The Holidays - Are you Ahead of the Game or Far Behind?

[TiggerTrigger]

Christmas is now less than 2 weeks away and Hanukkah starts on Sunday night. Where are you in the preparatory process?

For me, I am pretty far behind. I decorated our yard the week before Thanksgiving but have yet to do a single thing inside minus some seasonal air fresheners (apple cinnamon). We normally put up four trees as well as a Hanukkah display and I've done NONE of it. Granted, I do work full time and have had a lot of travel for softball and other matters that have been eating my time. Still, I haven't even bought any gifts. In my defense, only one person in our home has given me any ideas (and she's shifted on those several times) and DH and I just decided to gift ourselves and write the other person's name on the tag as the gift giver. Still, I haven't even bought my own presents!!! I have not baked a single thing. Now, we do tend to do our cookies late so that they don't become a month long snacking temptation but looking at my calendar, I'm not even sure when they're going to happen. I also celebrate Hanukkah...and I do have a big bag of potatoes, eggs, onion, and a couple of canisters of matzo meal. So, I guess I'm at least ready for latkes.

So, where are you in the process?

 

[TippyThomas]

I'm pretty much right where I normally am in the process. Of course my process is a bit less detailed than most considering it's just me and the shelter is the only place I buy gifts for. I've got it really easy compared to some of the details I read about here that some of you have to or want to do.

 

[soccerdad72]

Pretty much set, I think. Thankfully, my wife is usually on top of these things, so aside from helping put up decorations and cooking, I don't usually have to do too much during the season (except shop for her).

 

[fla4fun]

I have everything done except some final wrapping. We aren’t celebrating Christmas until New Year’s weekend because my sister has to work Christmas, so I have a little extra time.

 

[easyas123]

I'm right in-between I'm Done & I'm Close. House is decorated outside. Inside it's at about 75% but needs a major clean. We don't have a tree yet, but plan on getting on on Sunday and decorating it then. Nothing it wrapped, a few gifts still need to be purchased but not to far behind there. I do have some stuff I need to both purchase & overnight next week, so I should get on that...

 

[slo]

I voted Close, but I am a little behind due to my foot surgery last week.

 

[leebee]

I've done almost nothing, but that's pretty much par for the course. I have a couple of things being delivered, but that's it so far. We are planning on putting up the tree this weekend, which is about a week early for us, so we'll see if it actually happens. DD and I are going shopping on Sunday; she'd like to find things locally rather than rely on Amazon, so we're gonna give it a shot. DH and I aren't going to do stockings this year, and there really isn't much either of us needs/wants, so that's a challenge. DD/SIL just need money so I'm going to buy a bunch of gift cards for them... Lowe's, Target, grocery store, gas station, and a date-night restaurant... so that's easy enough. I jsut have to be able to see enough to be able to drive safely (cataract surgery, no near-vision focus left) to do the errands.

@slo How's the foot coming along?

 

[disneychrista]

No presents to buy. No tree or other decorations to put up because the cat would destroy them.

Only thing to do is watch Christmas movies/tv.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

No presents to buy. No tree or other decorations to put up because the cat would destroy them.

Only thing to do is watch Christmas movies/tv.

I have a friend who recently got a new cat that is obsessed with her tree. They've opted to skip ornaments and just take daily pictures of the cat looking insanely adorable perched in various parts of the tree. I guess the cat IS the ornament!

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

I'm pretty much right on track. Gifts are almost done except for finalizing / putting together some teacher gifts and making sure those get delivered. Menus are planned, decorations are up, there is cookie dough in the freezer ready to take out and bake, other items to bake are staged and ready to go. The baking will really get going this weekend & next week. I have things to clean & organize, but that's ongoing any time of year anyway.

 

[barkley]

amazingly-pretty much done. all but a couple of stocking stuffers and some gift cards to wrap, all decor is up (well....dh is currently in the yard putting a couple things upright from the windstorms of recent days). dh and ds will bake a couple items this up coming week and i have my (fingers crossed) last 3 errands (pie pickups, ham pick-up, last minute grocery run) scheduled and confirmed.

the is NOT the norm in our household

 

[TiggerTrigger]

Update - I just ordered all of DD19s gifts. There's still the game of having everything arrive (because there's always an issue with at least one gift) but now she's done. If DD17 fails to give me a list, I may resort to giving her cash. I hate it, but she also hasn't given us any birthday ideas...and that was last month. I guess I shop for myself at this point?

 

[hardcorestitch]

Procrastination is a tradition for me on Christmas Eve… the few times where it actually feels good to do it! Will literally cram the stores after work on Christmas Eve for sure.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

I'm enjoying the season and not feeling pressured so from my perspective it's moving along smoothly. We are leaving to drive to FL on the 23rd to see my in-laws for Christmas and the New Year. First we will have Christmas with my mom on December 19th. After Christmas we will have 3rd Christmas with my brother, SIL and their 2 kids (10 months and 5 years)...to be honest my mom will almost 100% be there too.

The house is decorated, Christmas village is up and decorated, tree is up and decorated, outside lights are up (I would like to add some more lights over our porch but at this point what is up is fine), and the cats are in their Christmas collars.

Presents are bought: (DH and I don't exchange since we are always running around having multiple Christmases. We just get a new ornament together each year).
-my mom is done except waiting on one sweater for in store pickup from Kohls. If it doesn't show up she has plenty of other gifts from us but fingers crossed it does.
-DH and I always get his parents gift cards (per their suggestion) for bars/restaurants and breakfast places they frequent. We pick those up on Christmas Eve day since they are all places local to them in Florida.
-DH's sister always provides an amazon wishlist link for our nephew if asked so that makes shopping for him easy. Just waiting on a couple more things to be delivered.
-We don't exchange with my brother and his wife since we buy for their kids. I'm not overly stressed about it since we won't see them until well after Christmas because of scheduling conflicts this year. I try to get them around 3-5 presents each. I already have 3 gifts for niece and 2 for nephew so I'll true up those after Christmas.

I need to wrap everyone's presents and I need to address our Christmas cards which will happen this weekend. I don't do a lot of baking for Christmas specifically so we are picking up cannolis from our local bakery on our way to a Christmas party tomorrow. All that to say I'm close to done, but not quite there yet.

 

[wabbott]

All I do is write the checks. Been that way for years.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I am A OK on shopping.... wrapping, haven't even started

 

[clh2]

For holiday prep, I feel way ahead this year. All shopping is done, and only 2 more presents to wrap. The only reason I’m way ahead, we will be out of state next week for 5-7 days, that I’m pretty stressed out about, and if I’d be stressing out MORE if holiday stuff was not done before we leave.

 

[ronandannette]

I've done almost nothing, but that's pretty much par for the course. I have a couple of things being delivered, but that's it so far. We are planning on putting up the tree this weekend, which is about a week early for us, so we'll see if it actually happens. DD and I are going shopping on Sunday; she'd like to find things locally rather than rely on Amazon, so we're gonna give it a shot. DH and I aren't going to do stockings this year, and there really isn't much either of us needs/wants, so that's a challenge. DD/SIL just need money so I'm going to buy a bunch of gift cards for them... Lowe's, Target, grocery store, gas station, and a date-night restaurant... so that's easy enough. I jsut have to be able to see enough to be able to drive safely (cataract surgery, no near-vision focus left) to do the errands.

@slo How's the foot coming along?

Me too, and that's right where I plan to be at this time of year. Our tree/decor goes up on this middle weekend of December every year and we're on-track to start tomorrow. I'm excited about it. Presents will come together somehow; I never worry about that. I've got a few evenings next week free to do some baking; I've pared it down now to just the things we will actually eat. It won't take too long and I'll enjoy doing it.

The only aspect that's still up in the air is what exactly we're doing on Christmas Day, and when and if we're having various groups of company in. It'll get figured out.