Season’s greetings to you and yours! Welcome to Day 9 of the Virtual Advent Tour!

Christmas in the Burrow is starting to take shape. There’s a tree in my living room (albeit, still without lights or ornaments, although they are out). Fairy lights surround the perimeter of the room, casting a pink glow on everything, and more are in jars that start turning on just as the sun is going down. There are bags of gifts that need sorting, wrapping, and shipping (I predict this is where my downfall will come.), and cards and stationery supplies are in piles on and near the coffee table. I have extra bags of sugar and flour and two dozen eggs in the fridge, and I bought some new containers of Christmas sprinkles. Now I just need to track down the hardest thing to find at Christmas — time.

Behind our ninth door, we return to Deb Nance at Readerbuzz for some caroling from afar.

Have a great day, and I’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Welcome back to week two of the Virtual Advent Tour. I hope you are feeling … well, “good” definitely isn’t the right word for 2020, so maybe … at peace with changes this holiday season require. I admit that I’m struggling with finding balance this season, so peace remains elusive. But I get up each morning with the intention of figuring out a way to make it work well enough. That way, even if I fail, I’m closer than I would have been without trying, right?

But one thing I have not had to battle with this year is the Virtual Advent Tour. Thank you to everyone who wrote a post in week one, to those who have claimed dates coming up, and who have offered to write additional posts if I need them. I feel like this is one area this year where we’ve mostly found good balance.

And with that, I’m sending you off to Rudi’s Random Duck blog for a post for the 8th of December. He’s got some Fab Christmas tunes to help get your day off to a rocking start.

See you back here tomorrow morning!

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!