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?

Happy December 3rd! Christmas Eve is three weeks away. Today would be a great day to pour a seasonal drink and pull our your calendar and start doing some backward planning, particularly if you are crafting or shipping gifts this year. We still have lots of time. We can do this!

Behind our calendar door this morning, we find a post from Bridget at The Ravell’d Sleave, who has a thrilling tale of Christmas misadventure — family style — to share.

Sign up to host a day of the Tour here. Otherwise, see you back here tomorrow!