Time goes fast to begin with but seems to go even faster around this time of the year.
Only 2 weeks to Christmas, how is that even possible?

As usual I did my research for any events in the area to get us 'into the spirit'!
The tiny town of Willamina (population 2100) is literary 'around the corner' from us and lo-and-behold they were putting up a Christmas parade as well as a Tree lighting ceremony!



I thought four o'clock was a little early for a tree lighting and it was still light when we arrived just before 4pm, but by the end of the ceremony it was getting dark enough to see the lights:

As announced, the Delphian High School choir did a wonderful job 'caroling'. They were really very good, rather surprising for such a small-town little choir!

We were very lucky that although the forecast had predicted some light rain throughout the afternoon and evening, it was still dry.
Since we had some time to kill before the parade would start at 6pm we'd planned to have a bite to eat at the little cafe/restaurant at the Wildwood hotel, which come to think of it is probably the only hotel in town.

   

It's a no-frills but cozy, small cafe. One of those places 'where the locals go', which means the food is usual good.
We chose to splurge a little and shared a prime rib steak which didn't disappoint, it was excellent!

Around 6pm we moved outside to the porch of the cafe and waited for the parade to start, which would conveniently come right by there!



The chamber took the lead and were followed by a surprising amount of decorated and lit-up cars, trucks and even a horse or two!

All in all, it took half an hour for the whole parade to pass. Certainly not the longest parade but also not the shortest we've ever seen!

    

We even lined up to see Santa who'd set up court at the Free Methodist Church.
In fact, we went for the cider and cookies of course, but is was fun to see the little kids having their obligatory pictures taken .. some happily, some shy and some terrified!

But before we could launch the Christmas season for real we had one more holiday to celebrate on the 5th of December, that of St Nicolas, aka 'Sinterklaas', a beloved dutch childhood-tradition.

   

And although we aren't giving each other any gifts (anymore), as is customary on this day, I did bake 'Speculaas' as I do every year.
I'd bought new spices when I was in Holland. They are a different brand than I usually get and boy, are they nice! Much better than the previous ones!

                                               

OK, now that that was behind us I could start 'decking the halls'. I cranked up some Christmas music and 'went to town':

It doesn't take much to transform the RV into a cozy Christmas cabin ..

And the same goes for the outside!

I completely forgot to mention that we had some terrible weather this last week!
The North-West was hit by what they call an 'Atmospheric River', a weather pattern that brings tropical, moist air from the south all across the ocean and than to dump it for several days, in an almost continues 'river', somewhere north!

We have 3 ponds on the property, the largest one right next to us. The water-level rose almost all the way to the path:

                

But fortunately our landlord installed a large culvert last year so when it gets to a certain point, it drains into the second pond below, and from there into a third one below that one ... like this:

There's more rain in the forecast, yet another of those 'rivers', and there are floods everywhere in Oregon and Washington, but fortunately we're safe and warm and dry.
I'm so glad we moved when we moved!

Being stuck inside I finally had some time to finish my puzzle.

By the way .. we recently bought this small collapsible table for me to lay out my puzzle-map, or do anything else like working on something on my laptop.
James often needs the whole dining table to lay out his papers for an appraisal which left me with no room to do anything.
This one is light enough to easily move out of the way and collapses fast when not in use. 
Another problem solved!

Happy camper!