It’s time to do yourself a little favor.  Take a quiet moment while the memories are still fresh and write some Christmas notes for yourself for next year. This isn’t the time to make huge plans (Which is so tempting when the execution of those plans is still 12 months away.)

Just write some notes about things that went over really well this year or maybe didn’t go so well.  Here’s a list of 13 things to think about:

• What was the most stolen white elephant gift?
• Were there any things you were going to try but didn’t have time for?
• Did you run out of tape?  How many rolls should you have on hand?
• Did you have enough wrapping paper?  How much is enough?
• Were the kids overwhelmed with too many gifts?  How many would have been right?
• How did you feel about what you purchased for the stockings?
• Did a relative make a really yummy dish that you should remember to ask her to bring agin?
• Did you run across a neat story to read, or a song to learn?
• Did you try something new this year that needs to become a tradition?
• What date did you wish you were all done shopping and wrapping?
• When you should start any hand made items to avoid last minute stress?
• Were you tempted to buy a bunch of extra gifts since you had so many great ideas?  File those ideas for next year.
• Did you notice some great sales?!  For example, I found legos on Amazon on cyber Monday for 50-60% off retail. And Target had jammies 40% off the week before Christmas.  Chances are the same types of sales will happen again next year and I want to remember to look for it.

Whatever you write just be sure to put enough details down that it will still be helpful to you 12 months from now.

The newest Christmas fad is to keep it simple.  Simple. Simple. Simple.  (Said while poking my forehead with my finger.)

A basic tree, some yummy food.  Done.  No need to go crazy and dec the whole house, unless someone is paying you a huge sum of money to do it.  Drink some nog, do a puzzle.  Breathe.  Smile. Relax.

This year the flu wiped me out the week before Christmas.  I had planned to finish my sewing and shopping that week since school would be out and my choir program would be finished.  But instead I enjoyed some forced R&R and fretted about it. You see, we only bought our kids a pair of jammies and 2 other gifts.  Only some kids had no jammies.  And some kids had only 1 gift.  But the funny things is, on Christmas morning no one noticed (My Mom did help me make sure everyone had new jammies–I think they may have noticed that.) But the kids that opened one gift instead of two–didn’t say a word. They were too busy playing with their one fun gift.  I worried for nothing.  And the jammies were a HUGE hit.

Here’s a little screenshot of how I like to keep notes. If you click on it, I think you can see it bigger and maybe read some of the text.

How you take your notes is up to you, as long as it’s a place that you are sure to look next year.  I’ve been making a Christmas plan on my computer since 2003.  It started in excel and has morphed into a powerpoint file (since that’s the way I think best.)  Now that I’ve worked out a system I like, I just “save as” the old file with the new year on it, then quickly go and delete out the old info and plop in the new.  This year as I was getting ready for Christmas late August or so, I found my notes from last year to help me with this year.  I completely forgot I had done it.  When I saw it, I jumped up and screamed “I’m a genius!” What a blessing to have a springboard to make the holiday easier.  It’s like writing a love letter to future you :).

How about you?  Do you write notes to yourself for next year?  What questions would you add to the list?