This is the time of year that I go nowhere without a list. Actually, it's a small notebook dedicated solely to keeping me from losing my mind. It has a list of the gifts I want to get people for Christmas, the ones I have already purchased, and the ones I may need to have on hand for that "surprise gift" (you know: the one where someone gives you something and you weren't expecting them to, so you say how sweet it was and that they shouldn't have, because really you are wishing they hadn't because now you don't have anything for them and you feel like a total slug! When, in reality, if you had only known they were going to get you something, you would have certainly gotten them something and it would have been amazing. A-MA-ZING! The perfect gift. But now you are stuck with giving them something that seemed great at the time.

Who doesn't need a cutting board/grocery list/pen combination shrink wrapped with a pre-tied holiday bow? NO ONE! Scratch that off the list. Right now. No one needs that.

I also plan my holiday meals, my goodies, my wrapping paper and gift bag needs. If it comes from Target or Walmart, it is in this notebook. Decorations. Shirt sizes. Christmas tree doodles. (I doodle in line- do not judge)

That's the kind of stuff I keep in my notebook. Except I can't find it. It's here. I know I saw it just before Thanksgiving. I had it when I actually started my Christmas shopping early (which I am sure is somehow related to this problem and I haven't seen the last of the repercussions).

It is a small, spiral notebook and it has a blue cover. Or is it black? Either way, I thought it was great because it had the word "notebook" right on the front. (Like someone would mistake it for say, a shoe.) Maybe it should be neon orange and have blinking lights spelling out HERE I AM!

It'll turn up. In January.

In the mean time, I can be thankful that my name is on another list, in another book, and this one will never get lost, it cannot be erased, and it will allow me to bask in the glory of the greatest Gift of all:  Eternity in the presence of the King.

Oh, by the way, I found my notebook. It was in a bag of the gifts purchased in early November. See? I knew I started shopping too early!