Holiday Game Plan

Time to regroup like chicken noodle soup!

Hiya, Big People!  Hey, sorry about my post yesterday.  The more I get thinking about it, the more desperate I realize I sounded.  And the more I realize how desperate I sounded, the more I kinda wish I could shrink.

But I'm not gonna shrink!  I'm gonna learn from it and move the heck on! 

Besides, we're into the final push before the Big Holiday.  Christmas, and I've been studying some tactical tactics, and have learned that if we wanna win this Holiday Season and bring home the Christmas Cup, we've gotta have a good, solid plan.

Stick with me, Friends!  Grab some water and a towel, because we've got some serious plannin' to do, mmmmkay?

Write up a list and prioritize the things on the list!

First, I'm gonna wantchya to write down all the things you've still gotta do.  Big and small.  No whining!  If you whine, I'm gonna make ya drop and give me twenty pushups! ... Okay, ten pushups!  Twenty's a lotta pushups.  I don't know why I'll have ya do pushups, but it's something coaches and drill sergeants love to have people do, so that's what I'm gonna have ya do if you keep whinin'. 

Now.  Getchyer list written.  Still have presents to wrap?  Put it on the list.  Still have cookies to bake?  Get it on the list.  Have some last-minute fluffing and dusting to do?  Write it on the list!  Still have presents to buy?  Write it on the...

Wait a minute.  It's December the Twenty-Second.  Sunday, December the Twenty-Second, and you still have to buy your presents?!  What the heck, Big People?  What the heck at all?  WHY are you still sitting here, reading what I hafta say, if you still have your presents to buy?!  Drop and give me ten pushups, then get in your vehicle and go get your presents boughten.  Don't diddle around.  If you're really puzzled for what to get somebody, get 'em a gift card!  There's no shame in buying somebody a gift card!  Some of my favorite things I have came from gift-card money, and my Mommy can tell me who bought the gift card to where, and that's the thing she picked for me.  Gift cards are great, and they're easy to wrap.  So if you haven't gotten your presents even boughten yet, you skedaddle right now.  I'll be here when ya get back.  MOVE IT MOVE IT MOVE IT!

Tackle one of the most fun things on the list, then do a hard one.  Keep repeating that pattern!

Do I still have some friends still here?  ... Good.  For those of you who are still here, and you at least have your presents boughten, and you've made your list and prioritized it according to fun things you're looking forward to doing, and things that are on the list because they're not fun for you, so you've been procrastinating on gettin' 'em started or finished, now is the time to stop that stinkin' thinkin'. 

We all have things we love to do, and that are fun.  We all have things to do that we don't, so we put 'em off, and they go from being unpleasant tasks to being big, scary monsters with bad breath and glowing red eyes that we shut up behind a door and hope never to see again, but we hafta see 'em now, Friends.  It's crunch time.

What-what? You finished your to-do list?  Partay!  Whoop-whoop!

So here's whatchya do.  Make a Fun Task Dagwood Sandwich!  Start with a super-fun task on your list.  Get it done.  Cross it off.  BOOM!  You're already one item on your list closer to being done, done, done.  Next, tackle one of those jobs you've been putting off.  I'd pick one that's an easier one that you've put off just because you don't particularly care for it.  Buckle down and do it.  Get it done.  Cross it offa your list.  Thereya go!  Two jobs down!  Now it's time for something fun again.  Get it done, cross it off.  Now back to a job you don't think is as much fun. 

Keep alternating Fun-Not So Fun-Fun-Not So Fun until your list is complete.

Aww, Friends.  It's gonna be okay.  Trust me, if you just put a little oomph behind yourself and keep on keepin' on, that list is gonna get over and done with before you know it.  Put on some music.  It doesn't hafta be Christmas music.  In fact, the other day when I was coaching Mommy through HER holiday to-do-list, we were listening to Christmas music, and she sat right down on the floor and wailed that if she had to hear "10,000 Santa Clauses" one more time, she was gonna have a nervous breakdown.  While it coulda been argued that that WAS the nervous breakdown, I took it easy on her and put on one of her favorite playlists, and boom.  We were havin' fun again in no time.  Music makes all the difference, Friends.  Make it work for you, not against you.

And if your list is just too big, or there are too many things on it that feel like "haftas" instead of "wannas," take a coupla minutes to go over it and see just how much on there is essential.  Are ya being a perfectionist?  Didja put down "dust under the china cabinet" because you feel like every square inch of your house needs to be spotless for the holidays?  You know, you can let the things like that go off your list for now.  Nobody's gonna be crawling under that china closet to see your dust.  I WOULD dust under there maybe closer to Eastertime.  You know how those egg hunts can get.  But here at Christmas?  Be more broad-strokes-minded, Pals.  Figure out what's really important to you, and tailor your list to that.  Don't worry about the tiny stuff that nobody's gonna notice anyway.

Now it's time to sit down and enjoy a show.  I'm watchin' "Frosty the Snowman!"

I think if you're stressing out over your to-do list, the best present you can give yourself this Christmas is a break. 

But.  If you're still agonizing over your list, because there's a buncha stuff on there that DOES need doing, and you're still feeling overwhelmed, ask someone to help you.  It might not make you better at making the corners on the presents you wrap extra-sharp, but it will definitely make the chores a lot more fun, to have a partner in the work.  Believe me!

I love ya, Friends!  Muah!