The Never Ending To Do List

It has really hit me that Christmas is only 2 weeks away.  I can't believe it is that close and my "To Do" list is still really, REALLY long.  I keep thinking..."Oh, I have tons of time.  School doesn't let out until the 20th.  That's  ages away."  WRONG.  That is next week.  Already.  And even though I am panicking about the length of my TO Do list...am I working on it right now.  Nope.  I am sitting here catching up on my blogging.  Hey....my blog is always on my "To Do" list too so maybe technically I am working on that never ending list.

SO here is my "To Do" list with my hoped for completion dates.  I have great intentions that it will all be finished before next weekend.  We'll see how that goes.

1.  Put up Christmas tree.  We went on our annual family outing last weekend and cut down a fresh tree at the Christmas tree farm, but then husband got sick and spent the rest of the weekend in bed.  As a result, the tree is standing in a bucket of water in the garage.  I'm hoping husband and I can get it in the stand, in the house, and lights on it tonight.  Then we can decorate as a family either Thursday night or this weekend.

2.  Finish Christmas shopping.  I would almost say start Christmas shopping but I actually have started, I just haven't gotten that far.  I am doing OK with gifts for the children, but not so great with gifts for grandparents, aunts, uncles, or even husband.  We did sign up for a Parents Afternoon Out at our church for this Saturday.  The youth group is providing baby sitting for children over 2 for four hours on Saturday afternoon for a nominal charge.  We have all three of the "big kids" signed up to go.   Baby Ava isn't old enough yet, obviously, so she will just have to tag along with husband and I.  We are hoping to get the shopping finished on Saturday.

3.  Bake goodies for the church bake sale.  This Sunday, the St. Margaret's Guild (a women's group at our church) is hosting a bake sale with proceeds going to St. Francis House and Stewpot, two organizations here in Little Rock that provide food and other services to the homeless.  Last year the bake sale raised almost $2000 which I think is a lot of money for one small Sunday morning bake sale.  Since I was on bedrest with Ava this time last year, I volunteered husband to make his famous toffee candy.  Being the good sport that he is (most of the time) he made multiple batches of candy and it was a hit at the sale.  All goodies have to be delivered to the church Saturday morning to be packaged and priced so I have a mandatory deadline to be finished with my baking before I got to bed Friday night.

4.  Complete my continuing education hours.  In my former life, I worked as an auditor with one of the Big 4 accounting firms and was a licensed CPA.  After retiring I thought about letting my license expire.  That way I wouldn't have to get the continuing education hours or spend my money getting my license renewed each year.  Husband encouraged me to keep my license current just in case I ever needed or wanted to go back to public accounting.  I know this is the smart thing to do.  If something ever happened to husband and I needed to support the family I would have the license which would make finding a job much easier.  But, it does mean every year I have to get 40 hours of continuing education.  Every year, I vow I will start on these hours earlier and get them a little at a time throughout the year so it doesn't seem like a big deal, and every year I wait until the fall to get started.  As a result, I have to get 32 hours completed before the end of December, 8 of which have to be in person.  The remaining 24 can be done online.  I have 10 hours, including the 8 in person hours, scheduled to be completed in the next week.  Then I will just need to sit down at the computer and get those last 22 hours in before New Year's.  What fun! (Please note that was written with much sarcasm.)

5.  Finish the girls Christmas dresses.  I am making the girls matching dresses for Christmas.  I am getting close, but ran into some trouble when Harrison snuck into the guest room where I have the sewing machine set up, and messed with the knobs on the machine.  As a result, it is not currently sewing correctly.  I sew on my great aunt, now mother's, 1920's Singer Featherweight.  I love this machine.  It sews great.  It isn't fancy and doesn't do anything fancy but it is an awesome little machine.  The only problem....when Harrison or anyone messes with the knobs and changes the tension, etc. I have to have it looked at by a professional.  I usually can't undo what he has done on my own.  Thankfully, I borrowed a friends machine while my mom's was being worked on after Ella messed with it.  I still have her machine so I am finishing up on hers.  Thanks Shannon.

6.  Make the 'big kids' new Christmas pajamas.  The kids' last day of school next week is pajama day and hopefully I can get those pajamas finished by then.  I promised Ella if I didn't get them done by next week I would buy her new pajamas for school and have the ones I am making finished for Christmas Eve.

7.  Make Ella's Christmas tutu.  I haven't decided if this is going to be one of her presents or if I will give it to her before Christmas, but either way I need to get it done.

8.  Make Ella's princess spelling wand.  This is going to be a Christmas gift.  My children love the show Super Why on PBSkids.  It is a complicated story so I will spare you the details but one of the main characters is Princess Presto with spelling power.  When the kids play make believe and Super Why, Ella is always Princess Presto and she has been dying for a wand.

9.  Finish and mail Christmas cards.

10.  Wrap, wrap, wrap.  Every year it seems I save this until Christmas eve.  I vow I won't do that again this year.  My goal is to wrap a couple gifts each day so it won't be so overwhelming of a project.

11.  Christmas baking and cooking.  I love to cook and bake, especially when it means making treats for those I love.  I haven't made the final decision on what goodies will be made this year but we have a few traditional items, cookies, apple pie, covered pretzels, dipped oreos (husband's favorite), chex mix, breakfast casserole (a Christmas morning tradition), cranberry coffee cake (another Christmas morning tradition), cranberry orange bread....and the list goes on.

12.  Goodie bags for the kids' school Christmas parties.  These are partially complete and hopefully husband will help with finishing them up.  Obviously these have to be finished by the last day of school next week.  No sweat right.

13.  Husband's office Christmas party.  I guess since I am not hosting the party I don't have to do anything except attend, but it takes up one of my free nights to get other "To Do" items accomplished so I think it should be on the list.  The party is Friday night so since it is likely I won't have finished the baking for the church bake sale before we head for the party, it will mean I can't party too hard so I can come home and finish my goodies.

14.  I am putting this on here in the hopes I can get it finished.  It is the optional item.  I want to make the boys vests and bowties that will match the dresses I am making for the girls so they will all be coordinated on Christmas Eve.  If I don't get this done, I'll live with it but it would be so cute if they all matched.

Does that seem like alot?  When I write it all down somehow it doesn't seem like that much.  I guess if I didn't have to do all the regular, being a mom stuff as well it wouldn't seem like much.  Oh well, back to work I go.

What's on your To Do list?