Clump #75:  Make up Christmas list, check gifts on hand, and send out plea for gift ideas.

When our kids were very young and still under the magic spell of Santa Claus, I was trying to give them a sense of how lucky they were, explaining that there were many disadvantaged children in the world who didn’t get any Christmas presents.  Our son looked at me with an incredulous expression and asked, “Why don’t they just write a list?”  So easy … so obvious … so difficult to counter.

This is day two of my 30-day, 30-clump, 30-post Project Enjoy Christmas challenge.  Normally on a day like today, I would give myself a pass from blogging.  It’s Family Weekend at my younger daughter’s college and I could argue that I don’t have time.

But the force of this challenge filled me with new resolve, and I actually accomplished a meaningful clump.  I made up a list of all my usual gift recipients; checked gifts already bought; wrote them down on the list; and sent an email to my sisters, husband, and kids to please send me any of their gift ideas before the end of November.

The photo below is not pretty, but it fills me with great joy!  It’s my list with a few presents I had stashed away.

Usually (as silly as it sounds), I tend to put off this step so long that I’m avoiding it because I know I will have to confront the fact that my time and options have become limited.  Does that make any sense at all? Probably not to the normal person.

I’m counting the warm temperature, blue sky, and fall color of today on my gratitude list.