List season

This time of year – leading up to Christmas – sees me wallowing in lists. There are so many of them to be made.

• A present list – very important. Usually there are two lists – one with presents for G and the children on it, which I keep very secret, and one with presents for other family and friends on it which I leave lying around and then worry about losing.
• A menu plan – even more fun than the present list. This one I can happily start in October and keep amending until Christmas Eve. It involves me spending happy evenings curled up on the sofa with a pile of recipe books beside me and a helpful glass of wine by my side.
• Out of the menu plan will come a shopping list and an order list. I’ll order as much of my Christmas food as possible from the local butcher, Abel & Cole, or other fancy places rather than slog round the supermarket.
• There will also be a list of school things to do – costumes to be made, altered or borrowed for Christmas shows; presents to be made for teachers; cakes to be baked for random fundraising events and cards to be written to best friends.
• I will enjoy drawing up a things to do over the holidays list with G and the children. My first contribution to this list will be a request to go skating somewhere in London.
  
  Bring it all on! With all these lists (I haven’t quite sunk as low as creating a Christmas List of Lists – but I admit it has crossed my mind….) I am loving the seasonal stresses.