prioritizing

we've already established that i love Christmas. what i don't especially love is the stress - specifically, the stress that i bring upon myself because i want to bake/craft/do ALL THE HOLIDAY THINGS!!!!!!! call it what you want (i prefer Inspiration Overload), but the reality is that you just can't cram everything in and expect to retain your sanity. and so yesterday, i wrote a Holiday Priorities List:

- Finish my pajama bottoms by Thanksgiving so that I can wear them while watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade on tv

- Have all handmade presents ready for finishing (weaving in ends, mainly) by December 12th

- Decorate the tree with E

- Go ice skating at Campus Martius park with E

-  Read the Santa Claus book (that we got from our Finnish pen pals in 1987) to Little V

- Watch Love Actually, Home Alone, White Christmas, the Muppet Christmas Carol, and the Peanuts Christmas movie (probably while weaving in ends)

- Volunteer at a shelter or soup kitchen

- Bake and ice molasses cookies for gifting to extended family

- Wrap presents while listening to Christmas music and drinking hot chocolate

- Eat my weight in green bean casserole (and leftover turkey)

- Sit quietly, with all the lights off and a cup of tea in hand, and look at the lights on the tree

- Attend the Christmas Eve service at the local church (assuming i'm not barfing this year)

i expect that there will be a fair amount of unexpected and/or last-minute things going on - family get-togethers, parties, outings, trips to the store ("How did we run out of vanilla extract?!"), and lots of opportunities for quality time with loved ones - and whittling down my absolute "must-dos" leaves me free to be excited about them without the stress of worrying whether the "must-dos" will get done (or at least get done in time).

that's the plan, anyway.  *wink*