I noticed yesterday in the Jewel grocery store that the Christmas and New Year’s 2008 merchandise had already been herded to the back of the store, marked down and arranged with no particular care to indicate that within 12 hours of the holiday season being over, the store had moved on and it told me I should too. The ink hadn’t even dried on the paper I wrote the new year’s resolutions and they were already acting like these yearly rites of passage didn’t happen.
It was weird that all the cute cuddly, baking, sparkly, decoration, super important Christmas and NYE type stuff was now considered undesirable when only a week or a day before it was front and center. It’s all just so fast. I never felt like I even celebrated either very much, but yet there was all this work involved in running around just to get the basics covered. How did that happen? How is Christmas all work and no payoff?
Anyway, the truth was that they had 1/2 an isle already full of perfectly organized Valentines Day candy, decor, cards and stuffed animals. Already? On January 1st? I guess retail marches to a slightly faster drummer than the rest of us.
So, if you are also recovering from a holiday that you feel you may not have actually witnessed too, here are a few tips for surviving January and maybe February 2008 too:
1. Put away all the Christmas Decor. Don’t let it sit until February like you did last year. It’s not easy to explain laziness to people who come visit even if you can usually make a self deprecating joke or too along the way.
2. Bake something non-holiday related. Like Banana Bread.
3. Read a bookthat you have been putting off for at least 2 months because of the shopping, parties, events and social calendar that you have had to maintain. Feel good that some tea and a good book make a great evening. (Personally I got 5 books for Christmas so I have my “work cut out for me”, whatever that means)
4. Check that Netflix queue, there are a bunch of movies that have been released that I bet you wanted to see.
5. Organize those bills, books, files or paper lying around. Get a binder; file things in it. Get Quicken; log your expenses daily. Organize yourself for your own sake. Now is the best time to do it, (ok any time is ok, but do it now because I said so) and get the year started off straight.
6. Write some resolutions (goals) for the year and post them somewhere you will see them, like the bedroom mirror or bathroom mirror, or on the Fridge, or possibly all 3. This more for weight related goals. If it’s spending, maybe put the credit cards in a giant tupperware shaped block of ice and tie a note on it about the resolutions/goals?
7. Save some money. Yes, we all overspent a little, time to reel it in and not go in the red money wise this month. I find it funny that Black Friday for the retailers every year is like Red Friday for consumers everwhere.
8. And if you haven’t already; buy some Valentines stuff just to complete the consumerism yearly seasonal cycle. (sarcasm)
Seriously though, Happy New Year and I wish you the best of love, happiness, health and wealth in 2008.