Monday, December 8, 2008

cj's holiday NOT to do list

I should be doing laundry right now. And washing dishes. And giving Clara and Nathan baths. I actually haven't showered myself this morning either.

But... our hot water heater broke on Friday, and after three days of suffering without hot water, two of which I have been terribly sick with the flu, the guy is finally here to fix it. In order to do so, he has had to shut off our water completely, which is why I can't do any of those things I just mentioned.

Instead, I was very inspired by this great article, and thought I would write my own list. So here ya go...

cj's Holiday NOT To Do List:
  1. I will not hand stamp 45 Christmas cards and envelopes to send to all of our family and friends, along with a coordinating picture of the whole family. I may send a short "Merry Christmas" note via email. Picture is optional.
  2. I also will not hand stamp multiple sets of cards to give as gifts to School, Piano, and Primary teachers. I may wrap up some gourmet hot chocolate or another small Christmas treat and have the children give that to their teachers with their own handmade cards.
  3. I will not do any Christmas shopping after December 15, thereby avoiding the stress of dragging any number of children out in the snowy, slushy weather to an overly crowded mall, where, if we manage to find parking within 5 km of said mall, we will either have to wait to pay in a line so long that you can't see one end from the other, or we will find that the very thing we intended to purchase has in fact been SOLD OUT.
  4. I will not stress over that fact that I just crossed five sewing projects off my Christmas list for the children, as it became very clear that I would not have time to complete them by December 25 unless I completely gave up sleep and sanity for the next two weeks. There's always next year. Or birthdays.
  5. I will not get out all of my Christmas decorations from storage and re-decorate the house in red, green and white. Last week we put up our tree, got out the Christmas books, a blanket, and a couple of decorations for the kitchen. That's it. Nothing else comes out this year.
  6. I will not feel pressure to do any extravagant Holiday baking. I may do some spontaneous baking of Christmas cookies, if the kids want to and if all of the ingredients are already in the house at that time.
There are probably another dozen things I could list here, but in the spirit of this post, I will not spend too much time making up the perfect Holiday NOT To Do List, and in doing so, spend too much time on the computer and neglect my family.

So, what's on your NOT to do list this year?

2 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for posting this! This was just what I needed to day. As I'm getting ready to go out this afternoon after Gibb gets home for my THIRD marathon shopping trip in the last 10 days to try and find the perfect gifts. Of course I already have enough gifts here at home for everyone and I'll be so grumpy when I get home, because a) I couldn't find everything I wanted and b) It took so long to get to every store I needed to go to. Sorry for the novel I just loved this post (and that article) and I think I might have to do a Holiday NOT to do list tonight too!! Hope you're feeling better!

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  2. Glad to see you are not only the 'smartest' women I know , but also the wisest! Remember - mothers who know....do less......consume less....I am greatful for examples of like you of 'mother's who know' - All our love the Puddicombe family xoxoxo

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