Happy New Year!

From our family to yours!

Christmas has flown by and it was wonderful to spend the time with our family. We've had a houseful since Christmas and have loved having everyone here. Andrew has gone back to his house now, but we still have Grace, Ellen and Ellen's boyfriend Jarred here. They'll be heading back to school on Friday. I'm hoping to do a little stitching tonight while waiting for the ball to drop...I haven't done any sewing since I finished that last customer quilt! I have been knitting a little...I hope I can finish the scarf for Ellen before winter is over.

I wish all of you a healthy and happy new year...filled with the people and things that you love.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a wonderful day, filled with the people and things you love. Have a blessed Christmas!

Counting down...

When the kids were little, we always took pictures of the boss pretending to hang them on the tree. We decorated the tree on Saturday and according to tradition...Andrew tried to hang his girlfriend Liz on the tree! She was a good sport and let him... Saturday evening the boss's sisters came for a visit. Rhonda (on the sofa) is here from Arizona and we hadn't seen her for quite awhile. It was good to catch up!

She brought her son, Noah, along with her...it was only the second time I'd met the little guy. He's a cutie! We corrupted him though...this was the first time he ever played with a Gameboy!

He loved it so much, he took it with him to keep himself entertained on the flight home! Of course he warmed up to Grace quickly, which led to tickle fights....

In the midst of the preparations for Christmas, I haven't made it into my sewing room, but I did cast on a feather and fan scarf for Ellen, in her favorite...hot pink!

The pattern can be found here. It's very simple and is working up quickly...I hope to have it finished before Ellen returns to school on January 2nd. I've had all the kids home for a few days and the boss is done travelling for the year. It's been strange to have so many people in the house...and to have to cook! I'm loving it...

I hope you're spending your holidays with those you love!

Coming Up for Air

Here's a gratuitous dog playing with his pepper picture so you don't remember that I haven't been here for over a week...
I've finally finished the last customer quilts of the year...

A shot of the back....

And I've attended the staff Christmas party for work. Now, here's a dilemma...when you're asked to bring a dessert to the work meeting, and you work for Weight Watchers, what do you bring? I settled on these little Snickers pies from the Hungry Girl website, which were quite easy to make. Take a regular size Snickers bar and cut it into 10 pieces. Put each one in a phyllo cup...

Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees...

Let cool and serve. They were pretty good...and only 1 point each!

The Christmas tree is up (but not decorated), the cards are mailed, the gifts are wrapped...so now I get some time to play in my sewing room. If I don't come back in a few days, send chocolate!

December Ramblings...

I'm finding it hard to believe that it's December already! I've hardly started getting ready for Christmas yet, the decorations are still in the attic, although a few presents are bought. I picked up Christmas cards over the weekend, but the task of writing them out seems daunting!



The Thanksgiving holiday around here was fun. After the high school football game in the morning, I met my son and the boss at Ott's Tavern. It was the first time Andrew had been home since he turned 21, so it was our turn to take him out and buy him a beer. Life certainly feels different when you can go drinking with your kids! Afterwards, we headed to my parents' house for a delicious dinner of Crown Roast of Pork and all the trimmings. On Friday I cooked a turkey...what fun is Thanksgiving if you don't have leftovers? I didn't get the camera out all weekend...I'm just not a good blogger!



During the week I had painted my laundry room cabinets black...wish I could find the before pictures...these cabinets were hideous. Now that the doors are back on, with new hardware, I can't believe I waited almost 10 years to paint them...what was I thinking?





I've been doing a lot of customer quilting...here's a sneak peek of the quilt on the machine now. This one should be done in a day or two, then I'll only have two more customer quilts to quilt before Christmas. After that I will quilt the quilt that I'm giving as a Christmas gift. Why do I have a feeling that I'll be binding it on Christmas Eve?







About 2 weeks ago I spent a day at the hospital, having a biopsy and other procedures done. Yesterday I found out that everything is fine...no cancer, no tumors...and that with the proper medications, I'll be fine. Now that the stress is relieved, I'm looking forward to the holidays. I feel like I just received the best gift I could be given...anything else this Christmas will just be icing on the cake!