Dec 2nd? Must Be Time To Cook The Xmas Dinner

I was awake until 2 am last night and then up to the pups at 6. My brain just wouldn't shut down enough for me to drop off to sleep. I kept going over all the things I still had to do for Xmas, the food I had to buy, who I would be cooking for, what I would feed my vegetarian daughter-in-law (should be easy as I catered for my veggie daughter for years, but I'm not so sure what DIL likes), what order I would cook everything in, the pressies I still have to buy, when to write and send cards, wrapping the pressies I still haven't bought yet...and so on, and so on. I even crept out of bed and in to the bathroom with a pen and paper to make notes since I didn't want to come downstairs and chance disturbing the pups who've been mostly sleeping through the night. 

I get like this every year in the last couple of weeks before Xmas, my brain gets all muddled between normal routine and Xmas, trying to still shop for everyday stuff but making sure I get everything I need for the holiday. Not knowing exactly how many I'll be catering for this year doesn't help, and who we'll be seeing the week before Xmas so that their pressies need to be ready a week early. It's also DH's birthday next Weds and on the 17th most of us are getting together for a big take away when DD2 and hubby visit. Having 2 puppies of course adds to the fun (?) with vets appointments for both them and the cats to fit in and a dentist appointment for me. 

In light of my manic desire to be as prepared as possible, I started cooking my Xmas dinner today. In between cleaning out the cats litter trays, washing the pups blankets, taking the pups outside for pees and poos and cleaning up the ones that didn't make it into the yard, vaccuming throughout, making macaroni cheese for dinner, doing more laundry, scrubbing out the oven and cooker top etc. etc., I have cooked both the sausagemeat and the vegetarian stuffings in loaf tins, the chipolatas wrapped in bacon, the Quorn sausages, and the Quorn roast that I will split in half lengthwise, sandwich back together with vege stuffing, refreeze and then on the day it will be wrapped in puff pastry and recooked. All went in the oven at the same  time as the mac and cheese to save on fuel. Everything will be returned to the freezer now its been cooked and then I will just need to defrost and reheat it on the day when I cook the turkey breast roasts and the rolled, stuffed pork along with the accompaniments. 

I've also had an Iceland and a Tesco delivery, and I've spent time online ordering the last few pressies. I have nearly everything now and although I can't exactly relax at least I know I'm mostly prepared.  Actually, I've probably overdone it with the food as usual and even if everyone turns up there should be more than enough to eat; if nobody extra turns up we'll be eating Xmas food for a month after the holiday. 

I know it's silly for me to get so uptight about everything, especially as my family won't really notice or mind if everything doesn't go to plan, but I do get kind of panicky if I don't feel I've got all under control. I try to have a 'so what' attitude if all isn't as it should be, but it doesn't really work for me.

So, how are the Xmas preparations going with you? Anyone else started their dinner preparations yet?