Easy Button

I'll be honest.  I had low expectations for the Holiday Season this year.
Navigating the holidays for the first time with two kids?  I gave myself a pass and didn't hold myself to my usual standard.

Somehow, this ended up working MAJORLY in my favor.

1.
Christmas Cards?
Done.  Mailed the Monday after Thanksgiving.  Thank you Groupon and Staples!
They were ready the same day I ordered them.

100 cards for $25.  Double sided, thick card stock, and envelopes are included.
#wiggydiggy had a blast helping me put stamps and address labels on the cards.  Win win!

P.S.  Earned 6% cash back from Ebates too

2.
Christmas Presents?
Justin and I keep a Wish List for the boys on Amazon.  This is more our personal shopping list to show each other things we like and to remind me to pick up items from Wal-Mart or Target.
(Socks anyone?)

So I went out and cleaned up the list some and emailed it to the Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles.
Easy.

We also shopped for the boys gifts from there - it keeps track of purchased items and if someone tells me they picked up an item elsewhere, I mark it bought!

God bless Prime because Christmas shopping was done before December 1st.

P.S.  This also works great for husbands ;)
I put together a quick list for myself and sent it over to Justin.  He's one smart cookie so he price shopped, but the list was easy to reference and he didn't have to ask me 10 times what I want for Christmas.

3.
Decorations?
Pre-lit Christmas tree with no ornaments.

I'm not kidding.

Both boys love the lights and both are more interested in the train that goes around the bottom.  Neither notice the lack or ornaments and frankly, neither do Justin or myself.

As a matter of fact, we probably put out 1/4 of our usual decorations and I truly think the house looks prettier.  It's probably because of the new floors....

4.
Pre-Gift Purge

I decided after #wiggydiggy's birthday party that I needed to do a quick (and very necessary) purge of toys and clothes.

While the boys napped, I quickly went through the toy box and toy bins and tossed everything that was broken and reorganized.
Then I hit up all of our closets.  An hour later I had one trash bag full, one donate bag full and one box ready to mail to Thred Up.  Now I'm ready for the on-onslaught of new toys and gifts.


5.
Holiday Spirit

Thank you Echo for playing Christmas Music 24/7 in every room of our house.

I have 0 stress this holiday season.  Everything is done and it's only one week into December!
I think we should all hit the Easy Button every year.