Chasing Time

It feels like lately I am chasing time. I get ideas for things I would like to do for Christmas or in other areas of my life and, when I finally remember or get a moment to do them, time has slipped away and it is too late or other issues have arisen that weren’t there when the idea first popped in my head.

For instance, I had grand ideas of things I wanted to do for people for Christmas.  Presents I was going to make.  After all, I know how to knit, I can bake, I do pottery, etc.  Last summer I had the grand notion that this year, all my Christmas presents would be homemade, made from the heart and made especially for the recipient.  This was a great idea when it was the middle of summer and I had months before Christmas.

Now here it is…ten days before Christmas and time has slipped away.  I have had to abandon my ideas of all homemade gifts and am trying to think of presents to buy for people.  Presents that will mean something and have purpose behind them.

I not only have the problem of what to buy but also when to buy.  In between dinners, parties, traveling, church and other events, I have to find the time to go to the store.  I don’t have all the time in the world to be going from store to store in search of what I have in my head as the perfect present so I need to know, before I leave the house, precisely which store to go to that will have the best chance of having the item I need.

I did manage to make a few gifts.  I made something for my sister so that is one less present to buy.  I even managed to find a nice birthday present for her since her birthday is January 5^th and I like to give her a present while I am visiting with her over Christmas.

Then there are all the Christmas cookies I made last weekend, which will be presents for a number of people.  I just need to mail and/or deliver those presents sometime in the next few days.

Is it too early to start planning for next year’s Christmas?  If I start planning now, will the holidays not creep up on me and I won’t end up chasing time at the end of the year?

I don’t think it is so here is my goal, in writing, for the entire world to see:

I am going to make a present for each person on my gift-giving list next year. I have a whole year to do it and, with organizing and planning, I will have something personal and meaningful for each and every person.

Feel free to remind me of this pledge when I am sitting in my brother’s boat next August and I haven’t even started making one thing.  Because at that point, I will realize that the year is well over half gone and I am once again chasing time.