The joys of being a knitter at Christmas!

Today while I was out running a few errands I realized that Christmas is only 26 days away. I know you might be thinking well of course it is, today is last day of Nov. But it really hit me! Holy smokes do I have a lot of knitting to do and fast! All I can say is the stores and radio stations have really desensitized me to the whole holiday season. This summer I saw Halloween and Thanksgiving stuff displayed. The day after Halloween a local radio station started playing Christmas music every weekend. So now I am frantically trying to see what I can get done and what will be put on the back burner. I can't believe I have wait until now to think about all of this. Last year I was finished in Aug! My list of almost FO is pretty slim! I have to re knot my sister's no sew fleece blanket. I gave one to my SIL for her birthday and she loves it but all the knots were coming undone. I have to seam my bro and sil 's dog sweater. I have about another 2-3 ft on my other bro's scarf. If I ever finish it, it will be a miracle! It is such a boring knit! I haven't even thought about what I am giving Mom, bro and Sil. I decided I would put off the tree skirt until next year so I can actually spend time making it the best it can be! Somehow I don't think it is fair to only knit something for their dog! Mom is hard this year since she is losing weight. I really was hoping to knit her a sweater but she keeps shrinking so I have no idea what size to make. I might give her a swatch of the yarn I want to to use, a picture of the pattern and a lovely card saying it will be knit when she is at her goal. In fact that is exactly what I am going to do! Of course I will get her other gifts but I think this is a good compromise!
I was so tempted today to just get gift certificates for everyone but somehow I just can't quite bring myself to do it. We've always been really big on Christmas gift and everyone really appreciates when I knit them something. It just wouldn't feel right to hand out cards to Barnes and Noble or Dicks.
I hope all of you are farther along in your gift knitting than I am. I'll post pictures one I have actual FOs.