The only reason there was that huge problem last year was because of the rule change and everyone waiting til the last minute.
I always plan ahead. My passport was expiring in April, 2007 so I went to the Post Office on January 2nd and mailed in all the stuff to renew both my husband’s and my passport. It did take a few weeks but we got our passports WELL before we went to Greece in June.
The funny thing is when I went there in January, the postal guy was like, “Oh, you have plenty of time” and I told him I didn’t care, I like to plan for “contingencies.” Good thing I did or mine probably would’ve been in with the huge onslaught and screwed up my vacation.