December gets super busy for most folks I know. Several of us are coming down off of NaNoWriMo and attending to tasks we’d let slide during November (like paying bills, or bathing). Some are gearing up for the heavy gifting season (whether that be Christmas, Hanukkah, or other holiday of choice). Others are just waiting to see what the Christmas special has in store for us.

But what the upcoming holiday season means to me—aside from a couple of weeks during which I lose those eight hours a day when I don’t have to keep track of my kids—is a prime opportunity to catch up on my Whoniversal pastimes. Life kind of hit me upside the head this year, and I’m feeling really behind on almost everything (for someone who used to get all her Christmas shopping done by the end of August, that’s an unsettling place to be). I mean, I didn’t even get my plane ticket for Gallifrey One (affectionately known as “Gally”; coming up in February) until just this past Monday!

So although I find myself alternating between the flappy hands of glee at the prospect of more Capaldi on Christmas and the eyerolls of cynicism when I remember he’ll be accompanied by Kris Kringle himself, there’s no waffling when it comes to my anticipation of the pending break. Not only do I have plans for concocting our family’s “usual suspects” list of holiday goodies, but there’s so much Who-related stuff for me to do, I’m practically dreaming in TARDIS blue.

To begin, there are a bunch of audio adventures calling my name. Getting to sit down with some new (to me) Big Finish audios will be quite a treat. It doesn’t hurt that if I do it right, I’ll have a backlog of reviews to post here when I’m done. Since spoiler-free reviewing is a skill I clearly need to improve, a little craft-building mental exercise would be a useful way to prevent complete atrophy of my brain while I consume far too many of the aforementioned holiday goodies.

Then there are the extras for the next edition of the blog book. Yes, I really fell down on the job for the 2013 edition, but I have cover art now (yay!), so the plan is to release it along with the 2014 edition in January or February 2015. I’ll be working on some special material for the latest edition that will only be available in the book (never on the blog), and though I have a general plan, nothing is set in stone. So if there’s anything you’d like to see me add, please let me know in the comments!

Perhaps more fun than any of the rest, though, is preparing for Gally. Every year so far I’ve brought two or three different badge ribbons to give out, and it’s great fun. I’m still sifting through ideas (oh, the TARDIS-y sugarplums!) to decide which ones are going to work best, but since those have to get printed ahead of time and then mailed to me, that’s first on the priority list.

And then there’s the cosplay.

When it comes to cosplay, I’m definitely on the novice end of the spectrum, but thanks to the Awesome Crafty Husband, I can create costumes that come a helluva lot closer to my vision than if I had to do them on my own. This is excellent news for me, since I bit off quite a lot this year.

As in the past, a bunch of my friends and I have decided on a theme for a group cosplay. Each person takes the basic idea and runs with it. Two years ago (2013), we had the TARDISpod, where each of us created a unique TARDIS costume—some based on a specific decade, and others a looser interpretation. Last year (2014) it was the Tin Litter of K-9s.

This year, we’ve got the League of Doctors. It started as a batch of superhero/Doctor mashups, but various folks have since taken their plans in a supervillain and/or Companion direction. We should have quite the diverse cast of characters (and to be clear, although the name is an homage to DC Comics’s Justice League (or possibly the League of Assassins), it’s always been open to characters from any universe). If you’re wondering what direction I’m going, I’ve got two words for you: sonic Mjolnir.

Guess I’ll keep dreaming in blue.