Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. My friend’s mother, who is recuperating from complications relating to surgery, got to come home on Christmas Day.

2. There was conversational snow on Christmas Eve.

3. We got a late jump on our drive north Saturday, which meant we were driving through northern New Jersey along the Garden State Parkway after dark, rather than during daylight. After disappointing me after Thanksgiving, the New Jerseyans of that area reclaimed their title of most festive neighborhoods of the mid-Atlantic with their cheerful and abundant holiday light displays.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

What you see here is the start of a new shawlette. It’s a pretty blue and a soft yarn and I’m hoping the pattern works with it. I’m knitting it on larger needles than I usually work with, so I’m hoping the sections will fly by.

I finished Winter Stroll tonight, staying up after everyone else went to bed to read by the Christmas tree. It was fine, and I will definitely finish the trilogy up next Christmas, but it wasn’t anything amazing. Winning Her Holiday Love is the other Christmas book I brought up with me and I imagine it will be a quick read. I mean, we’re going home tomorrow, so it won’t be done before I leave Connecticut, but definitely by the end of the weekend. I started listening to Cornelia Funke’s When Santa Claus Fell to Earth when we were driving up and figure I’ll finish it on the drive home. It’s not a long kid’s book, so the audiobook is only a couple hours.

This is the final Wednesday of the year, so you should head over to As Kat Knits to see what everyone else is reading and crafting.

It was a good day, filled with family, friends, tasty food, seasonal music and movies, lights, and gifts.

I hope your day was also filled with joy and wonder. Merry Christmas!

May the joys of the season be yours throughout today and into the coming year. May your meals be filling and delicious and served with kindness. May you have safe shelter and may it be filled with light and warmth.

May you receive the gifts of music, of laughter, and of love. And may you share all three back out into the world.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas Eve! We’ve made it! And if you aren’t done yet, you still have time! You can do it! Either way, Christmas is coming tomorrow!

Our final host for the 2018 Virtual Advent Tour is Bridget at The Ravell’d Sleave who has written a beautiful post about belief. I hope you stop by her blog to read it, even if you don’t have a lot of spare time to spend on the internet today.

Thank you all for joining us on this year’s Virtual Advent Tour, whether as readers, commenters, or writers. Thank you to first timers Constance and Judith for joining us this year. I hope you had fun and will be back in 2019. Thank you, too, to our returning hosts: raidergirl3, Bridget, Kat, Rudi, Jo Kay, Nan, and my Dear Old Dad. You joyfully embarked on writing posts (and often more than one!) once again to help me keep this little endeavor afloat at such a busy time of the year, and I am tremendously grateful. This would not be nearly as much fun without you.

I wish each and every one of you a truly merry Christmas!

Greetings, friends! Today is the penultimate day of the Advent Tour and the final Sunday of Advent.

Our host today is Rudi, who has another post for us, this time taking on Festivus and adding a little humor to start your day.

We’re nearly done and I hope your holiday preparations are, as well. We’ll see you back here tomorrow for one final stop on this year’s Virtual Advent Tour!