And another Christmas has come and gone

Hello Stitching Friends

Its hard to know where to start.  We had a great family Christmas with good food, and great times.  The best part is our family being together.  Mike was able to take a vacation day and have Christmas off this year.  I told him that was the best present of all.  He works at a job that never has closed days or holidays, and runs 24/7, 365 days a year, so when he's able to be home all day on a holiday, it's a treat.

I have been using up the remainder of my vacation time over the last part of December, which has been nice.  I will be back to work tomorrow, but then the library will be closed on January 1.  I'm sure there will be lots for me to catch up on there.

I have caught up with reading blog posts today.  It was fun reading about everyone's holiday celebrations.  

We took our tree down yesterday.  It was looking very sad.  The weekend before Christmas our daughter brought their kitten over to our house for us to keep overnight while they went on a short trip.  Well, needless to say, the cats residing at our house were not too happy with this small visitor that was filled with so much energy and mischief!  He thought the Christmas tree was his personal cat toy, and took delight making a running leap into the tree and batting at the ornaments, knocking down as many as he could....  I was not happy with him.

He looks sweet and innocent here, but believe me, he wasn't!  So after he went home, I repaired the tree as best I could, but it just didn't look as good as it did before.  Then to top it off 1 of the strings of lights went out the other evening.  So, it was time to take it down.

On Christmas morning, the kitten, Hendrix, came back with Holly and Joe, and then to turn the adventures up several more notches, our son David, and his fiancée Lauren, brought their dog with them. It made for a crazy morning for sure.  Our animals, for the most part went and hid from these four legged family members.  Hendrix was terrified of David's dog.  So, he made himself scarce as well.  After awhile everyone settled down and discovered they could tolerate each other.

I had hoped to get the Cardinal finished this year, but I ran out of the over dyed floss I'm using for the snowflakes and words.  I will call and order a skein tomorrow when my LNS opens.  

I'm sorry for the wrinkles.  I just have the words to finish along the bottom and it will be done.

So, last night I was looking through some charts trying to decide what would call to me the loudest.  Before I made a decision, Holly was asking me if I had any cute owl designs I could stitch for the baby's nursery.  She is going to decorate it in the treetop owl theme she fell in love with at Target.

So, I had her look and she chose this design of three little owls. We found the freebie on Pinterest.

 So I found an over dyed floss I had on hand along with some white linen, and got started.    I will finish it as a small pillow she can put on a shelf.  It's always fun to start something new.  The little owls should stitch up fairly quick.

I haven't pulled any other new project to start on January first.  I love the idea of a new start in the new year.  I will have to give this some more thought.  I do want to finish the book I'm currently reading to add to my list of finishes for 2014.  I've read 70 books this year.  

If I get ambitious I need to put away the other Christmas decorations from around the house.  But I don't think it's going to happen today....  

Happy New Year!