Making a List and Checking it Twice...or Three Times...or Four

Traveling over Christmas with little ones in tow? Hear are some tips to make pre-trip days go a bit smoother.

MAKE A LIST...FOR EVERYTHING!!!

Life is very unpredictable with little ones in the house. You never know when someone will get sick and have to be run to the doctor or something will spill and necessitate another load of laundry or the Christmas presents will get unwrapped prematurely and need to be rewrapped or...

I make lists for everything leading up to a big trip. We'll be leaving Saturday and won't be coming home until the following Friday--7 days away from home--that's a lot of packing to do! So, I make lists for the following things/events (then I don't have to remember anything on my own):

1. What to pack: clothing/toiletries
2. What to pack: gifts and stuff
3. What to do: (i.e. take dogs to vet, pack, clean out car, etc.)
4. What to eat: don't want to have much perishable food left in the house, so I've made a menu of what our options are and what we need to eat up--it includes breakfast for dinner so we can use up our eggs!
5. What to do for the house: lights on, thermostat down, hold mail, etc.

Then, I check off as many things 2 days before the trip as possible--again, you never know what's going to transpire on the day of. For instance, I've arranged for our lunch stop on Saturday, packed the kids' clothes, put in an order to h0ld our mail, done all the laundry, planned the menu, wrapped all the presents and grouped them in my room so they can't be touched, booked the dogs in the doggie hotel (actually, that was done before T'giving since our vet books up quickly), etc.

If you're prepared and nothing unusual happens the day before the trip, then you just have bonus time: read some Christmas books, go to a park if it's nice, make and decorate some sugar cookies for your host (the grandparents most likely), or just watch a fun Christmas movie. Your kids will look forward to trips if you aren't stressed out the day before and running around yelling at them.