Joyful Holidays: Holiday Sanity Keeping Tools

My new Holiday time best friends are the United States Postal Service website and Amazon.com.

Since I've started working outside the home, I've lost the incredible luxury of being able to go places when the rest of the world is typically at work. I've either been a stay at home wife or had jobs with insanely flexible schedules until this year, and I had been taking going places at unusual daytime hours for granted! This does not mean that I'm doomed to be stuck in a never ending line of stressed, hungry, cranky,hurried people. The post office website lets me packing materials, stamps, and arrange carrier pickup minus the insanity. It does not take more than a few minutes, and it's a productive use of my lunch hour and break times. Many of the items (Flat rate boxes and envelopes, carrier pick up) are FREE. Three days ago I ordered stamps and paid $1 shipping. A whole dollar seemed steep for three books of stamps, but knowing what the lines are like after 5 PM, I decided that my time and sanity were worth far more than that single dollar.

Amazon delivers orders over $25 for free, and I get almost all of the items that I did not thrift, find a bargain on, or see and buy long before December. I wait and place one order all at once. If I'm traveling home for the holidays, I have it sent to my parent's house- one less thing to cram in the car! They also have little known price guarantee- if the price falls in the next 30 days, you can request the difference. I've saved quite a bit of money on kid presents with this feature alone.

Anything that keeps me out of the mall parking lot this time of year is a bonus to me. It helps keep my holidays simple and joyful. What are you favorite sanity savers?