As I looked over the list, I didn't see any tasks I wanted to eliminate. My son's birthday and my husband's birthday plus a number of relatives' birthdays fall in December. The birthday celebrations plus Christmas make for lots of activity.
Seeing all those extra tasks written down did help me realize why I was feeling stressed. While I can do some things ahead of time, I also decided to give up on some of my routine tasks. For example, the weekend I wrote Christmas cards the house did not get cleaned. While the bathrooms were a bit grungy, we all survived!
Prioritizing what I really want to get done helps reduce the stress. Since I can't do it all, I have to choose to do what's most important ... and be satisfied!
