It's beginning to look a lot like ... summer

So this is Ann Cannon's Summer 2010 Public Service Announcement.

If you follow these simple instructions, you are absolutely guaranteed to save yourself a boatload of grief (and money!) come this December.

1. The month of July is almost over. You know what that means — time to put up your Christmas tree!

2. Because you know how it is. The second half of the year is just a crazy runaway train.

3. One minute you're standing on the driveway, watching every male in your family between the ages of 2 and 92 celebrate the Fourth of July by shooting a thousand (legal!) fireworks into the sky.

4. And the next thing you know, those same males are heaving a big old Christmas tree off the car roof and into the corner of your living room.

5. Well, what do you know! It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Again!

6. So.

Here's the deal.

7. You start thinking about all the ways you can get a leetle jump on the Christmas season.

8. Even though it's still July, which means it's so hot outside you feel like running around the house like that witch in "The Wizard of Oz," screaming "I'm melting, melting, melting!"

9. Which is why you come up with the following muy buena idea.

10. You're gonna get all your Christmas shopping done RIGHT NOW!

11. That way you can just kick back and chill when the holiday season hits.

12. While all your friends and co-workers are moaning and groaning about how crowded the malls are, you can sit by the fireplace, sip some hot cocoa and go, "It's true! I'm a bleeding genius!" secure in the knowledge that YOUR shopping is all done.

Right?

13. RIGHT?

14. Um … no.

15. Because here's what will happen instead.

16. When December rolls around, you will totally have forgotten about the presents you bought way back in skin-melting July.