advent day 1

I finally tried to finish up the small amount of Christmas decorating I wanted to do this year. I had to clean first, so that put a damper on the whole project. To save myself some heartache in January, I'm only doing some.

 I got these elves from my grandma's house. I also have her latchhook Christmas tree skirt.

 She made us these Santa pillows. She also made us (my sister, two cousins, and me) ornaments every year. I have some pictures of those to share but they are currently trapped on my phone.

  My son made this a few years ago, maybe when he was in first grade?

I also changed out the books in this bin with our Christmas books. My daughter parked herself there most of the morning after I put these in.

Another Santa with one of his squirrel buddies.

I am doing a Kindness Advent this year, after I saw the idea on Pitter Patter Art. She did a similar thing for her birthday and got me thinking about it enough in advance to make it happen.
I use these tags on my desk to remind me what to do:

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Today's tag was "Thank you cards for the piano teachers," which I handed out at Isaac's recital today.

This is when I discovered the zoom also broke when I dropped the camera. And to those family members who see this and are surprised and maybe sad to miss it--there will be another one in the spring and I will invite you. And an emailed video is on the way soon.

I also worked a bit on the gift quilt and Christmas quilt (our football game was a little slow until the end). I also found a bunch of pieces leftover from the quilt in March, enough to make a doll quilt. Not sure if I will save that for a little girl I know that has a few dolls, or sell it. It's not pink, so it may not be up to her standards.

Up for tomorrow: church, a cookie and craft party, Christmas tree lighting and chili cookoff, and a cookie drop-off to our college student neighbors (Kindness Advent item #2). Lots of c's. And looks like I will be ready for lots of z's afterwards.