5 Tasks To Do in April to Get Ahead for Next Christmas [Episode 28]

Welcome to the Holiday Head Start Podcast, where we get intentional about kicking overwhelm to the curb and bringing the joy back to your holidays and every day. I’m Heidi. And I’m Emily. We’re two sisters and former elementary school teachers who’ve taken the simple strategies and practical tips we mastered in the classroom and put them to work in our personal lives.

 

And we are here to help you do the same. Join us each week as we share how with a little planning and a little prep, you can ensure that the days that make life special don’t become the days that make you stressed. You can check out the show [email protected]. Ready to get a headstart on your holidays.

 

Let’s go.

 

[00:00:53] Heidi: Hey there, friends. Welcome back to the Holiday Head Start podcast. Today we are back with five Get ahead tips that you can try

 

[00:00:59] Heidi: in April.

 

[00:01:01] Emily: But first we have a tradition Spotlight traditions are an important tool in building a healthy, happy, connected life. And this week Heidi has an Easter tradition to share.

 

[00:01:12] Heidi: Well, we have talked about this before where at least we’ve made reference to it, but I don’t think we’ve ever really explained our shepherd supper. So in the past, this is something we’ve always done at Christmas. We grew up doing it on Christmas Eve.

 

[00:01:24] Emily: Mm-hmm.

 

[00:01:24] Heidi: And then I. When Emily, these kids came along, we moved it to a different day in December because Christmas Eve was hard enough,

 

[00:01:30] Heidi: the idea is to have a slow, peaceful night where we could reflect on the savior and we’d make the kids put on Bible costumes and we would set up the nativity scene and eat dinner on the floor with candles and wooden plates and food that were gonna just. Called Mediterranean inspired.

 

[00:01:46] Emily: Yes. That my kids will eat.

 

[00:01:47] Heidi: Yep. I’m pretty sure chicken nuggets has made it more than one year, but normally we also put out things like p bread and grapes and hard boiled eggs and olives and, you know, maybe threw some potatoes in into the mix. ’cause again, kids will eat them, but we did not do it at Christmas last year we skipped it then on purpose because we wanted to try doing it closer to Easter this year.

 

[00:02:08] Emily: Yeah. ’cause we realized that we have tons of Christmas traditions, but not a lot of Easter traditions. So this was a way to make it a little more memorable and lighten the load at Christmas time too.

 

[00:02:19] Heidi: Yeah. It really was a relief not to have to do.

 

[00:02:21] Heidi: It’s not hard, but it’s just a lot of, a lot of little fiddly. And this, it is kind of an intense setup and I do that purposely. Like I took that on. That is all me. I wanted to, I wanted it to have a really good vibe. So it was, it’s like two big bins worth of stuff.

 

[00:02:35] Emily: But it really does give a wonderful atmosphere.

 

[00:02:40] Heidi: Yes. So excited to try it at Easter this year. I still have to figure out some of the details. Luckily the menu can stay the same like that all just fine. I do need to get some things from Costco, so I need to talk to you later about that, Emily. but then I’m a little bit stuck on what else to do to make it more of an event than just the dinner.

 

[00:02:56] Emily: We don’t wanna act out the nativity.

 

[00:02:58] Heidi: Yes. Or set up the nativity. So I’m gonna to spend some time deep diving details there.

 

[00:03:03] Emily: I have one of those Easter creches. That’s the woodwork. Yes. We could set that up.

 

[00:03:08] Heidi: That could work. That’s a good idea. Okay, the wheels are turning.

 

[00:03:12] Heidi: So if you were looking for a way to add some richer significance to your Easter celebrations, you might want to give a Shepherd Supper a try.

 

[00:03:20] Heidi: You can find lots of good ideas on Pinterest. That’s where I found a lot of great ideas over the years. I don’t think a lot of people call it a shepherd supper. I think we just start calling it that ’cause I like the alliteration. But if you search for Jerusalem dinner or Bethlehem dinner, there’s lots of ideas there and it really is just a gentle, peaceful way to celebrate.

 

[00:03:40] Heidi: We are back today with five more things you can do to get ahead for

 

[00:03:43] Heidi: Christmas.

 

[00:03:44] Emily: These are my favorite, and if you missed our earlier episodes, you can find five things for January in episode 25, things for February in episode 23 and five Things for March in episode 27.

 

[00:03:57] Heidi: Now there really is nothing in these tasks that mean that they have to be done in the month that we are assigning them.

 

[00:04:03] Heidi: Our goal is to simply just take the STEAM roller that is the holiday season and break it into smaller tasks that really can be done at any time.

 

[00:04:13] Emily: Yeah, and hopefully by getting some of these necessary tasks out of the way in advance, you’ll have time and energy to actually enjoy your holidays.

 

[00:04:22] Heidi: That also means that you are not behind If you have not been participating with us all year.

 

[00:04:27] Heidi: Just look back at the tips from the past months and see if there’s anything there that you could get a jump on now and leave anything that doesn’t match your needs. We are going for progress, not perfection.

 

[00:04:37] Emily: I. So with all that in mind, let’s jump into our five tasks for April. Heidi, tell us the first task.

 

[00:04:44] Heidi: I would love to, this is a fun one. Our first task is to make a wrapping station. If you are like me, this kind of task is one of those things that can derail me because I am searching for the perfect solution. But really there is no perfect solution here. This is going to look different for everyone, and hey, you can always change your mind down the road. You’re not married to this.

 

[00:05:07] Emily: Right. Maybe you’ve got the space to dedicate to a whole wrapping room, and if so, color me jealous. I

 

[00:05:13] Heidi: know.

 

[00:05:13] Emily: Or a corner of your craft room That can be set aside as a wrapping station, but I’m guessing that most of us need a system that’s a little more flexible.

 

[00:05:22] Heidi: Yeah, for a lot of years I had one of those wrapping bags.

 

[00:05:25] Heidi: It was tall enough to fit a few rolls of wrapping paper, and it had big pockets for ribbons and bags and tags. The nice thing about it is that it was really easy to stash away. I could slide it under a bed or a couch or prop it up in the back of the closet. But I found that I dreaded using it because it was a hassle to get it all unpacked.

 

[00:05:45] Heidi: Just to wrap one gift. So a few years ago I switched to a three tier rolling cart from Michael’s Crafts.

 

[00:05:52] Emily: And I got the same one, and I also really like it. You could use it for any crafts, but it works really well as a wrapping cart. It’s easy to maneuver and it’s got plenty of room for wrapping supplies.

 

[00:06:04] Emily: You could easily adapt any three tier cart into a wrapping cart. But the nice thing about the Gramercy cart from Michael’s is that it comes with attachments, designed to store wrapping paper and ribbons.

 

[00:06:16] Heidi: You might think this is an ad, but we really just like this cart. One feature I hadn’t counted on liking so much is that it usually fits in my closet.

 

[00:06:23] Heidi: I kind of had been eyeing this wrapping cart from the Container Store, not even kind of, I really was drooling over this cart from the Container store. That was a lot larger, but now that I have the other one, I think if I’d gone with that container store one, I would’ve ended up annoyed at the size of it.

 

[00:06:38] Heidi: And you know, the price tag. I do not wrap enough gifts to justify a $300 wrapping cart. That was ultimately what my decision came down to. Yeah, ouch.

 

[00:06:48] Emily: And in comparison, the Gramercy is a steal. It’s listed at 79, but it’s frequently on sale for less than 50.

 

[00:06:54] Heidi: And if you watch for some of like the big holiday sales, you could probably even get it for cheaper than that. I do not have any insider information, but I’m just gonna guess that Michael’s will have a really good discount on it for Memorial Day.

 

[00:07:07] Emily: Yeah, we know Memorial Day comes after April, but remember, we’re after progress and not perfection. So if you think a little Rolling Cart will do the trick for you, set a reminder for your phone to alert you on Memorial Day that you want to order a cart.

 

[00:07:21] Heidi: But obviously you are not required to use a cart. Think about three key things when you’re deciding what kind of wrapping system will work for you.

 

[00:07:29] Heidi: One, where do you like to wrap gifts? Two, how you like to wrap gifs. And three, what storage space do you have available for storing all those wrapping supplies? If you only wrap a couple times a year and you like to sit on the floor to do it, a bag might be nice because that it makes it easy to have everything on the floor with you.

 

[00:07:47] Emily: If you need some ideas, try searching. Wrapping paper storage on Pinterest. There are options to fit every budget and wrapping need. You could get fancy racks you mount on a wall or make a cheap DIY over the door organizer with a hanger and a garment bag.

 

[00:08:02] Heidi: Personally, I prefer to wrap at a table, and because I don’t enjoy wrapping, I really dread it and I want it to be done as quickly as possible.

 

[00:08:10] Heidi: I organized my cart so that I can easily see and grab exactly what I need. I don’t wanna have to dig through things, so, to make things more accessible, I bought a four section file organizer to stick in the top bin of the cart to organize gift bags.

 

[00:08:23] Heidi: And then I bought a couple of mail holders to organize tissue paper on the next tier of the cart. Honestly, I probably spend as much on organizers as I did on the whole cart, but because I took the time to figure out what works for me and what I need it felt more like an investment than an expense, and I would link to all of the organizers in the show notes as well as the Gramercy cart.

 

[00:08:46] Heidi: But just a word of warning, make sure you double check measurements before you buy anything to go in your cart.

 

[00:08:51] Emily: Oh yeah. There’s nothing worse than thinking you’re solving one problem only to find your solution. Created a bunch of new problems, so measure first.

 

[00:08:59] Heidi: And then send us pictures because we definitely wanna see all of your pretty organization.

 

[00:09:03] Emily: Yes. And we should post a picture of our carts on, Instagram so that we can, that’s a good idea. Show how we’ve organized ours. It’s not perfect, but it works. Now that brings us to our second get ahead tip for April, which is a big one. If you only get one thing done this month, you might wanna make it this one.

 

[00:09:21] Emily: And that is. To list your holiday food responsibilities. Can you explain it some more? Heidi?

 

[00:09:26] Heidi: Yeah. Sounds really random, but I promise this is a huge lifesaver. If you have the holiday Head start playbook, section five is all about food because you know food is a big part of the holidays. We have included a step-by-step system for helping you identify exactly what seasonal groceries you’ll need to stock up on so that you are not putting hundreds of dollars of groceries on your credit card in December,

 

[00:09:50] Heidi: The first step is just to write your grocery needs. There is a form in the playbook already set up for you to use, so you can list exactly what you need and then to help you get your wheels turning. We have included an extensive list of suggestions.

 

[00:10:04] Emily: But if you don’t have the playbook, take a couple of minutes to create your own list and keep it someplace where you won’t forget about it. You could send yourself an email, add it to a notes app, make a page for your paper planner or anything else that will help you have this information available when you need it in the fall.

 

[00:10:20] Heidi: And admittedly, it might seem strange to be doing this in April when we have seven months, really before the holiday, stress is really gonna ramp up. We’re doing this precisely because it is April. The pressure is off. You can get this set up and add to it over time as ideas come to you. Obviously you can still be doing this in October and November, but you will be feeling the festive stress by then and it’s harder to take time to be thoughtful about what you need when it seems like time is slipping by.

 

[00:10:50] Heidi: You just wanna get things done, not have to stop and figure out what needs to be done. So let’s make some room for doing the figuring out now.

 

[00:11:00] Emily: It’s very likely that at this point you don’t know all of the extra groceries you’ll need to buy in the fall.

 

[00:11:06] Heidi: Very true. But if you have lived through the holidays before, there’s probably a lot that you can predict,

 

[00:11:12] Emily: right?

 

[00:11:12] Emily: So for example, if your daughter has a November birthday like mine does, I would add birthday supplies to the list. You can guess that you’ll need Halloween candy and Thanksgiving dinner items and ingredients for your favorite Christmas cookies.

 

[00:11:25] Heidi: Any upcoming event that requires extra supplies goes on the list. That includes the holiday work luncheon or the annual neighborhood food drive, or even non-holiday supplies like winter cold and flu meds. ’cause you always need those in December, don’t you? And ingredients for freezer meals.

 

[00:11:43] Emily: There’s no expectation to know right now what you’ll be taking to the church potluck on December 15th. But if you know your church does that potluck every year, you can add to the list. You can add it to the list. Now, the idea is to get as many of these outside of your regular routine food responsibilities, list it ahead of time so that as we get closer to the holidays, we know what decisions we need to make and what we need to buy.

 

[00:12:08] Emily: It’s just all there on your radar.

 

[00:12:11] Heidi: I think that for a lot of holiday prep, it’s not the tasks themselves that are draining, but it’s the fact that they’re so far outside of our normal routine. We don’t have a system for managing them efficiently, so we end up spending a ton of time and energy and money trying to pull everything together by taking a little time now to figure things out, we can make life run way smoother in the future.

 

 

[00:12:35] Emily: And speaking of making the future smoother, our third tip is to do the holiday values exercise. So we talked about this all the way back in episode four, but as a refresher, because we want to maximize our resources of time, energy, and money, we want to be as intentional as possible in our decision making.

 

[00:12:55] Heidi: And the key to intentional decision making is knowing what values matter most to you. Now, don’t let that sound intimidating. They’re really only three steps. First, you look over a list of values and we have a really extensive list, and you can identify the ones that resonate with you. Second, you create two to four groups of similar values, and then you choose one value from each of those groups as your core guiding value.

 

[00:13:20] Emily: This is one of the first pages in the holiday headstart playbook to help you out. We provided a list of dozens of suggested values, but you’re not limited to our ideas. Any value that guides you is the value you need.

 

[00:13:32] Heidi: In episode four, Emily was our very willing Guinea pig in walking through this values exercise. And what holiday values did you end up with? I had joy,

 

[00:13:42] Emily: sparkle, faith, and tradition.

 

[00:13:45] Heidi: Oh, I love those. They fit our holiday celebration so well. Right now mine are intentional connection, delight and present, and those have worked really well for a few years, but I, I’m thinking I might need to tweak them, so I’m gonna have to spend some time on my next holiday giving them a good look.

 

[00:14:02] Emily: The purpose of identifying your values is to give you a framework for decision making.

 

[00:14:08] Emily: If you identify calm as one of your holiday values, it can help you recognize that you want to make time each day in December for a peaceful advent study. Maybe it can help you recognize that you don’t want to accept an invitation to the trampoline park on December 6th because it will be anything but calm.

 

[00:14:27] Heidi: An added bonus of working on your holiday values now is that you can apply them to every other celebration between now and Christmas. Chances are good that what you want from your Halloween or your 4th of July will be similar to what you crave at Christmas.

 

[00:14:41] Emily: Yeah. If we’re going to the work to do something thoughtful, we may as well get as much use out of it as possible. Okay. Heidi, tell us about our fourth task for April. I.

 

[00:14:52] Heidi: Well, hopefully Spring has decided to stick around permanently by now. Although, you know, you can never rule out a surprise may snowstorm, but as we reach the point in the next few months where it is officially time to retire the winter gear, take an inventory of what needs to be restocked or replaced before next winter.

 

[00:15:11] Emily: It used to be that stores would have great end of season bargains, but now it seems like the best discounts happen early in the season. When next fall rolls around, you might not have unpacked your winter gear yet,

 

[00:15:24] Heidi: and that can make it tricky. If you want to be able to jump on any good sale prices, it’s helpful to know who needs a new coat or boots or gloves, or even if a sled or other winter toy needs to be replaced. I.

 

[00:15:36] Emily: You’d hate to spend money on new snow pants for a kid who could still get another year out of the old pair, especially because it’s pretty likely that by next year you’ll forget you bought that extra pair and end up buying another new pair.

 

[00:15:47] Emily: Or is that just me? I am very guilty of that. I

 

[00:15:51] Heidi: just totally that all the time. In fact, I was just putting away, I bought a whole new bottle of, bathroom cleaner and then just put it in the cabinet today to find a whole new bottle of bathroom cleaner. Just waiting in there.

 

[00:16:03] Heidi: I feel like I just do that sort of thing all the time in an attempt to be efficient without taking the time to figure out if I really am being efficient. So take a lesson from us and figure out which winter items need to be restocked before you pack it all away.

 

[00:16:16] Emily: And that takes us to our fifth and final task for April. Make your need to know box. We talked about this back in episode six, but if you haven’t made your box yet, this is your friendly reminder to get it started

 

[00:16:28] Heidi: And you especially might want to get started on this before those summer temperatures hit.

 

[00:16:32] Heidi: Pulling this together might mean digging through bins in the garage or the attic, so you definitely want to deal with that before it gets too hot.

 

[00:16:39] Emily: So what is a need to know box? The idea for this comes from our teacher lives. At the end of the school year, teachers often pack up a box of the things that they will need first when they come back to school.

 

[00:16:51] Emily: This is where they put materials for setting up bulletin boards, labeling supplies, and basically anything else they’ll need first.

 

[00:16:58] Heidi: After I spent a frantic Christmas Eve afternoon trying to round up all of the odds and ends that I needed in order to set up dinner that night, I realized that what was missing was a Christmas version of a need first box. So we are calling this a need to know box because it houses anything that you need to know exactly where it is.

 

[00:17:17] Heidi: It might be something you need early in the season, like the advent calendar that you need for December 1st, or it might be the cookie plate that you need on the other end of the season on Christmas Eve. Anything that you absolutely need to have at a certain time, but that might not have a defined home goes in your need to know box.

 

[00:17:35] Emily: If you have a petite visitor that comes to your home each December trying to be cryptic here in case there’s any little ears listening, this might be a good place to store that visitor. Then you know exactly where it is on November 30th, so you’re not in the garage at 1130 at night digging through boxes and crying because you thought you knew exactly where it was

 

[00:17:57] Heidi: the worst.

 

[00:17:57] Heidi: Oh dang. So start thinking now about what should go into your need to know box.

 

[00:18:03] Emily: And of course we have a page for this in the holiday Head Start Playbook. It’s in the traditions and activities section.

 

[00:18:11] Heidi: So that’s it for our April list. Make a wrapping station list your fourth quarter grocery needs inventory, winter items as you pack them up.

 

[00:18:20] Heidi: Do the holiday values exercise and make your need to know box before it’s too hot.

 

[00:18:25] Emily: Nothing too difficult, but think how happy you’ll be when the holidays creep closer and you have already done some of the most important tasks.

 

[00:18:35] Heidi: And if you need a reminder, make sure that you are following the holiday head.

 

[00:18:38] Heidi: Start on Instagram. We make sure to list each of our prompts for each month so that you have a handy reference.

 

[00:18:44] Emily: Now it’s time for a get a Head Start tip. Each week we leave you with a small actionable tip to help you get a head start on your holiday planning. This week’s get a head start. Tip is buy slap bracelets. Tell us more about it, Heidi.

 

[00:18:58] Heidi: Well, we did just give you five tips for April, so I guess this is a bonus, or maybe you can think of it as an addition to the first tip we mentioned for April.

 

[00:19:06] Heidi: So if you are setting up a wrapping cart or a wrapping bag or station, invest five or six bucks in a pack of plain white slap bracelets, right? You can get the color ones if you want, but the white ones look nice. These guys are gonna be your new best friends. They perfectly wrap around a roll of wrapping paper so you don’t have that loose edge flying free and getting all caught and ripped and torn up on things.

 

[00:19:31] Emily: You can get a pack of 36 lap bracelets for six bucks. So unless you have a ton of wrapping paper rolls, you can easily split these between some friends and still have plenty for all of your wrapping needs.

 

[00:19:43] Heidi: Now I have tried different solutions for this problem over the years. I even bought some expensive plastic cuffs and cute Christmas colors that were supposed to do the trick, and they worked fine as long as the roll was full.

 

[00:19:56] Heidi: But once it got smaller, the cuffs just would slide down to the bottom. So slab bracelets all the way, they wrap around the wrapping paper roll. They hold everything perfect. They come on and off Easy. 10 outta 10. Such a useful hack.

 

[00:20:09] Emily: Yeah. Except the slap bracelets. Even the white ones are so appealing to my children that they tend to walk off.

 

[00:20:14] Emily: So I’m down to now having like only a few when I used to have a lot. So little stinkers. Yeah.

 

[00:20:21] Emily: If you’re getting the pack of 36, then maybe you need to keep the whole thing for you. Yep. But only bring out a few at a time until they go missing. Do you have any holiday wrapping tips? We would love to hear about them.

 

[00:20:34] Emily: Come connect with us on Instagram at the holiday Headstart.

 

[00:20:39] Heidi: Okay, Emily, let’s share what we are working on this week as a way to keep our shelves accountable and give you some ideas of what you can do in advance for your own celebrations.

 

[00:20:47] Heidi: We’re sharing our to-do list. Emily, what’s on your to-do list?

 

[00:20:50] Emily: Well, I am wrapping up the Easter baskets. The problem is, I actually think I was done a while ago, but I didn’t actually like put them in the baskets. So I then kept being like, oh, I, here’s a little something else. I can add the baskets and I don’t need to do that.

 

[00:21:04] Emily: I’m pretty sure. So I gotta, I need to actually set up the baskets. I have a place I can set them up, and I said I was gonna do that before and I never got around to it. So. That’s what I’m working on this week. Yeah, that’s, that’s a really good plan. Smart to jump on it when you’ve got a what We got a week or two?

 

[00:21:21] Emily: Yes. Until Easter. Yeah. That’s nice. My goal is to have it done this weekend because I will have some time without littles around. Nice. What are you working on this week,

 

[00:21:31] Heidi: Heidi? Well, as I mentioned at the top of the show, I need to figure out the details for the Shepherd Supper. I’ve bought some of the food already, but I don’t know, it’s not all in one place.

 

[00:21:42] Heidi: Better at the Christmas stuff. This Easter big thing is throwing me off. So I need to figure out my system and just make sure I have everything all together. I didn’t have my holiday day in March ’cause I didn’t. When I thought I was gonna be able to do it, I, I didn’t end up being able to do it. And I ran outta time and it has surprisingly thrown me off.

 

[00:22:00] Heidi: I’ve just felt very discombobulated.

 

[00:22:03] Emily: Yeah. We also need to, figure out the menu for our Easter Day dinner. So yes. That’s also gonna snuck up on me today when I realized like, oh, it’s a week from Sunday. Gotta do that.

 

[00:22:15] Heidi: Lots to get started on. To wrap up the show, we are sharing our nice list. Emily, what is on your nice list this week?

 

[00:22:23] Emily: I have on my Nice list, the book, A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus. So I just read this book with my kids. This book is. Set in 1940. It has three siblings in London who have just lost their grandmother, and unfortunately the grandmother did not leave any provision for their guardianship in her will. So her solicitor comes up with this plan that he’s going to send the kids off with some.

 

[00:22:49] Emily: Other evacuated school children who are being sent to a village in the country where they’re gonna live with some families during the war to be safe. And so he’s hoping that whoever takes the children in will end up being willing to adopt them and become their new families. So this book is about their adventures out in the country and the families they encounter and where they finally find a place where someone thinks that all three of them hung the moon. We were very moved at the end. It was sweet. Golly. I just wanna tear up just thinking about that. That’s, I know. Such a sweet story. It’s a good book. You should read.

 

[00:23:22] Emily: It’s a quick read. Okay. I have to give that a try. What is on ized list, Heidi?

 

[00:23:27] Heidi: Well, I have another book. I’m putting book eight of the unselected journals of Emma m Lyon on my nice list. Oh, I love ’em so much. I know. Emily, you mentioned it, I early on in the holiday Head start. So I’m just gonna endorse it a second time if anyone You’re co-signing it.

 

[00:23:44] Heidi: Yes. So it sounds like they’re, that this is a huge literary commitment, but the books are not that long.

 

[00:23:50] Emily: No, they’re not.

 

[00:23:51] Heidi: So, so book eight is. Maybe like a book three of a longer series. Yes, and I’m not quite done. I’m, they’re about to go to stone crop, so this is where it’s so good, so excited. I can’t wait.

 

[00:24:05] Heidi: It’s just, it’s a fun, it’s just quirky. If you like Gilmore Girls, if you like. Oh, what else? Is it like cold comfort farm or the importance of being earnest? Mm-hmm. Kinda have that similar vibe of like everyone’s just around you is a little bit crazy and everyone’s just trying to do their best. It’s set in the 1880s in London, and it’s this adventures of young Emma m Lyon in her quirky neighborhood of St.

 

[00:24:29] Heidi: Christians where you have to hang the signs on the shops upside down for good luck and things randomly disappear and. It’s yes.

 

[00:24:37] Emily: It’s so much fun. I just, every time I’m reading one of those books, I’m just so happy to be there. I’m thinking about doing a reread over the summer of the whole series.

 

[00:24:47] Heidi: That was my plan in the fall. I was gonna have an MM line, autumn, and I reread the one and two. This is why I’m just now getting to eight. ’cause I wanted to reread them all. So I read the fir reread the first two, but then I was getting into like Christmas seasons and I wanted to read Christmas of course.

 

[00:25:02] Emily: And if you, if you do a reread before a new book’s coming out, you gotta start it early enough. Because if the new book comes out and you’re on book four, you’re gonna be like, well, I don’t wanna wait for the yes. You know, so I’ll have to time it appropriately based on if we know when the next book is coming out or not.

 

[00:25:19] Emily: By summertime,

 

[00:25:19] Heidi: it’s so hard to gauge. And this is on Kindle Unlimited, if you have that. So you could read it for free.

 

[00:25:26] Heidi: Yeah. It’s so just the seasons are written so beautifully. It just captivates you and transports you there. It’s a delight. Everything about it is delightful.

 

[00:25:36] Emily: I concur.

 

[00:25:39] Heidi: That is it for today’s episode. Schedule some time this month for our five April tips and grab some slap bracelets to tame your wrapping paper.

 

Thanks for tuning in today. Use this week to get a headstart on planning for what’s ahead. And remember, don’t get it perfect. Get it going. Come follow along on Instagram at the holiday headstart. We would love to hear from you. If you liked this episode, head to Apple Podcast and leave us a review. We’ll see you here next week.