The first weekend of 2013 will hopefully include a variety of tasks, such as:

• Finish mailing out my Christmas cards
• Mail out the Christmas packages (this will only be possible if one of the post offices is open on Sundays still — Tenleytown’s automatic lobby machine is a possibility)
• Return library books to Virginia (hopefully to D.C., too, but that may be Monday’s task)
• Do laundry
• Wash socks
• Go to the farmers market
• Complete a sock
• Assemble a cabinet
• Vacuum
• Take a walk
• Stop in at the local museum/gallery’s Three Kings Day party
• Write thank you notes
• Review some books
• Hang out with Julia
• Drink eggnog in front of the tree while watching a Christmas movie

How about you? What do you have planned this weekend?

Here in Connecticut, as in many parts of the U.S. recently, we’re in the midst of a winter storm. It’s my first of the season.

Nearly half a foot of snow fell earlier this evening, leaving a white blanket across my parents’ yard and an icing of white on the pines out back. It was beautiful to observe out the kitchen window, particular with the glow of Christmas lights on various shrubs and trees in the yard peeping out from beneath the white coverlet.

Not long after midnight, the snow stopped, but the wind picked up, blowing over my parents’ ridge like a train (or a hurricane). The sound is surprisingly ceaseless, like a jet doing constant loops over the house. Although periodically I can hear the gusts roar down the bank and break against the house, most of the winds must be high up. Between gusts, the trees are not waving the way I’d expected them to be given the noise.

I hope we keep power, but if there’s no three beautiful things post later today, you’ll know why.

Merry Christmas! (And expansive wishes for a wonderful day and year to all, regardless of your personal holiday affiliations and preferences!)

• Attend Sarah’s party (already in progress)
• Shop on Capitol Hill (en route to said party)
• Finish two books
• Narrow my Cybils shortlist (painful!)
• Phone home
• Write half our Christmas cards (with Rudi’s assistance)
• Listen to a Christmas cd (possibly while writing cards)
• Get enough sleep so I don’t doze off during jury duty tomorrow

Already done:

• Laundry
• Purchase and put away the farmers market bounty
• Eat breakfast (Yes, at 1:30. Call it a snack if it makes you feel better)

I haven’t emptied the cat boxes.
I haven’t taken out the trash.
I haven’t put away the laundry.
I haven’t washed the dishes.
I haven’t downloaded the Christmas music.
I haven’t figured out if we can upload the audio book from the library to Rudi’s iPhone.
I haven’t finalized which books I’m taking with me.
I haven’t packed.
I haven’t written any book reviews.
I haven’t put together our Christmas party invitation.
I haven’t finished a book today.
I haven’t tidied the living room.
I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in ages.

Another weekend, another to-do list:

• Tackle four Cybils nominees this weekend: The Storyteller, Catch & Release, Purity, and You’re So Sweet
• Dig up my potato and sweet potato patches and see if I grew anything besides greens in them
• Get outside on Saturday, when it’s supposed to be sunny
• Write reviews for all at least half the Cybils books I’ve finished reading
• Take the completed D.C. books back to the library
• Do a little shopping
• Finish my Christmas socks
• Pack the book bag I’ll be taking to Connecticut
• Download the Cybils nominee that my library only had on audio.
• Send out our Christmas party invitation
• Clean the area between the living room and bedroom
• Go to Goodwill

There are some other things I’d like to do, too. But they’re repeat offenders and I’m tired of writing down that I haven’t done them yet.