I swore this wasn't going to happen this year

Over the summer when it became evident that the whole defense thing was going to be happening around the holidays, I decided that I wasn't going to knit any Christmas presents this year. Then I remembered that I'd already started one because some of the gifted yarn from last Christmas had inspired me, and I'd already requested that the extended family Secret Santa drawing be rigged so that I would get the person who would most appreciate the thing I was knitting. So I supposed that I'd have to finish that one, but it was only July, and it was half done, so surely I'd make it.

And then I made a mistake, got frustrated and put it down until the day after Thanksgiving. I considered paying a friend to finish it for me. She totally could have done it. Possibly better than me despite having learned to knit from me. But she has her own Christmas list to knit for, so I bravely picked it back up, thinking that worst case scenario, I'd send the recipient an IOU with a picture of the work in progress. She's a knitter. She'd understand that alpaca and silk lace can not be rushed and is worth the wait. So I ripped back to the last known point of correct knitting and started again. For a while there it looked doomed. I realized that when I said I was "half done," I actually meant that I'd done half of the rows, but since the rows grow exponentially in length from beginning to end, it was more like a quarter of the area of the thing. And then out of nowhere it was done (pictured above blocking on the bed... will unpin, package, and mail this week). And and that's when I started sliding down the very slippery slope, so here's this year's list:

Finished gifts:
- Alpaca/silk lace shawl for aunt
- Beaded bracelet for girlfriend of brother #2 (This is a relatively new girlfriend, and I haven't met her, but she seems to have been adopted into the family. Since I'm making something for girlfriend of brother #1, I figured I better make something happen. I found a 90% complete bracelet in my stash that happened to be her favorite color. Finished it off last night and am calling it good.)

Still to make:
- Slippers for brother #1... easy enough, just waiting for the yarn to arrive.
- Beaded necklace for girlfriend of brother #1... it's about 40% done, and I'm not sure I like it. It might be scrapped.
- ??? for three-year-old offspring of girlfriend of brother #2... any suggestions?
- Finish scarf that was gifted to mom last year, but never quite finished. This one might wait until after Christmas since I'm fairly confident that a book that would help this process considerably will be under the tree with my name on it. But this absolutely must be in mom's hands by New Years.