It seems to me the whole world goes crazy at this time of year. Especially women. I’m not sure if it’s hormonal (we could always blame it on the moon’s alignment with Venus or some such, couldn’t we?), or whether it’s something our Mothers passed down to us, along with curly hair or caffeine reliance.

We could also blame Martha Stewart, Margaret Fulton or even possibly Ms Gorgeousness herself, for brainwashing us into believing that Christmas is a huge production number and we must rally round and produce a veritable feast whilst simultaneously having not only a spotless house but one that is decorated beautifully and all by our own two hands. And let’s not forget the perfect gift, deliciously wrapped for every person in our lives, a plethora of home baked goodies to be whipped out with a flourish whenever unexpected guests grace our abode (and let’s not forget the raft of little guest gifts wrapped under the tree for them to take when they leave – or so I read in a magazine a couple of weeks ago!).

All this while raising beautiful, well mannered children who are involved not only in every sport or dance class known to man, but play multiple musical instruments and are straight-A students as well. Um, and having… you know…

No-one ever mentions working while you do it all. Or sleeping!!!

It seems to me that the current generations (what are they again – Boomers, X-ers, whys and whatnots…?) of women need to burn the homemaker magazines and write a new script. One that

• doesn’t include guilt as first course
• includes taking care of themselves first
• knows when enough is enough, and that done is better than perfect
• knows when to ask for help, and to receive it with open arms

It seems crazy to me that we lead a fairly normal sort of life, juggling the balls and managing to keep the equilibrium basically intact right through the year. Then, come December, we go crazy and try and stuff as much as we can into 24 days!

This year, I’m opting out of a lot of the Christmas stuff. Christmas in this house will still be wonderful, but the stress? Gone. I’ve got other things to worry about. (Like where I am going to sleep at night). I’m looking at it as an experiment.

You can read the story of why that is over at Joyful, Jubilant Learning – here.

Can this household do the bare minimum for Christmas and survive?

Can we NOT have a tree and live to tell the tale?

Can we eat cold turkey, ham and salad from paper plates, using paper serviettes with little reindeer on them, and still hold our heads high?

I’ll let you know how I go.

For the rest of the world, I have another solution for you! Instead of chaos and going crackers (sorry, couldn’t resist!) why not stay sane and calm?

Grab your copy of Save Our Sanity: The Christmas Calm Manual – it will definitely challenge the whole frantic mess and rewrite the script of how Christmas and the lead up to it can be. Since we offer a money back guarantee, what have you got to lose? (We’re shipping right up to Friday 21st December… or download a copy any time – it will still be most useful to you during the aftermath of the Ho Ho Ho.)

It’s never too late to change the way you feel about Christmas…

For all my readers who live in, or near the beautiful city of Melbourne – have we got a treat for you!

Two of the most amazing women I know are combining their talents to help make your Christmas easy! Chris Owen (my partner and co-author of Save Our Sanity: The Christmas Calm Manual) and Angela Esnouf (from Creating Order from Chaos and an organiser- extraordinaire!) are holding a Make Your Christmas Easy workshop in Melbourne.

But you’ll have to be quick! If you have a few moments this Thursday evening (that’s December 6th) – there are a couple of spots still free for a wonderful 90 minutes of intensive Christmas Calm and Organisation.

You can find the details here, including contact numbers if you’d like more information! What have you got to lose?

I wish I could be there…

The tinsel and wrapping paper have hit the shelves of our department stores! It’s mid-October, and that can only mean One Thing…

(cue Beethoven’s fifth… da da da dum)

Christmas is on it’s way once again!

In fact, the little widget I have on my homepage tells me that Santa is due to visit in 67 more sleeps!

I know that mentioning the C… word, let alone actually knowing the number of days till December 25th can leave some people bathed in a cold sweat and in need of a good stiff drink. My co-author and dear friend, Chris Owen, used to feel that way.

And there are others who hear those words and go into list writing, organising mania – trying to outdo, outperform, outdecorate, outentertain and outshine their past performances. They are the Christmas Perfectionists.

Hello, my name is Karen Wallace and I am a Christmas Perfectionist.

I needed a 12-step program just to get me over my addiction obsession

A couple of years ago, Chris and I – coming from opposite ends of the Christmas spectrum – got our heads together and realised we’d learned a fair bit over the last decade or three about what we don’t like about Christmas, and what we do. And how to handle our individual anxieties and obsessions. And once we starting talking to other women, we discovered that – far from being alone – these tendencies are alive and well in many, many of you!

And this year, after three long years of experimentation and refinement, we’re terribly proud to announce the publication of our solution to the Scrooge’s; those in denial; the Christmas Perfectionists – and everyone in between:

Save Our Sanity: The Christmas Calm Manual

This manual is for everyone who wishes, deep down, that Christmas was a joyous, happy, stress-free time. A time to look forward to with child-like eager anticipation!

To celebrate the launch of Save Our Sanity: The Christmas Calm Manual (which is at the printers as we speak) – we have a simple quiz to test your Christmas Stress levels… and once you know how stressed (or not) you are, we’ll give you a free copy of our Top Tips for Christmas Calm.

Click here to take the test.

Click here to find out more about Save Our Sanity: The Christmas Calm Manual – including a special pre-launch “At the Printer” price – with free postage and handling for all orders placed before the book arrives from the printer!

And over at Save Our Xmas Sanity I have just written about A Time of Peace.

Here, I would like talk with you a little about a Time FOR Peace.

I am really curious about how peaceful this time of year really is. It seems to me that we have collectively made this one of the most Un-peaceful times simply by the expectations and pressures exerted upon us, all on top of our daily, year-in-year-out lives.

Harmony. Serenity. Calm. Quiet.

Are you feeling Peaceful?

One of the moments I most cherish each year is that time after everyone else has gone to bed on Christmas Eve. The gifts are all wrapped.  The tree sits glowing and glittering and hypnotising me with it’s beauty. Santa’s been and the stockings are full. The house is clean, tidy and ready for visitors.

I sit, quietly, and simply breathe in the serenity of the moment.  The prettiness of the beautifully wrapped gifts under the tree.  The left over smell of baking or of roasting turkey (always done on Christmas Eve and eaten cold). The absolute quiet of a warm summer night (crickets, cicadas, and owl calls exempt).

This is definitely one of my favourite moments.

Writing about it here evokes that feeling in me now. I am calm. I am peaceful. I AM serenity.

For things ARE under control in my world. I won’t let this next 10 days pass me by in a flurry of anxious activity. I will carry this calm with me – allow it to support me in my daily tasks. Allowing me to enjoy many, many more miraculous moments each and every day.

My Challenge to you

Is life passing you by in your hurry to get to December 25?

Is there some way you could capture that feeling of peace and carry it with you during the week.  Allowing it to suffuse every moment, so that you may enjoy now even whilst you prepare for tomorrow?

Less than two weeks to Christmas…

How’re you doing?

With SOXS as a significant focus this festive season, I’ve been focussed on my own preparations, my reactions and feelings in a different way this year.

It’s been an extremely busy couple of months, and I knew I had to fit Christmas in there somewhere, but I was very aware that above all, I wanted to enjoy it this year.

I have become more watchful of my thoughts and reactions than I ever have before.  I have become more deliberate in my responses rather than just reacting.  And this has made a monumental difference to how I cope, how I feel and how my family react around me.

The biggest difference I have noticed is that when I am calm and in control, and responding rather than reacting, my children are all calmer and more friendly and happy (not a small feat with two teens in the house!).

Here’s how I am doing it:

• making lists and checking them often – gift lists, shopping lists, task lists, ideas lists, menus and entertainment planning lists… all in one place in a spiral bound notebook that also has 4 note pockets in it for keeping receipts, printouts, etc – and that is with me at all times.  Two reasons to keep it with me – first is so that when I have an idea or remember something I need to do, I can jot it down immediately; second is so the kids cannot see what I have got them for Christmas!
• writing down every little commitment in my diary – if it’s not there, it’s NOT happening!
• asking myself with every invitation or commitment request – is this something I want to do? and is this the best use of my time right now?  Honesty is the key factor here
• taking care of me as a major priority (massages, time out, eating well, sufficient sleep and saying no… )
• doing a significant amount of my shopping on-line or by phone.
• enlisting help whenever possible and playing to each family member’s strengths – Gorgeous Girl put up and decorated the Christmas Tree happily, she’s also wrapped (beautifully) a lot of gifts and they are looking stunning under the tree… Captain Scarlett, who is learning to drive, has become a great help in taxiing me when I am tired (this is a real win, win – but I still cannot wait until he has his license and can collect his brother and sister by himself!)
• not allowing my mind to go into overload.  I will not accept a thought that tells me I have too much to do, and will never get it all done. I immediately turn that around to "There is plenty of time, and everything that needs to get done, will get done!"  I am refusing to get stressed, and it appears to be working well.

Here’s my challenge to you – should you choose to accept it:

Check in on how your thinking is affecting your enjoyment of the last two weeks before Christmas…

Check whether you are responding or reacting in each moment… this could mean the difference between calm and chaos.

Remember that December 25 will come around right. on. cue.  Regardless. And before you know it, it will be 2007 – it will all be over for another year.

Are you wishing your life away, wanting to simply survive the next two weeks?  What can you change to stop that and enjoy every moment?

Captain Scarlett and Gorgeous Girl finish school on December 1st.  Sooo, I made the decision, and announced it to the world, I will be prepared for Christmas by that date! 

Yes, there will be still functions and entertaining to do, and fresh food shopping will go on regardless.  But the lists, the gift shopping, the wrapping, the planning, the preparations will all be done.

Because I want to enjoy December!  It gets real hot here then, too hot to be running around like a madwoman.  I want to be able to relax and enjoy spending time with my kids (when they are not off with their friends, and when they are, I want to be able to enjoy the PEACE!!)

And I have a personal pet hate of shopping in crowds.  Hate it!  And I know what the shops get like in December.  Come December 1, I dont want to see the inside of any shopping centre (except for food) until 2007.  I’ll take most things, but a horde of crazed shoppers madly trying to get the perfect present at the perfect price, whilst dragging bored, wingey kids around isnt one of them.  Neither are the crowds of teenagers, who come to the shops for entertainment and to escape the heat outside.  And I’m not even going to mention car parking!!!

Oh dear, I got started on the shopping thing didnt I??  Sorry!

Why not pop over now and read my post – here – and then let me know if you’re going to join Chris and I and enjoy a December filled with Peace, Joy and Goodwill to All.  Chris has taken up the gauntlet – she saw my decision as a challenge she couldn’t let past.

Whilst the labour was long, the actual birthing process ran smoothly, with no pain killers necessary (well, apart from the odd glass of something after a long day…:)

And this is how we’d like Christmas to be for you.  Whilst you have many more things on your to do list than at any other time of year, as you add seasonal celebrations, preparations and innundations to your already full life, we’re firmly of the belief that it doesn’t have to be a stressful, oh-how-I-long-for-January time of year.

You can stay sane and enjoy every aspect of the festive season!  We’ve done it, and Chris and I are more than eager to share our secrets with you!

To find out more – pop on over to www.SaveOurXmasSanity.com and read what we have to say.   Here is all about SOXS.  Here we answer a lot of common questions about SOXS (feel free to send us an email if you have a question or two that we haven’t yet answered). And here are the details of each of the SOXS offerings, which include a download, a CD, or one of the wonderful Champers and SOXS Parties!

We’ll also be blogging/writing there on a regular basis as we get closer and closer to December 25 – with hints, tips, stories and even the occasional recipe to share.

Please join us as we make Christmas Sane – one person at a time!

While I am here, I’d also like to echo Chris’ comments, and say the biggest of thank-you’s to the wonderful Leah Maclean who has put her life on hold this week to get all the technical/website side of SOXS happening.  Isn’t her design just brilliant??

You know how some women buy shoes.  And some spend their spare cash on makeup or expensive perfume.  Others like to buy designer clothes.  And others invest in nipping, tucking, primping, and stopping gravity from doing it’s stuff.

Well, my body parts may no longer be perky or nearly as firm as they were 20 years ago, but I have a heck of a library!  I spend my ‘spare’ cash on books. (Though, with the discovery of Slim Ink about 12 months ago, I have managed to save a heap of cash by borrowing/trying before I buy instead!)  And so, when Chris wrote about A Bookshop Experience, it had me going ‘uh-huh, uh-huh’.

I am a tactile person and like to touch and feel things.  As Chris was talking about this is the dilemma we have been trying to solve when it comes to SOXS.  You see, we’re expecting you to believe that we have a great tool here – one that WILL save your sanity this Christmas – without being about to touch it, or flick through it.

And so we agreed to start sharing with you what you will find in SOXS once we launch it early next week.  Here is how Chris
explained it in SOXS Bookshop Experience:

Save Our Xmas Sanity: How to make your Christmas Easy (aka SOXS) came about because Karen and I both love our families.  Just like you do!  We also love the concept of Christmas. 

We just don’t necessarily enjoy the pressures of the Christmas season!   

Yes, that MAY be an understatement!

We wanted answers for ourselves.  Answers that were real, and fitted ordinary women like us!

We KNOW plenty of women out there, as well as a few blokes, who will TOTALLY relate to that.

So, what would you see if you picked up the SOXS book, in your local bookstore, and started flicking through the pages?

Well, first you might look at the Chapter Headings.  There you’d see topics like:

• Let Us Play
• The Mess Behind The Curtain
• Let The Magic Begin
• And Now For How
• What About Shopping?
• The Christmas Angel’s Shopping Tips
• Oh No! Not The Cleaning!
• The Christmas Angel Cleans and Decorates With You
• It’s About People
• Christmas Relationship Tips
• Extreme Self-Care
• Our to-Dos

But as you skipped through the pages, you’d see some spaces and lines.  Hmm!  There’s little bits of writing and note-taking to be done.

Though, of course, if you were at a Champers & SOXS Party,
you’d be sharing the hysterical (in both senses of the word) stories of
your disastrous Christmases Past.  No need to do too much writing
there. To do that you’d have to put down your Champers and Nibbles.
Much easier to talk it through amongst the understanding"girls".

Because, you see, we take a quick look at WHY you’ve got to the stage where you sometimes whisper "I Hate Christmas".

And we KNOW what the guilty feelings that accompany those words are like as well!

So we look at what’s causing YOUR problems with Christmas, and we help you find really PRACTICAL why-didn’t-I-think-of-that solutions!

There’s a bunch of lists to help you plan and a bunch of TIPS to help you over the worst of things.

SOXS is your very own Christmas PA (Personal Asssistant).

After reading SOXS you’ll be ready to face the Christmas Season:

• Feeling ready and in control (maybe for the first time in a LONG time).
• Knowing where you’re going (and where you’re not).
• Squeezing amazing achievements out of limited time, and resources.
• And how you’ll prepare all the many parts of a
  successful Christmas.  Successful for you as well as every one else.
  (And won’t that be a nice change?) 
• With planned rewards for yourself as you pass each phase, so you stay motivated AND nurtured.
• Knowing that the time you’ve invested in thinking through our questions will leave you with "an awesome sense of accomplishment" as one reader described it.
• Having created new traditions that are "less stress-filled and more love-filled" (Now isn’t that what we’re actually supposed to be seeking?)
• Having out-smarted the saboteurs of your Christmases Past.
• With a bunch of lists (if that’s what you’re in to), or
• With some clear plans and techniques
• Over the hurdle of "It’s always been like that" with great results from limited effort.
• WITHOUT a MAXED-OUT credit card.  (Extraordinary idea, isn’t it?)

What’s more, you’ll find DISAPPOINTMENT INSURANCE!
If you reckon, it wasn’t worth the money, then we’ll gladly refund your
payment.  That’s how sure we are that this’ll do it for you!

Our Early Bird Registration of Interest is still on
offer but finishes on October  20th.  The Early Bird Offer gives you
20% discount for any books purchased, or parties booked, between launch
day next Tuesday and the 20th October.  That’s just 10 DAYS.  Email us now if you want to keep your options open.

More news to come!

Well – what more can I add?  If you have any queries, or would like to put your hand up for a Champers and SOXS party in Brisbane or Melbourne (and yes, there is the possibility of parties in other corners of the globe – more on that later!); or would like to be notified immediately SOXS is released so that you can avail yourself of the early bird 20% discount – please shoot us an email today to  savexmas@gmail.com.