The thumbs, they are a-twiddling.

Here I am, a full two days before Christmas Eve, and ALL my tasks have been completed. The presents are even wrapped and under the tree. Okay, fine - maybe I didn't finish that last project, but the hand print tree is not necessarily for Christmas...I can put it off until January. Along with our New Year's card and letter - I don't even attempt to get those out until after the year begins.

A few friends have expressed wonder and even disgust with me, that I can actually say I'm finished. Believe me, I'm just as shocked. This rarely happens. Usually this time of year I'm in the Christmas Crunch, staying up until midnight finishing things up. Here's how I managed to do it this time:

1) Start early. Thanks to staying at home for Thanksgiving, I had a majority of the house decorating done before December even started.

2)Make a plan. I made that holiday schedule and stuck to it pretty closely. Even if I didn't really feel up to it.

3) Get off your (my) rear. Even *gasp* get off Facebook once in awhile. I know. But desperate times call for desperate actions.

4) Figure out what the roadblocks are, and then eliminate them. My craft room is wonderful, and I love the space, but the sewing machine being down there, with all the sewing that I'd have to do...it wasn't going to happen. So I moved it upstairs, onto the counter overlooking the living room. Ahhh. So much better.

5) Know what to let go. Like that hand print tree, and the Christmas cards.

And here's the end product:

1) cookies - 5 types done. One afternoon each, baking about twice a week. Frosting them with Mom and sister Ruth and kids this week.

2) Ben's gift, an ABC album - Started and pretty much finished it in one night! Ahead of schedule on that one!

3) Leah's gift, a tutu/crown/wand and maybe slipper set (that's at least 2 evenings) - I cut the tulle at Ben's gymnastics class, and then put it together one night, along with assembling the crown, which I prepped another evening. Skipped the slippers for now.

4) sew a stocking for Adam - This one is the shocker. I did it all in one night. Well, one night after I had to re-cut out the whole thing. The first time I ended up cutting it out so that it would either face the wrong direction or have the wrong side out. Anyway - the baby has a stocking that won't throw him into therapy down the line.

5) sew some baby booties for gifts (of which I have made NONE - we'll see how that goes) - It went pretty well! After I figured out that the pattern didn't include the seam allowance, so instead of the first pair being for Adam, they are for the next baby boy to be born to a friend or family.

6) Made an anniversary album for Aaron. Oh yeah! Couldn't put that one on there earlier, but we celebrated our 10th anniversary this past weekend, and I made a special little scrapbook for him. Thankfully he worked the weekend before. That and one morning while Leah was at school was all it took. I LOVE scrapbooking kits.

So there you have it. Now you can all hate me if you want, but I am sitting on the couch on December 21st enjoying some television and Internet. I'm even taking on some extra projects, like baking some Cranberry Orange bread for Aaron's work folks.

What did you get accomplished that you didn't expect? Let's not be too demanding of ourselves, here - shoveling the sidewalk or changing the bedsheets totally counts.