With only days until the finish line

We are having Christmas on the 21st this year. My mother has set it all up at my grandparents’ house, so I am fantasizing about its being just like the Christmases of my childhood, with the stockings opened over cinnamon buns in the den and the presents in the formal living room. I have not vocalized these preferences to my mother since she is way too overwhelmed handling everything as it is, but I do harbor hope. I expect this year, having it at their house, will make it easier for my grandmother to understand why we keep handing her presents to open. Last year she kept asking if it was her birthday, even with her poinsettia sweater on and the Christmas tree in the same room.

We’re celebrating early as we have to be in my hometown on the 20th anyway for a family reunion-type-thing so we figured rather than spend two short day trips we’d make a weekend out of it. After our early Christmas, Husband, Little Girl, and I will go directly to the family beach house for a few days. It’s practically the last house in the US with no internet (though you can steal some wireless if you sit on a bench out by the lagoon) so I will be offline, a state which I am always surprised to discover doesn’t bother me at all, considering how much I use the internet normally. Anyway, later, back at our house, we’ll do our own little celebration, with Swedish Christmas food and some friends, and go to a nearby park with a holiday extravaganza I have yet to convince Husband to visit with me due to his general dislike of humanity.

Leading up to all this is a lot of planning to make sure everything is in the right place in the right state of being at the right time. I have been obsessing over my lists.

To Do

finish scarves
finish sachets
iron scarves
finish wrapping
make/take dessert to T family as their present on Friday
haircut appointment (my second one in 2008)
pick up Rx
confirm petsitter
write petsitter check
do work self-evaluation
additional cards–send out
post on blog
groceries
library–get books on CD for drive
library–get books to read at beach
change kitty litter
check smoke detectors
shave legs
clean floors? (they’re just going to get dirty; we won’t be here to enjoy them clean; but do we want pet sitter to think us slobby?)
check wooden train set for parts (this was mine as a kid and is Little Girl’s big present this year)
post office
laundry
pack
finish photo gift for Granddaddy
pick up photo albums if ready? PLEASE BE READY

I also have lists for “Thank you notes to write” and “Things to pack” and “Things to buy.” To complicate matters, some of them are cross-referenced; for example, things that need to be packed AFTER they are done, or things that need to be done AFTER items are bought. Gah. There are also political concerns. For example, under “packing” goes “packing the potty.” But do I pack the potty my mom got Little Girl, or the one Little Girl actually uses? Obviously the one she’ll use; but then what do I tell my mother? So even one subset of one little item on a list is fraught.

I’d say I feel mostly on top of things, but the way my face has broken out I guess I’m stressed. Still, the list-making skills I learned back when I was suffering from infertility-induced anxiousness and obsessive compulsiveness can be pretty useful when there’s a lot of detail-oriented planning to do. But really I am looking forward to it all. The family, the traditions, then the relaxing vacation in a beautiful place. It’ll be great. Especially if I do laundry so I have underwear.