Relaxing holiday season…

This year we decided that it was going to be important to keep the holidays stress-free. It never fails that we put off shopping until the last minute and end up spending enough to consider our checking account a new source of merchant funding. This year we made a point to shop carefully and get all of our shopping done early. In addition to this we made a point to wrap the presents well ahead of time. Our family spent a day last weekend decorating our house for Christmas. This is something that we would traditionally not do until a couple of weeks before Christmas. Having everything done and ready has already alleviated a great deal of the stress of the holidays. I like knowing that my bank account will not be drained by last minute purchases and that no one will be nagging me to put up the tree or help wrap presents. The only thing that remains to do is a bit of Christmas baking. Given that we have given up grains, sugar, and dairy our baking should be dramatically simpler this year as well.