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Hello, Reader.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is the music. I love the carols, the concerts, the midday noels, the cantatas, the Christmas musicals, and the holiday songs piped through the sound systems of every store you enter this time of year.

Our family has spent the past 7 days in San Antonio, where several such musical events earned time slots on our itinerary, although we ended up missing two of them due to circumstances beyond our control (more on those unexpected setbacks next week).

In the meantime, if you love Christmas music as much as I do, this week's link list is especially for you!

Free resources for you this week:

• ​How Well Do You Know Your Christmas Carols - match the title with lyrics from each song
• ​50 Christmas Carols to Sing this Season - a bucket list for music-loving folks like us :-)
• ​12 Days of Christmas Labels - assign each party or dinner guest a line to sing in rounds
• ​Name that Song - can you identify each carol from just the first few notes?
• ​Christmas Caroling Song Sheets - lyrics to the most popular, for serenading your neighbors
• ​Christmas Carols for the Harmonica - a portable way to accompany carol-singing anywhere
• ​Silent Night Coloring Page - based on one of the most well-known carols of all time

What I'm reading this week:

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Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins was one of my very favorite books in grade school. Imagine my surprise, then, to recently learn O'Dell wrote a sequel to the story called Zia. In it, we learn what happened to Karana after she left Dolphin Island and came to live at the mission in Santa Barbara. The details are shared from the perspective of Karana's young neice, Zia, who has been trying for years to brave the ocean waves and paddle to the island herself to rescue her aunt. ​ ​

Progress on last week's goals:

✅ finished four more pages in my advent journal, ✅ put out the last of our Christmas decorations, ✅ finalized itinerary for our San Antonio trip, ✅ addressed & mailed our Christmas cards, ✅ added two new Christmas print packs to our shop (on sale now! For a limited time, use code SAVEHALF to get 50% off every digital product in our shop ), ✅ and made some new Christmas ornaments with Abby (though ❌ not the quilted ones I'd planned).

Personal goals for this week:

• make some great family memories in San Antonio
• reduce messages in my inbox by 95% (from 700 to 35)
• order stocking stuffers for last few grandkids
• print new day planner for next year
• do a few more crafts with grandkids
• record a new podcast (which I've missed doing for the past two weeks)
• post new Timberdoodle review
• watch a family Christmas movie