To-Do List....the December Update

*   Pay Bills  DONE  Boringly paid on time or early and no interest charges.  Boring is good sometimes.  ;-)

*   Read 1, 2 Books  DONE  I actually read THREE Books in December.......

"Grover Cleveland-The Forgotten Conservative" by John Pafford.
The one review on Amazon dumps on the book and it's author.....I agree that the book is way short but to rag on the author because he's obviously politically conservative?  Um, who else would write a book on a conservative POTUS?....certainly not someone with extremely liberal views! lolz
Short but very informative.  Grover Cleveland is truly one of the "forgotten" presidents even with him serving 2 terms.  Forgotten nowadays because of his unwavering conservative principless in office and that US modern society thinks "conservative" anything is a dirty word.
One of the few late 19th century and 20th century POTUS who did NOT usurp the Constitution and use his office to garner power to upset the balance of justice over the other 2 branches of government.  
A man of his convictions and a lot of common sense....not something you see much in politicians nowadays.

A short read but worth taking a look at to get a sense of the man.

Then I read...........

"Mary Boleyn-The Mistress of Kings" by Alison Weir
I thought going in that this book would be a fictionalized novel drawn from the little we know of the historical person of Mary Boleyn, the sister of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn.
But no, I was pleasantly surprised that the book, written by a well known historian and author, 
deal with the facts that are known of Mary's life and then posited possible rational suppositions from there.
No great surprising outcomes/facts were reached.  The reader is given the facts and suggestions of possibilities and left to draw their own conclusions.  It was thought provoking and would make a good Book Club selection...but of course I am biased here, because Mary is my 3rd cousin through marriage.  ;-)

And lastly I read this one............

"Death Come To Pemberley" by P. D. James

Not being a big Jane Austen fan I wasn't greatly invested in this read but it was enjoyable.  James is a well-known crime/mystery writer in the UK and abroad.  She used Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" as the jumping off point for this book.  It will help your enjoyment of this novel if you have read/are familiar with the P&P world/characters and the Jane Austen style.
I think P.D. James nailed the Austenesque style but with staying true to her own voice.
This book was made into a PBS show a couple of years back too.


*  Make Xmas Card List  DONE but a little FAIL too
I made my list but realized after mailing out my Xmas cards that I neglected to include a few folks.   Sorry about that! eek  I will be writing letters to them in January instead.

*  Write and Mail Xmas Cards  DONE but a little FAIL too
Ditto what I said above.

*  Get Out Xmas Dishes  DONE
Got them out, washed them up and used them for a few meals at Christmas.

*  Put up Xmas Tree  DONE
Got it up but the decorating took waaaaay too long since the kids didn't help. grrrr

*  Decorate other than Tree  DONE
I ran out of energy on this and we only also got the banister garland-ed(not a word), 3 of my Santas put out, the Xmas runner and the Crystal reindeer and sleigh put on the buffet and my Bavarian Whirligig set up.

*  Hold Giveaway  DONE

*  Mail Giveaway  DONE

The winner received it in a timely manner even though it went out right before Christmas. ;-)

*  Sew 1 Project  DONE

I actually got an unfinished sewing project completed in 2018!!!  I know it's shocking. lolz
I put myself under a deadline for it so it got done....otherwise it would probably still be sitting up on my machine table.
I had these jams for my brother to finish.  I told him about them, took them to VA in October so he could try them on and I could mark them to hem and put the elastic in the waist and gave myself a Xmas deadline so he could unwrap them for the Holidays.

Hubs is holding them up for the photo.

I even put this Vogue Menswear tag in them....I got those years ago when I bought a Vogue Menswear pattern or two.  After my brother opened them he was confused because he didn't remember trying them on in October when we were down in VA and he thought I had "bought" them for him since it has a Vogue label in them.  Hehehe  Maybe my sewing skills are so good the jams appeared to be factory sweatshop produced? lolz

*  Clean the House for Company  FAIL  Well a little cleaning got done(bathrooms mostly and some dusting)but I hurt my leg right before Xmas and Hubs made me try to stay off it and nobody else here did much of any cleaning in my absence.  sigh  The house was clean enough I suppose.

*  Purge Inserts  DONE  Got the old inserts purged and purged my clipped coupons out of my coupon case(aka pencil case).  Only about 6 inserts left in the stack.

*  Go Through Xmas Gift Box  DONE  Got if gone through and all the gifts in there wrapped or put into the stockings.

*  Finish Shopping  DONE  I really didn't have much to buy coming into December(I'm a shop ahead person for the Holidays.)  There was no pressure to hit the stores for another.  Hubs always waits until the last possible minute to give me his list and then it's scramble time to get something he wants...drives me crazy.  I usually do that shopping online so I don't have to face the crowds in the stores.  Hubs and I did shop a little store browsing/shopping at our leisure.  No pressure, just the way I like it.

*  Wrap Presents  DONE  Everything got wrapped/bagged.

*  Mail a few Xmas Gifts  DONE  Only had a few items to mail out and I got them all out in the post in time to be received before Xmas.

*  Plan Winter Holiday  PARTIALLY DONE  Well I did some thinking and planning on this but Hubs has been dragging his feet with imput or ideas.  Nothing is booked yet so still up in the air.
Sonya is not ready for a visit yet so the SW is out so we have less ambitious ideas for where to go/what to do.  I really do want to go somewhere out of the snowbelt in February so I'll continue to work on this in January.


So that's it for what got done in December.  Nothing very ambitious and mostly having to do with Christmas time.

I hope y'all got everything you needed to do done last month!
I'll be back in the coming days with my Yearly 2018 Goals and how all that turned out too.

Sluggy

To-Do List.....December Update

Let's take a look at how I did crossing off the To-Do List in December.

Have Car Tuned Up  PASS!  Got it done the first week in December.  Everything on the car was AOK. 8-)

Clean out Basement  PASS!  We got decomposing cardboard boxes cleaned out and old junk that needed throwing away tossed.  We also removed old wooden pallets that were down there when we moved in and Hubs cleaned up some mold on the floor/walls.
Now I just need to decide what to do with all my ceramic molds down there and all my bisqueware still unpainted from when I had my ceramic studio.

Pick up College Boy  PASS!  Got him early December.  The weather was good so no worries getting this done safely.

Put up Xmas Lights(outside)  PASS!  Hubs got it all up while the weather was unseasonably warm.

Put up Xmas Tree & Decorate  PASS!  Tree went up and we slowly decorated it and the house(what little I do)after College Boy came home.

Mail Daughter's Bday Gift  PASS!  Mailed and received well before the birthday.

Write Xmas Cards  PASS! Done in plenty of time to.....

Mail Xmas Cards  PASS!  Mailed out and they all arrived as far as I know well before Dec. 25th.

Finish Xmas Shopping  PASS!  Except for Hubs it was all done long ago.  He waits until the last minute to give me his wishlist but it was all stuff I could run out locally and get without going to a big box store or the mall so it's all good.  8-)

Wrap Xmas Presents  PASS!  Done well ahead of Dec. 25th.

Mail out Xmas Presents  PASS!  Only a couple of things needed to be mailed and went out 2 weeks before Xmas.  Daughter's Xmas presents were mailed earlier in the month when I sent her birthday presents.....about the only advantage of having a Dec. birthday is combined shipping costs. lolz

Have a December Giveaway  PASS!  Yep.

Pick a Giveaway Winner  PASS!  Yep again.

Mail out Giveaway Box  PASS!  Mailed out the day after winner contacted me and received well before the end of December.

Bike 45 Miles  PASS!  Even with being away for a week at the end of December I got in a few miles past my goal........

Pay Bills  PASS!  All paid and on time as per usual.....

Gather Salvation Army Donations #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6  PASS!  I was on a roll in December and made 6 trips with no longer needed items to charity.

A sampling of what left the house in December...........

Take in Salvation Army Donations #1-#6  PASS!  6 Loads gathered AND taken up within a day or two of getting the loads gathered.
Even with this flurry of donations we might not have enough deductions to itemize this year on our tax return, when added to our cash donations and taxes paid, etc.  Oh well....that's not the main reason to donate but it would be nice to see a financial benefit too.

Take Xmas Trip  PASS!  It was a quick trip to see family in Virginia.  A bit of a ride but worth it and the weather cooperated until the last hour driving home.

                          Hubs snuck a photo of me stirring fudge.

Bake Xmas Goodies  PASS!  I don't usually bake many Xmas goodies but I do make a few....mostly pies and a couple of kinds of cookies and my bourbon fudge.
This year since we were going to be leaving 2 days after Xmas and I wasn't about to drag pies, cookies and fudge along for the ride, I only made 1 type of cookie and that was mostly for College Boy as it's his favorite cookie.  I did also make the fudge for gift giving but I bought desserts for Xmas dinner instead of making pies.  There were modest amounts of treats and I think I struck the proper balance on that this Season.

Inventory Stockpile  FAIL!  Yep, 1 big old red fail this month.  There was a lot of food/toiletries/HBA/paper goods coming in this month but with all the other demands on my time I barely got things put away let alone inventoried.  Oh well......this gives me something to do in January, right?  Not like I have much on my plate this month--just TAXES and FAFSA and all that entails.  yuck.  8-(

So we got through December with practically everything on my list taken care of.
Now THAT'S the way I like to end the year!  8-)))

Off I go to write up the January To-Do List.....ok, maybe that can wait until tomorrow since I have some shopping to do today.

How did you do with your To-Do List for December?

Sluggy