It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Has it really been nearly a month since my last post? Time flies!
Thanksgiving was great ~ a good holiday with lots of good family!
We traditionally spend Thanksgiving with my husband's family in Bend, and we did it again this year, ending the trip with a visit to the Polar Express train in Hood River. It was a bit much, as far as amusement for children goes, but our 3 year old LOVED it!

One of the highlights of Thanksgiving was my father in law giving me his mother's Singer Featherweight. What a dream! It is white, with an aqua case. So very, very special! I haven't had a chance to sew on it yet, but have cleaned it a bit. It's been a very long time since anyone used it, so it needs a bit of TLC, which I am very happy to deliver!
Other recent work has been washing the piles of linens and hankies that I inherited from my great-great grandmother's shop. I think there are nearly 100 of them. Most of them were really musty smelling, so got a few trips through the delicate cycle and now need to be ironed. Some (the ones on top of the pile in the photo) didn't get washed and are still in their original shape - complete with the "Made in Austria" or "Made in Switzerland" or "Made in France" sticker. So sweet.
We got the tree up last week and got some of the decorations up. Still to go are the greenery garlands around the windows. Last year we had them up for something like four months before we were tired of them!
And right before Advent, I finally got the Advent Calendar done for our son. I bought one of those kits, thinking it was the easy way to go... Then I thought it looked flimsy and that I should really interface the pockets for rigidity. Ooops. I ended up scrapping the piece that was supposed to be the back, cutting apart the strips that made up the pockets and just sewing them right on, raw edges exposed. Heirloom quality it is not, but we're making do for now.

It has a dowel and a sleeve for hanging, but we haven't gotten out the nails just yet to attach it to the wall. Inside each pocket is a slip of paper, saying what special activity we get to do. I thought about little presents or candy, but he's getting enough candy these days with what is being handed out everywhere, and it makes him CRAZY. Lucky for me, he actually dislikes chocolate!

So the things we get to do are:
1. Get a Christmas tree
2. Put up Christmas decorations
3. Make Christmas cards (1 or 2)
4. Make gift tags (his drawings or paintings run through my Xyron)
5. Bake cookies and decorate them
6. Buy a toy for charity
7. Make a cape (he's been wanting one)
8. Drive to look at Christmas lights
9. Visit Grammie and Grandpa
10. Read an extra book at naptime
11. Buy a Santa hat (written after he declared he "Had to have one!"
12. Watch a movie with Mama and Papa
13. Make ornaments with Baker's Clay
14. Make pipe cleaner wreaths
15. Go to the Children's Museum
16. Write a letter to Santa
17. Go to the zoo
18. Make a gift for your teacher
19. Have a special lunch
20. Extra book at bedtime
21. Go for ice cream
22. Have a special dinner
23. Wrap presents
24. To Be Determined -- we'll see what works best.

A lot of my ideas came from various places on the internet. The basic idea of doing activities instead of presents came from somewhere that I can't find now. There are also great ideas here.