My holiday to-do list

I have invitations to three holiday events this weekend. Each invite says something to the effect of, "Come, relax and unwind with friends before the holiday rush sets in".

Before? Seems to me we're already in the thick of the holiday rush. Fortunately I've already got all the presents for the kids and family sorted, but even with that out of the way, I still have a long list of things to do. In a perfect world, I'd get all of the following done:

* Decorate the house for the holidays.
* Sign, address and mail holiday cards.
* Help 3Po and Jammy rehearse their roster of songs (17) for their kindergarten holiday concert
* Watch and cheer 3Po and Jammy when they perform in said concert.
* Watch and cheer The Pea when she performs in the Nutcracker.
* Watch and cheer The Pea and Jammy when they perform in their Nightmare before Christmas skating show.
* Bake treats for 3 class parties, 2 cookie exchanges and 1 skating party.
* Attend all 6 holiday parties above.
* And a couple more that sound like a lot of fun.
* Drive around with the family looking at all the holiday lights.
* Have breakfast with Santa and pose for a photo or two.
* Buy presents for the kids' teachers, teachers aides, cleaners, gardener.
* Gather canned goods, toiletries and linens to donate to various food closets and shelters.
* Buy toys (or raid my gift closet) for toys to donate to Toys For Tots, the Giving Tree, and other various holiday charities.
* Take the kids to the Family Giving Tree warehouse to sort and wrap toys that will be giving to needy kids this holiday season.
* Collect medical receipts to submit to our prepaid medical expenses plan.
* Return all library books.
* Host a holiday giftguide and giveaway extravaganza on Bonggamom Finds, complete with cute little widget that people can post on their sites.
* Keep up with all my blogging commitments.
* Write some posts for SV Moms and Savvy Source to tide me over the holidays, when internet access will be sketchy at best.
* Lose 5 pounds.
* Do boring stuff like get the car washed, clean the bathrooms, vacuum the floors and other housework.
* Pack suitcases.
* Do laundry so we'll have something to pack into the suitcases.


I'm sure there a couple of other things I've left out that will come out of the woodwork to bite me (Mama! You were supposed to help my class with our toilet paper wreaths today!) And I have to accomplish all that in the next fourteen days, before we leave for the Philippines.

Maybe Santa can lend me a couple of elves to help out with the laundry. Come to think of it, I don't actually need to do the laundry. I'm not above packing dirty clothes into our suitcases and laundering them when we get to Manila.

And I think we're going to skip the house decorating this year. And a couple of other items on that list. Or maybe I should try to get everything done; I might just lose those 5 pounds, along with my mind.