While there are lots of lists around telling us how to survive the holidays, I thought I’d take a different tack and offer a few suggestions for making the most of your post-holiday time:
- Don’t return anything till after New Year’s. The lines will be shorter, and you’ll be saner. Don’t delay too long, however, or you may miss the cutoff for returns on some items.
- If you find yourself with unreturnable items, however, you can always sell them on eBay. If the idea of selling there yourself seems daunting, eBay now has a search page so you can find a local Trading Assistant to help you.
- Go through all the envelopes from holiday cards you’ve received, and add to or update your address list, whether it be in your computer, index cards, or a notebook. This will save you time next holiday season, and also be useful for birthdays, etc.
- Transfer any needed dates to your 2006 calendars. If your calendar is electronic, most holidays and birthdays should automatically roll over. Still, there are moveable holidays, planned vacations, and other items you’ll have to add manually. If you use a paper calendar, make sure you buy one soon, if you haven’t already. Here’s a list, which may be useful, of U. S. Federal Holidays. Wikipedia has a longer list of official, unofficial, and state holidays. You may also wish to add National Coming Out Day (October 11), World AIDS Day (December 1), and Gay Pride Month (June).
- Bonus project: If your kids are of the right age, it can actually be fun to populate a blank paper calendar together, even if you personally live by your PDA. You can buy a bunch of holiday-themed stickers at most craft stores, or just use some colored markers. If you’re really feeling adventurous, buy some blank sticker sheets and print out small photos of friends and relatives to stick on their birthdays.
- Take a big manila envelope, mark it “Taxes 2005” and set it somewhere prominent. Before you know it, those 1099’s and other tax records will start rolling in, and you’ll be all set to keep them together, in preparation for the “Who deducts the children this year?” game that so many of us lesbian and gay parents play.
