Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl is a seasonal freebie, so I’ve decided to plumb my Goodreads to-read list and give you ten holiday titles that appear on my list. (In case you were wondering, I have more than 60 books that fall into that category I’ve yet to read.)

1. Mr. Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva
2. Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan
3. Don’t Call Me Christina Kringle by Chris Grabenstein
4. The Santa Claus Man: The Rise and Fall of a Jazz Age Con Man and the Invention of Christmas in New York by Alex Palmer
5. The Great Christmas Knit Off by Alexandra Brown
6. On Strike for Christmas by Sheila Roberts
7. A Killer’s Christmas in Wales by Elizabeth J. Duncan
8. Sing We Now of Christmas, compiled by Michael Young
9. A Stubborn Sweetness and Other Stories for the Christmas Season by Katherine Paterson
10. An Idiot Girl’s Christmas: True Tales from the Top of the Naughty List by Laurie Notaro

How about you? Are there seasonal titles you’re hoping to read?

If you’re stopping by from the Top Ten Tuesday list, please make sure you check out our Virtual Advent Tour!

Welcome back! St. Nicholas did, in fact, visit me overnight, leaving bags of M&M’s in the shoes outside my apartment door. I was so surprised!

I have a tree, but it’s still trussed up in the hallway, since I discovered I had to tackle a few extra tasks before I could bring it into the apartment. By now those should be done, and I’ll bring the tree in before I start work. Nothing like a little exercise to start the workweek!

Today, we’re wrapping up (with a festive bow, of course) week 1 of the Virtual Advent Tour with a post from Kat at As Kat Knits. Head over to find out what surprises it holds!

See you tomorrow!

Happy St. Nicholas Day and the second Sunday in Advent! I hope you awakened to find your shoes overflowing with treats and that you weren’t stolen off in the night by Krampus!

Behind door 6 of our Virtual Advent Tour is a post from raidergirl3 at an adventure in reading, who has the sole honor of having participated in every year of the Virtual Advent Tour. She has a post about the importance of little traditions at Christmas, particularly in times of stress and uncertainty, and shares a favorite holiday tune.

The Virtual Advent Tour is one of my favorite holiday traditions, so thank you for sharing it with us. We’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Happy Saturday! I hope you have lots of fun plans for this weekend. I have to work, but I’m definitely getting the fairy lights up around the perimeter of the living room and hopefully working on my Christmas cards. And tomorrow I’ll get a tree.

But, first, today! Behind today’s Advent calendar door, we find a post from Kathy B of CompassionKnit! She’s got some thoughts on Santa Claus for us today. (Cue Will Ferrell in Elf, here.)

See you all back here tomorrow!

Happy first Friday of Advent! I hope you have some seasonal beverages lined up to mark the end of the week. And Wikipedia informs me that today is National Cookie Day in the U.S., so I invite everyone to help us celebrate that important holiday! Do your part!

Once you have your cookie (what, some of them can be healthy breakfast foods!), check behind door number four and find a deep dive into the history of the Advent calendar from Rudi at Random Duck. Thanks, hon!

We’ll see you back here bright and early on Saturday!

I’m not going to lie. These last couple weeks have been hard. But they were made easier than they could have been. Here are three beautiful things from my past week that helped:

1. A video chat with my very most important people from college.

2. The first Christmas cards of the season.

3. Tomato soup made only from tomatoes from my garden. (To be honest, it was a little more like sauce than soup. Do you think I can just thin it out with water when I reheat it?)

What’s been beautiful in your world lately?