Making holiday lists is the same every year, and every year I wonder: Why does it take so long to accomplish the tasks so clearly enumerated? Always much longer than I anticipated.

Why? Because there is another, unwritten, list which includes all kinds of things that will suddenly seem very important. Look stuff up in “The Joy of Cooking.” Google “turkey.” Make snack. Drink coffee. Organize spice rack. Clean the refrigerator.

Remove everything that is clamped to the refrigerator door by means of various magnets. Do not allow yourself to be distracted by how old some of the magnets are or their origins. Decide what to do with old birthday and Christmas cards. Refresh refrigerator door so that it looks as if a sane, organized, yet artistic person lives here.

Google “turkey stuffing.” Answer emails. Save time by deleting extraneous email messages. Polish silver.

You will see things you hadn’t noticed before. When was the last time you washed that window over the kitchen sink? How long has that huge spider web been there?

You will be distracted by things you come across by accident as you consult the internet. “Quora: Is it OK to say ‘gingerbread man?'”

What in heaven’s name — but you can’t ponder that now. Completing the tasks on the list requires restraint and perseverance. There is just never enough time!

I may end up pushing all of the papers and health insurance notices and mail and Christmas catalogs that are now littering the top of my desk into a cardboard box and putting it in the closet, temporarily. I’m sure I won’t forget all about it.

Meanwhile, baking is an integral part of holiday prep. My sister gave me a new Kitchenaid stand mixer. And it’s red! I’ve discovered that vodka, or any other 80-proof liquor, is a remarkable secret ingredient in making a flakey pie crust. Not to drink, Julia Child style, while cooking — vodka would not be my choice — but to replace half the water in the recipe. It really works. Vodka is also good when painting with food colors on iced cookies, because it dries quickly.

I’ve also been busy with cider-making. Neither activity is going absolutely smoothly, but I hope I’m learning from my mistakes. I’ve read that the American colonists drank a lot of cider — what we would call hard cider.

Making hard cider is easy, since it basically makes itself. Cider contains wild malic yeast that is naturally present on apple skin. You can also add commercial yeast if you want, champagne yeast or brewer’s yeast, and sugar, to increase the alcohol content.

Cider fermentation is anaerobic, producing carbon dioxide gas. To avoid exploding bottles, I took the advice of Cornell Cooperative Extension and stretched balloons over the tops of my experimental cider bottles. They are nicely inflated now, and very colorful. I have no idea how long it will take for the fermentation process to be complete, or how the cider will taste. Maybe it will be ready to sample by Christmas.

An important factor: Yes, making hard cider is easy, as long as the cider contains no preservatives. Glycolipids — how did I miss this unfamiliar word on the label when I bought a gallon of cider? I tried and tried to get it to ferment so that it could join my bubbling bottles with their bobbing balloons, but no dice.

Shopping is also a major holiday component, while trying to avoid buying the wrong things and then throwing good money after bad in an attempt to correct it or, as my mother used to put it, throwing money down a rat hole.

At the liquor store:

Me: Yes, I want to buy some inexpensive vodka, just for baking.

Sales clerk: Oh right, for BAKING. There’ve been a lot of people in here BAKING this weekend.

Me: Well, vodka’s good for making flakey pie crust. And for painting with food color on iced cookies.

Sales clerk: Oh yes, for CHARITY, no doubt. A CHARITY bazaar. Good for you!

Me: Well, I may drink some of it, but …

Sales clerk: A bake sale! For your CHURCH, of course.

Me: Thank you, I’ll take this.

Sales clerk (waving good-bye from the doorway): Raise a lot of money!

Back to my list. Happy Thanksgiving!