Got List?

Do you make lists? I may have mentioned a time or two that I make lists. I make lists on my posts. I can get organized and focus when I have lots to do as long as I have my trusty list.

This time of year I have lists and lists and lists. I have a baking list. A Christmas gift list. A shopping list. A list for near home and a list for far from home places to shop. Doesn't everyone have a grocery list? I have a board in my kitchen where we can mark down stuff for Target/WalMart, Vons, or Costco. Yes, it takes three different stores to supply the GG household.

Of course I always have a running TBB list of books I'm looking for. It's separated into 'new or current releases' and UBS books.

Now with the holidays I go into full list mode. I have a form. Yes, an actual form. It's two sided and has four days on one side and four days on the other. I fold the 81/2 by 11 sheet of paper into fourths. I can list chores, shopping, etc. all by day so I can see the week. This way I can make decisions about time or rearrange stuff. It makes it so much easier for things that need to be done during the holidays. By dividing stuff up I can organize so I can do all the things that are important to me.

Recently there was an email sent out about Christmas cards requesting anyone who wanted to participate to put their mailing address in an email loop and the participants would exchange Christmas cards. I've been doing Christmas cards every year without missing for... Give me a sec, I'm calculating... 30 years. Yes, I know, that's longer than some of you have been alive. Which let me just say right now is a little freaky for me to realize. Anyway, I'm pretty sure my first year was 1978. I could get up and check my files, but then I'd be late for work. So you get my guess instead. Whew! You realize that this means I've been sending out cards for 30 years straight. Day-um!

Of course I don't stop there. I've also kept one card and the letter, if there was one, from each year. These have turned out to be valuable tools for dating stuff and events because when the kids want to know when something happened, like say a vacation, I've usually noted it in our family Christmas letter. So they've turned out to be like a mini-archive of lives.

How I got so off track from lists I'll never know. Anyway, my point is I'm in full list making mode. Thanksgiving marks the start. I'm doing some shopping, list making, celebrating my anniversary and Christmas decorating this weekend. What's on your list this weekend? What are all of you doing over the Thanksgiving holidays?