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Monday, November 28, 2011

It's how we do things around here

It all started with this mat:



I decided a week ago that as there was snow, it wasn't too early to put out this mat (which is much nicer than the other mat we have for the kitchen). Inside the mat was one of the Christmas books, so I brought it out too.

My eldest spotted the book. She read the book (she'll read pretty much anything that sits still long enough, but this would have been a particular treat as she hadn't seen this book since last year). Demands soon came for the rest of the Christmas books.

Luckily, a few years ago, I had a cunning plan. I labelled a box 'Advent', and stored the Christmas music, books, videos and stuffed animals, along with our fridge Advent calendar that my mom had made a long time ago (Perhaps I'll post a photo once it is up).

I brought out everything but the calendar, but there are demands now to get on with the decorating. Now that Advent has arrived, I'll meet that demand if my request to have the playroom cleaned is also met.

Raffi's rendition of "Christmas Time's A-Comin'" has been in my head ever since releasing the Advent box. I love the song. It makes me feel quite cheerful, but this year it had an unusual side-effect.

I suddenly realized, in a moment of panic, that I did not have a Christmas cooking and baking spreadsheet.

I eventually got a grip on the panic. Despite having a Christmas gift spreadsheet (it helps me keep organized and feel like I'm not going quite crazy), I've kept the baking to a handwritten list, and just made myself sit down with all my Christmas baking magazines (I can't seem to resist these), and made a short-list, and then a final list. I made another list to help myself prioritize the Christmas gifts that I am making so that I don't forget to get them done on time. I love lists. They make me feel better. Mostly.

I've realized that I have to finish:

1 knitting project per week (it's a very small list this year for the sake of sanity, but I'm at nearly halfway through each project. I'll share at least one of them soon)
1.5 sewing projects per week (haven't even started)
2 batches of baking per week (one down, blog post coming soon)
1 batch of candies per week (one down)
2 cards written per night (very do-able, yet I am not quite keeping up)

Of course, there's a bit of shopping too, but I think I'm mostly on top of this at present. It's early yet, right? It would help if I didn't leave any of the gifts I am planning on buying sitting in the aisle and forget them there until I am through the checkout. From the same frazzled trip: I need to exchange the dress shoes that I bought for the girls back on Friday (both pairs are a bit too big). On the bright side, the sweater dress that I bought for my youngest was a hit (she always wants to wear dresses, so I figured a warmer one was in order). She hugged it, asked for the tags to be removed, then requested a camera. After a moment's pause, my husband laughed: "Of course she wants to take a picture; it's knit!"



This is what we do with sweaters in our house. We take photos of them, and put them on the blog.

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