So excited. The holidays are officially upon us!

Thanksgiving then Christmas. My favorite time of the year.

I’m on a committee at the Homosassa Civic Club that is working feverishly to provide gifts for underprivileged kids in the area. We found out two weeks ago that the group we usually partner with could not participate this year–which caused a bit of chaos but we are back at it and ready to move on!

One of the reasons I originally joined the civic club was that they gave back to the community. Mainly to children. And we continue doing exactly that. The civic club is able to provide much of the funds for the Christmas gifts due to the annual festival we hold each year but we needed to give more this time and reached out to our members. What a great response we received.

The families come to us from our local elementary school. The teachers give the guidance counselor the names of families that might not have Christmas. The civic club spends $100 on each child. And we give to every child in the family. So if one 9-year-old child at the school has two small siblings and one in middle school and another in high school, we buy for all of them.

The presents are given to the parents before Christmas and they are put under the tree from Santa.

I LOVE this program!

Okay, besides that. I’ve been getting ready for Christmas.

We do not have any family coming for Thanksgiving. (Just T and me and we are still doing the whole turkey day experience!) But we do have family coming in during the following week to celebrate early Christmas. So I’ve been pulling decorations out and interviewing them as to where they will go. Yes. Every year every thing gets an interview. Sometimes they get to be displayed. Occasionally they get sent to the local thrift store. Usually they just get stored away for future themes.

And I am always updating the inventory.

I’ve got my beautiful new quilt wall hanging which I’ve based this year’s Christmas theme on. (Every year there is a different Christmas theme. Last year it was Pinkalicious and there was a LOT of pink involved!)

We are doing a “Patchwork Christmas” this year. I’ve been making lots of fun quilty Christmasy things.

There is usually a novelty Christmas drink to go with the theme so not sure how I will be working in “patchwork” with a martini! I’ll let you know! I should be done with all my Christmas projects next week and I’ll be back with more pics!