Merry Christmas

Dear stitching friends,


Merry Christmas to all!

We have spent a very pleasant day here today and yesterday celebrating. Mike was off work yesterday so we had our family dinner on Christmas Eve. It made for a more relaxing day today.

We were able to visit via Skype with my sister and BIL and their family today, so that was fun. We also exchanged several messages with Mike's brother and his family. Their children are still pretty young, so they were up before sunrise looking for their gifts from Santa. I remember those days well. Now we all were gathered at the leisurely hour of 9:30 opening presents at our house...

Mike left for work around 2; then we have been relaxing the rest of the day.

Finished my current book, then started another one. Tried on my new pajamas...think bedtime will be early tonight.

Hope all of you had a pleasant Christmas holiday. I will be returning to work on Thursday. Vacation time is ending soon....

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Snow!

Hello stitchy friends!

I didn't think I would get another post in before Christmas. But I wanted to share some snow pictures with you. We got hit with a blizzard last night...I know I had secretly wished for some snow before Christmas, but this was over the top.

I'm not sure how much snow we actually got, guesstimate around 5". But the wind!! Man, it howled all afternoon yesterday and all through the night! Gusts as high as 50mph. So, I woke up to a winter wonderland for sure.




This is a view of our yard north of our house. I haven't ventured outside yet, just have taken some pictures from the windows. My hubby works about an hour away from where we live. So, he left for work a couple of hours early yesterday, and took an overnight bag with him. Good thing, because he did make it to work, but had to spend the night at the hotel there. The interstate he travels on was closed by IDOT sometime last evening.

Our son has a new job near where his dad works. He works first shift, so he tried driving home last night. He ended up getting stuck in a snow bank about 15 miles from home. Luckily a good friend of his got his 4 wheel drive truck out to pick him up about an hour later... So, needless to say he was about 4 hours getting home instead of one hour. But I was so relieved no one got hurt.

The library is closed today. But, I am on vacation until the 27th. Our power went off at least 6 times last night, but it would come back on. So glad we had heat and power throughout.

I did do some stitching last night. Today, I hope to bake some rusks. I am waiting on my yeast to proof now. We will go out and shovel some paths later.







Take care friends.

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Christmas is just around the corner....

Hello Stitching Friends.

We are watching the skies for snow tomorrow. But it sounds like the heavier snowfall amounts will be Northeast of us. We will most likely have a green Christmas.

Like all of you I have been busy preparing for Christmas. Things are coming together tho. Shopping is done and presents are wrapped. I still need to do some baking for our family and some to give away.

There are no words to express the sadness from the awful event in Connecticut. Our thoughts and prayers are sent to those grieving families.

I haven't found the time to sit and stitch very often lately. I did take a recent picture of where I am with Reindeer Roundup.




It has been a fun piece to work on.

We had our cross stitch group stitchers party on December 10. It was extra fun for me this year because my niece hosted the party at her part-time Illinois home. (She resides in California most of the time). And then, my sister from Minnesota was at our house with her husband for the weekend, so she was able to join our stitchers party as well. I forgot to take pictures that night. Next year I will have to do better! We all made an ornament to exchange. In all the years we have been doing this, we have never had a duplicate. But this year took the cake...we had 3 duplicates...
"Fa la la" which was sold as a small kit with tuck-away pillow. Designer may be Bent .creek.

I received this ornament




My friend Susie stitched it, and I love it. It is hanging on our tree. I stitched 'hot cocoa' by little house Needleworks. My sister was the recipient. It was one of the monthly charts from 2012.




Our tree has many stitched ornaments on it, some stitched by me and others by friends and family.




Mike, Holly and I have been sharing a nasty cold. ny-quil has been my night-time ritual for several nights. We are all tired of it and ready for it to leave.

My sister brought me a beautiful new stitching bag...




Sorry the picture is kind of dark. She has used the prettiest red fabrics!
the fabric in the top right corner is a window with a cat looking out. (she knows me well).... She also embellished it with some pretty antique buttons.

Well I hope all of you are finding some stolen moments of peace and reasons to find joy each day.

Happy stitching friends!

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