Planning for the shopping for the baking.

The shopping list I composed last night when I was too elated from having finished grading to sleep:

And this is the actual haul:

And here is the first step in the dance we'll call "The Christmas Baking Rhumba":

The baking/candymaking plan (this is the plan of an optimist/overachieving baker who is high on finishing her grading):

1. caramels.
2. brittle: pecan, almond, and pumpkin seed
3. date pinwheels
4. sugar cookies
5. probably those little treasure cookies with a cherry or a gumdrop inside, because I heart them
6. almond bread
7. butterscotch crescent rolls (the dough starts with cooked butterscotch pudding and gets richer from there)
8. fruitcake!
9. two new things: cardamom-and-cinnamon infused honey, and boiled cider syrup, which sound exotic and time-consuming and perfect.
10. probably some other European-style baked goods from a Martha Stewart Living magazine that is sitting around, waiting to be baked from.

Too much?   I am not now, nor have I ever been, a minimalist. And I will be baking, candy-making, honey-infusing, and cider-reducing my head off until Christmas, and possibly beyond.