In The Dog Ate My Planner, Pat Snyder offers the sandwich generation a whole new approach to getting organized: lots of fun stories about life gone wrong, plus 74 fun tips for setting it right. – FROM AMAZON.COM

AUTHOR GUEST POST…STOCKING STUFFING STRESS STILL STALKS ME

As we plowed through the Wal-Mart parking lot the other day, fingers numb from the 600 pounds of gifts we’d crammed into two dozen plastic handle bags, my mom, then 83, took a moment to reflect on the good old days.

“When I was a girl, we just got fruit in our stockings,” she said. “Just fruit. And those little free samples Aunt Rana sent away for all year. Little bottles of lotion and make-up. Life was simpler then.”

I laughed at the time, trying to imagine how a sock full of grapefruit, tangerines and apples would be greeted at our house on Christmas morning. But half a tank of gas and a full headache later, I’m ready to make Aunt Rana the patron saint of stocking-stuffers.

In our house alone, estimating conservatively and using premium fruit, a grapefruit or two and a couple dozen apples and tangerines could save us at least 12 hours, three migraine headaches and a couple of hundred dollars a year.

I realize as soon as I say it that I know that not everyone will agree. I know — because they happily announce it — that some folks joyfully squirrel away stocking stuffers all year long and are completely prepared for the winter. Others have simply lowered their families’ expectations. As they tell it, there is unbridled rejoicing at trial size bottles of Dial antibacterial soap and Head & Shoulders shampoo.

But for me the perfect has become, as they say, the enemy of the possible. Stufferless and stymied, I am still searching for the perfect seven or eight items per person. Each not too practical but not too useless. Each not too expensive but not too cheap. Each no bigger than a Band-Aid box but reflecting the recipient’s personal interests and taste. Each purchased secretly while its recipient is waiting in the car.

I’m all finished except for the stockings. But in the school of Christmas shopping, I am like the Ph.D. candidate who hasn’t started her dissertation. There’s a long road ahead, and I need a couple of extensions.

This is not for lack of helpful suggestions from bystanders in the stocking race. Their advice this year breaks down into four major categories:

• “Start early!” This counsel, rarely offered before mid-December, is as useful as telling a woman with six children hanging on her arm in the post office line that she probably should have mailed the packages to Taiwan before December 21.

• “Think big!” It’s true that each tall can of hairspray, slid down the center of a stocking, saves at least 60 minutes of shopping time. But for those who must personalize each gift, it takes another 30 to write a poem explaining it.

• “Just buy gift certificates!” Not bad, as long as each one is packed in a container the size of a videotape. Otherwise, the average stocking holds approximately 3,624.

• “Just buy toiletries!” This last, the hands-down winner with pre-teen girls, can now work for everyone, including the family dog. Exquisitely packaged lotions, creams and sprays with names like Zesty Grapefruit, Tangy Tangerine and Sparkling Green Apple are ready for the picking. Unless, of course, they don’t smell exactly like Zesty Grapefruit, Tangy Tangerine and Sparkling Green Apple.

In which case, the only choice would be to go for the real thing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Pat Snyder believes laughter is no laughing matter. “It’s the secret weapon,” she says, “against stress in our overbooked lives.”

She should know. Pat, a Columbus, Ohio lawyer, mom, humor columnist and certified laughter leader, has been overbooking her life for as long as she can remember.

Always in a rush, she’s left her late husband’s antibiotic on the moving van, served leftover cereal for dinner, and made a career of losing her reading glasses.

FOLLOW HER HERE…Website – Facebook – Twitter – LinkedIn

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…Prepare yourself for one long laugh as you go through the same scenarios she does in your own life. She makes you realize laughter can get your through anything. If you’re looking for a laugh as you juggle life’s changes, advances and goofs, be sure to pick up a copy of The Dog Ate My Planner. It’s one of those books you can pick up over and over again to help you see the humor in everything.

Follow her December book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotion:

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The 2 tops winners are…Genevieve Larson & RobynL.  Winners will be contacted and given 48 hours to respond with a mailing address.  If no response is received within that time frame the next on the list will be contacted.  Congratulations!

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FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…This book will have you nodding and laughing along the way.  You just gotta pick up a copy!

TWO copies of IS IT JUST ME OR IS EVERYTHING SHIT? to TWO lucky readers with US/Canada mailing addresses (NO PO Boxes).  Leave a comment about one modern thing that annoys you.  To gain an extra entry or 2 you can copy & tweet the following: “@wifeandmomof3 thanks for Is It Just Me or Is Everything Shit book giveaway at http://tbfreviews.net!” or blog about it on your site.  No need for multiple comments, one combined entry is all you need and I will add your extra entries.  The giveaway will last until Wednesday, May 20th at 11:59 pm ET.  Good Luck!

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