Check One More Off The List...

Paper Chain...Check.

Advent Calender...Almost There.

I just need to stitch on the squares...then add the numbers.
Better hurry...tomorrow's the first day.

SO...

I always thought advent calenders had treats.

I never had one, but is seems the ones I coveted as a child involved treats...
or at least the ones that stuck with me did. Things like little chocolates, or a small toy or ornament.

But, Chris tells me that growing up his never involved a treat. Apparently he had little windows...to what he can't recall.

What is your family's advent calender like?

Go Play...

I learned about Free Rice over Here...and promptly went over and earned 340 grains of rice. It's a pretty interesting concept...if you've never visited the site it's worth a quick look.

Or, better yet, a long visit in which you become hopelessly addicted and end up feeding a few folks.

Free Rice is a non profit company who is helping us learn a few vocab words while using the advertisers money to feed the hungry.

Essentially, you play a fun vocab game and for each correct answer you are financing the donation of 20 grains of rice.

As of yesterday they have donated 4,550,033,230 grains.
Also, yesterday, they increased the donation per correct word from 10 to 20 grains.

Pretty ingenious
(One of my vocab words. I got it right).

Stockings for Stuffing...

I've finally begun working on our Christmas Stockings...
This is not something I do every year...but we don't have a proper matching set for all four of us.

That makes this the Year of the Stockings.

Chris and I have a matching red and green velvet set that have our names embroidered on them. His parents bought them for us years ago and they've served us very well.
Problem is that since we've had the kids our names have changed to Mommy and Daddy..."who are these 'Chris and Amanda' People?! Why are we hanging their stockings? Where are the mommy and daddy stockings?" Plus...I really would like everything to coordinate to some degree.

Maybe I'll wrap the old ones up very carefully and we can use them again once the kids move out and we go back to our 'grown up' names!
(Does that ever happen?! I seem to remember my grandparents still calling each other Mom and Dad even though their kids were very much grown. Hmm.)

So...

This year we will have 4 new handmade stockings embroidered with our names.
They will all have the same blue felt background, but each of us will get a different image of our choosing. I chose an apple tree. I don't know why.

Can't wait to find out what the kid's will request.

I'll report back...

The Lucia....

In Red.
Over in the Shop right now.

Easy Like...

Sunday Morning...

It's beginning to look a lot like.....

Christmas!

Our holiday decorating always begins on Thanksgiving.

We have this great vintage aluminum tree that we just need to have up for as long as is within the limits of polite society.

It just makes me smile every time I see it.

The kids practically worship the thing.

It really glows at night...and, during the day, when most 'normal' trees are bland and boring, ours acts like a disco ball in the sunlight, throwing little sparkles all over the ceiling.

The wreath will go up next, then my snow-people collection.

I love holiday decorations.

This Pretty Much Sums It Up...

Thanksgiving jig. from savymanda on Vimeo.

Can there be too much Cute...?

I was browsing around over on Etsy this afternoon, in between stirring and chopping, and found these. I gasped. The cuteness...it is overwhelming.

The entire Fantastic Toys shop is full of small things I must have.


I have a little snowperson collection for the holidays...and I am allowed to add ONE new little friend every year.

As soon as I sell a few more hats I will be treating myself to a little Snowgirl Softie.