Holiday preparations

I have all the gifts I'm planning to mail and some for in-person giving spread out on a card table in the basement.  There's no room to wrap them, but I'll shuffle over the weekend and get them ready to go.  I worry that the ones for the Netherlands will get hung up somewhere, so I like to get them out early.  Once the packages are mailed, I can begin to enjoy the holidays.

Tomorrow I'll be going over to Pauline and Bob's new condo in Burlington (45 min. west of us) to help Pauline clean and settle in before the move over the weekend.   Since it is an older place (30+ years?), they have had to put in new flooring, paint, re-do bathrooms and kitchen, and put up some walls in the basement.  So I imagine it's pretty dusty even with the contractor promising to clean after his work was done.  But it should be fun to see it finished - we saw it mid-construction two months ago.  

As a house-warming gift, I made an insulated table runner out of Christmas tumblers.  They love Christmas, and we usually get together for lunch or dinner before the holidays get going.  This year, we'll probably all do something a little less group-oriented since cases of the virus are growing again.

I have had my fill of tumblers.  I started out the year thinking I'd make holiday tumblers my "leaders and enders" like Bonnie Hunter suggests.  I found I really hated doing that.  The pieces were always in the way.  I like to concentrate on one thing at a time.  So I made another table runner, some Christmas stockings to sell, and some mug rugs for neighbors this summer, all using tumblers,  And now I am soooo finished!!  Next year I'm planning to make some nine- and four-patches in holiday fabrics now and then for use in various projects.

I hope to stop at Trader Joe's before I go to Pauline's.  I love browsing there, but the last time I went (pre-COVID), it was too busy to really enjoy it.  I even have a list of things to look for this time.