I realized the other day that this week, it will officially become mid-October. How did that happen?! I only vaguely remember the month of September even occurring. October is my favorite month of the whole year, so I certainly want to enjoy it, but a small, nagging voice in my head is telling me that the holidays aren’t far off. I love getting ready for Thanksgiving, but the weeks after until Christmas arrives seriously stress me out. This year, being my first year back in a very full-time teaching gig (where, by the way, I have 485 students…) I want to be more on top of things so it doesn’t all pile on me four days before Santa makes his big arrival. I am trying to pace myself– and all the related activities– so we actually enjoy them rather than rush to check things off a list. Up for this month is the following:

• Take a family photo for our holiday card (before it’s freezing out and the card companies are hopelessly backordered…)
• Test our Christmas lights (before the Black Friday mayhem)
• Make holiday travel plans (before flights hit insane high prices)
• Gather recipes for Thanksgiving and print them out (before I find myself in the store, frantically googling)
• Buy winter gear for the kids (before the snow pants vanish and are replaced with swimsuits in January. Seriously– why? In New England? Really?)
• Shop for stocking stuffers (before I am tapped out and resort to the M&M candy canes and socks)

Am I the only one who feels like this fall is whizzing by at a tremendous speed? Slow down, months! Sheesh! All I can hope is to add enough of a buffer into my prep so this isn’t the holiday card photo we are forced to go with: