"100 Days to Christmas" ebook review

Christmas is only a little over four months away. Four months! I don't know about you, but between Fall tee ball and flag football, Autumn Moon Festival, Halloween, apple picking, Thanksgiving, writing, working full time and managing the household, my time is somewhat limited. If you have been reading my blog for even a minute you know how I like to plan. I enjoy laundry that is clean, folded, and usually, put away. I enjoy a toy cluttered but overall clean home, with bedrooms and bathrooms that are worthy of sudden visits from the in-laws. I enjoy preparing healthy meals for my boys. I enjoy not having to tell my boys "we can play after Mommy finishes ________________. (fill in the blank with any typical household chore.) And I especially enjoy sitting in the quiet living room with my husband at the end of the day, relaxed because my life is in order. Not perfect, but at least very ordered chaos. And I am able to enjoy all of that because I like to plan.

If you are like me and you like to plan ahead then you have got to read "100 Days to Christmas" by Jennifer Tankersley. This ebook is chock full of motivation, ideas and family traditions and includes all the planning lists and guides you will need to pull off your most organized and budget friendly holiday season yet. The writer is the creator of http://www.listplanit.com/, an online community where users can share planning tips and lists for any occasion, from what to pack in the diaper bag to how to plan for a trip abroad. (both of which I have checked out...) I have been using ListPlanIt for a few years now and I would have to say that the site has been very helpful to me. The down loadable membership allows for the lists to be manipulated, which I really enjoy as I am never, ever, happy with the original list. I customize everything!

The "100 Days to Christmas" ebook is the offspring of http://100daystochristmas.com/, a holiday planning website also created by Jennifer Tankersley. The ebook is set up as a guide to be used daily, with motivation and advice culled from years of honing her holiday planning skills. After reading the ebook I am super excited about starting my holiday planning and I have already put together my holiday planning binder, using the instructions in the ebook.

I enjoyed the fact that this planning guide includes the seasonal activities and holidays leading up to Christmas, with suggestions for Fall family fun, Halloween activities, and Thanksgiving opportunities, all while sneaking in small Christmas related tasks. I appreciated that this guide mixes in every day activities like making a hearty Fall soup or taking a walk with your family to enjoy the colorful leaves. When it comes to actual holiday planning this guide is very comprehensive, covering how to help your children shop for gifts for each other, how to promote compassion and philanthropy in your family, how to create a holiday budget, and how to determine if home made gifts are right for you. The guide even includes those small tasks so many of us forget like buying stamps for all of those Christmas cards you'll be sending!

This ebook contains links to every list and planning guide mentioned, which is very helpful. While reading this book I found myself totally engrossed in the links, often staying on the linked site to read further information. This approach may have taken me a bit longer to read the book but was very educational. Plus, most readers probably won't be reading the entire book in one sitting, as it was designed to be read in small bits, day by day.

The only thing I found missing from this book is a list of events and activities for each month and or season. This ebook does discuss the importance of planning ahead to assure that no family tradition, both new and old, gets missed during this very busy time of year. It even provides links to calendar pages, which is useful, certainly. But I plan my family's seasonal activities a little differently. I list everything we want to do each month on a piece of paper, complete with seasonal clip art, and prominently display the list on a kitchen cupboard, crossing off each activity after we have completed it. I do this so that we don't forget any of the seasonal fun we had planned. A calendar just won't work the same for me, since when I plan the list I don't usually know which day of the month we will do each activity. For example, my September/October list looks like this:

wilkison family fun for september & october

• apple picking
• fall leaf hike
• pumpkin farm
• high school football game
• high school band competition
• halloween costumes
• grove city harvest market

Overall, I found "100 days to Christmas",  by Jennifer Tankersley, to be useful and motivational. This ebook is a well thought out balance of family traditions and traditional holiday tasks, laid out in an easy to use daily guide. It is available at http://100daystochristmas.com/  for $4.99. It is available in three formats; Kindle, Nook, or PDF. You can obtain the book for free with a paid membership to http://www.listplanit.com/.


Make this your best holiday season yet and get organized, today!