has to say the obligatory “Oh, I can’t even think that far in advance of the holidays”, but you do not have to be that person. You can be the organized one.

I have a lot of websites that I want to share over the next few days. They are all craft type websites, but geared towards helping you with particular skills. Mostly needlework type as those need a little bit of explanation. I’ve searched around and found some real corkers. So if you are wanting some help getting some of the gifts done, these should really top off the need.

I’ve also found so many free patterns for gifts that you can make, it’s just not funny. Some I can post (well, I’m going to post anyway) but I’ll also include a link back so you can go to the source.

And in all the time that I cruise around, I have found some utterly fabulous supply shops, so I’m going to add a page listing where I find a heck of a lot of the stuff I buy (and it’s not just eBay). So if you are looking for a particular item (particularly for kitchen stuff - that can be a challenge sometimes for the mix in a jars bit) I found some great places that will ship you massive bulk.

So no worries. Lots of handmade gifts will be starting back up, but before then, I have huge amounts of links I want to share so that you can get your crafty on.

And people, don’t be afraid to talk to me. If you are looking for something, let me know. I’d love to chat about what you are doing and what you can and can’t find. I’m still rumbling around in my mind trying to figure out what to make for everyone this year, so I think I need to start talking about that in a few posts to try to get some ideas too.

You know, I can talk a good talk, but I am sooo Jane Normal. Get up, sometimes walk around in my pajamas all day like everyone else. Look around, house is a disaster area. Just. Like. Normal. People.

Having a dinner party tomorrow. Excited? Yes. House ready?

Excuse me. I had to take a moment to recover from the peals of laughter. They crawled out from behind the boxes still hidden in the closet from when we moved into the house (THREE YEARS AGO) and tried to chew off my face. I had to fend them off with my half eaten breakfast I’m still carrying around at 4:22 pm.

Yeah. So see? We aren’t all Suzy Perfect Homemaker.

I have been getting these fabulous emails from the funniest people lately asking me how in the freaking hell do I do all this … stuff.

Um, hello. Dinner party tomorrow. Carrying breakfast around with me. 4:22. pm. That means in the afternoon which technically is well past the time for the breaking of the fast.

Now I will do the insufferable Southern Belle thang and gloat proudly that once again I am in possession of a kitchen floor that could be dined upon. However, I will balance it with a strong consideration that if I don’t get a move on, the guests might very well be eating said kitchen floor as the menu itself, which would not be such a proud accomplishment in the end.

Now see, this is something I want to deal with as we get into Christmas a little more. The deadly twins. Perfection and Procrastination.

I want things to be perfect. Oh lordy do I want things perfect. I have a perfect little image in my mind. I want my gifts perfect, my house perfect, my cookies perfect, my cakes perfect, my jewelry perfect, my webpage perfect, my relationships perfect, my everything perfect, my life perfect.

And then life happens. Because, you know, it’s life.

And it happens.

And so I procrastinate. Because, after all, as a Southern Belle, I keep thinking that if I just give it that extra little effort, maybe - just maybe - I can actually make it perfect. You know. The gifts. The cakes, the cookies, the meals, the parties, the webpage, the earth, the relationships, the life, the world, the everything (not taking much upon myself, am I?).

And then life happens again.

And someday I’m going to remember first before I procrastinate that life happens. Whether my stuff gets done or not.

I have to say that I’ve finally gotten old enough that I finally gave up - no. Strike that. Let’s be honest.

I’m in the process of giving up avoiding the procrastination part forever anymore. I still fall into the perfection trap, and sometimes I fall into that for a long time, which really sucks.

But I’m really working on the procrastination thing. I find that I passed a magic age that I figured out that it doesn’t matter if I procrastinate or not, I’m still going to die anyway. So either do it or not do it, because done or not, I’m still outta here.

What’s this have to do with crafts?

Do it or not, you are still outta here. I get emails that tell me that you can’t do it.

OK.

And when I get those, I think of that asinine self-help statement (and I hate self-help mantras, so you know this is killing me) that says “whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right”.

Lord, I hate that.

And who ever said that is right. If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you can’t. It really is that simple.

I really try to keep the complexity of what I show around here down. I don’t go high hog because I want it to be something that people who have some basic crafting skills can look at and say “oh my gosh, you know, I bet I can do that”.

Why is that so important to me?

I remember being a little girl, bitching to my mom. Good golly, my mom and I got along like oil and water. We still do. But I’ll give her this, Mom can craft like I do. Give her a minute to look something over and she can figure out how to do something lickity-split.

She would go into these sewing fugue states where we had to hush up and leave her alone and she would sew for 24 hours a day for two or three days straight and emerge with new outfits for everyone.

What stunk so completely and utterly about this was that her sewing room was my bedroom. I would sit up at 2 in the morning and complain “Mom, I have school tomorrow. Can’t you stop now? I want to turn out the light.” Good grief, I was ten years old. She would tell me, “Hush up and go to sleep. Put the blanket over your head”.

Oil and Water, people.

Granted, I got some bee-yoo-ti-ful clothes out of it, but who can appreciate that as an exhausted ten year old?

All I could do was complain about how much cheaper it would be to go find the damned clothes on sale.

Mom told me something I didn’t understand then, but I do now.

When you spend all day cleaning and cooking, everything gets destroyed the minute you do it. You clean something, someone comes through and messes it up again. You cook a meal, someone comes through and eats it and messes up the dishes and all you have is another mess to clean. There is never anything left over for you to sit and admire. There is never anything for you to enjoy or for anyone to appreciate the hard work you put into it. And when you make something, you have something tangible to show for all the hard work you do.

I was ten. I was tired. I was Water and I couldn’t stand my Oil.

Now, I’m a Big Girl. We’re still Oil and Water, but it stuck with me. And it stuck with me long enough to resonate and resonate until it made sense.

It made more sense after I got married and cleaned up messes and made meals and cleaned more messes and realized that I had nothing tangible to show for all the hard work I did.

But man, could I craft. Oh lordy, I could make stuff like nobody’s business. You show me something and I could whip that puppy out (or at least a close proximation) well enough to do Martha herself proud. It might not win awards, but by golly, it got the job done.

And then I got thrifty. (Or cheap, take your pick. Either works for me.) I would go into the stores and see these adorable crafty items and pick them up and think “oh my self. Why Self, I just loves me some of this thing. Self, why don’t you think about taking this home?” And then I would look at the price tag and I. would. get. offended.

I know it’s the Southern Belle part of me talking, but dang it people. Some of the prices being charged out there are just downright offensive. And that just ticks me right off. I don’t give a good god damn if I can afford it, I should not have to afford it. Not when I can walk my pissy self home, dig in my waaaay too extensive stockpile of pretty pretty craft supplies and pull out enough close matches to make something that will fill that little hole that was created when I saw the pretty pretty creation in the first place.

Plus I had the satisfaction of looking and saying, “I did that” every. time. I. looked. at. it.

Every time.

That is some powerful mojo, people.

I gotta tell you. It doesn’t matter if the bills are late, the dishes are not washed, everyone at work is fussing and the family is fighting. When you look at something you made, sitting there pretty and finished and fine, there is that little glow around your heart and you think in your head, “hey, I did that”.

It’s good mojo.

And that’s why I push making all this stuff so hard.

My house isn’t clean yet, I’m having a dinner party in less than 24 hours,my menu is half done, I’ll be baking half the night to make sure I’m done tonight rather than tomorrow and what is bothering me?

I’m bothered that I didn’t take the time to post some gift suggestions today.

It’s the perfection bug, people. One of the twins I’m trying to shake.

And why didn’t I take the time to post gift suggestions today?

Because I didn’t have the time to write up perfect little descriptions because I procrastinated on getting it all done yesterday. The other twin.

So, over the next few months (oh, who am I fooling. It’s going to be longer than that) you’re going to be reading about the twins. Perfection and Procrastination. And you’re going to be reading about the twins in terms of how they work with making our gifts for others and using our time.

I know I’m not the only one out here living with the twins; Perfection and Procrastination. If I’m the only one that is going to say it out loud, I will take one for the team without a problem.

We’ll chat about UFOs. If you make things, you know what they are. UFO = unfinished objects that we started but never got around to finishing. They are sitting around, abandoned for one reason or another (most of them very very good reasons too).

We’ll chat about why I keep saying that your gift is in the making. Because it is. When you make something for a person, something magical happens. You think about that dear person with every stitch, every teaspoon, every single bead you put together. And the love you have for that person shines through the finished product.

Anyway, the twins just attacked again. I was happily blathering along and got sidetracked. So rather than finishing my thought, I’m just going to finish this post off.

I’m off to finish the house, bake the cakes and print the menus. I have pumpkins to put out and for once, my costume is actually finished before Halloween. Good grief. That is a record. Honest to goodness record.

Tomorrow there will be a few ideas, no worries. But then, come Thursday, we are talking Christmas. Lots on my plate this year, so I have to beat back the twins and the only way to do that is focus a lot early on.

I really really want to relax in December. The only way to do that is to spend a lot of busy time in November.

Hope you are ready for it.