It’s been a crazy week, running around doing errands, attending appointments, making gifts, buying gifts, deciding on and making the grocery list and trying to remember what I was looking for when I opened the fridge!

I hope your week has been peaceful.

Here are some things we’ve been thinking about this week.

Christmas is approaching and our tree is up. Lately we have been getting a real tree. Yes, I know the needles are a pain in January, but for us, it’s worth it. My younger son puts on some Christmas music and decorates it. I am happy about that because we are in sync about how it should be done: put everything on it. We both love our tree to be sentimental, colourful and personal. What do you think? How do you decorate your tree? – Maria

Scrolling through old conversations with a friend of mine, who is my age, I came across these videos we have sent each other, which share the same theme. Of course, I can’t remember what I was originally looking for . . . Oh, well. Hope you smile at these. Won’t take long – Maria

This is a wallpaper on my phone: a photo I took a few years ago and placed on my phone screen as a visual reminder. Today, once again, I am so grateful for my older son who has stepped in and given us the gift of his time and expertise. If you like what you see, he gets a lot of the credit. He has fixed our mistakes and managed the tech stuff behind the scenes. He has been our go-to installer and creator, with minimal impatience. Lots to be grateful for. – Maria

I was working on a quilting project today and ended up watching some You Tube videos to help me with the curves on this block. Suzy Quilts has some good informational videos for quilting beginner/advanced quilters. I haven’t decided what to do with this block, but I’m sure it will end up in someone’s stocking in some shape of form. Every summer I start thinking about Christmas gifts, but I convince myself that it’s too early to start working on them, then, BAM, it’s December 21st and I’m just starting.

My kids must have been 4 and 6 or some such age and I remember staying up almost all night on Christmas Eve sewing their presents, blankets and pillows for their doll beds, a bean bag. and assorted other things. I am a slow sewist, so it took me a long time. I probably got 2 or 3 hours of sleep that night. My kids and I went to the Christmas service in the morning and I remember vividly, standing in front of a glass wall, then next thing you know, I had fallen asleep standing up and almost went crashing forward into the glass wall. It makes me laugh every time I think about it, but it doesn’t make me start working on my gifts any earlier! – Cris

It was game night last night and my kids and I played Trivial Pursuit. Canadian Edition. Not really a fair game for them, since they’re probably too young for this version, but it was so much fun, as board games almost always are. I declared myself the winner, even though the game had degraded somewhat by the end, and we had stopped using the dice and just answered questions, trying to get that last piece of pie and answer the final question. – Cris

Do you like board games? What are your favourite games? Let me know in the comments below.

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