It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday.  One of our kids got to come home to celebrate with us and he brought along one of his college roommates.  I asked him later if his friend enjoyed his visit and his answer was that with all that food around, he really enjoyed himself. 

Speaking of food........

The "spread":

Cranberry Nut Bread (a new recipe I tried this year):

...and the pies:

I started something....baking cookies for every time I see the college boys.  Even their roommates have come to expect cookies.

My back pain is much improved although I still have to be very careful with how I move.  It's amazing how we take for granted moving without pain.  I'm so grateful to be feeling so much better.

I finished the model stitching and it has gone "home" safely.  I'll let you know when it's released.

I'm a little late on November's LHN Calendar Girl...and probably will be stitching a few Christmas ornaments so I'll probably continue to be late with this one as well as December's.  I'll eventually catch up.  I might even put Nov. aside and work on Dec. since I enjoy stitching seasonal items during the appropriate season.  (Sorry about the headless girl.  I started in the middle and like to work from the top down.  I like to pierce the needle from the back into a "clean" hole and then push it to the back in the "dirty" hole...if you know what I mean.)  I'll turn the piece upside down to work from the middle up towards the top.)

I'm also hoping to be able to crochet a baby blanket for our expected grandchild.  I'm a very beginner at crochet but a friend of mine showed me an "easy" design for a blanket just using single and double crochet stitches.  Wish me luck!

Speaking of the baby, here's the most recent profile picture of DD.  (She and her DH are visiting relatives in PA and OH this week and decided that's the last plane trip for her before the baby is born.)

We're enjoying a "cold front" (which in Gulf Coast Texas isn't very cold) but it helped put us in the mood to start decorating for Christmas.  DH managed to put up 3 trees and garlands above our windows.  I packed up both the Halloween decorations (that I'd piled up upstairs when I couldn't do much because of my back pain) and the Thanksgiving decorations and put out a few of the other Christmas decorations.  There's much more to do but we made a good start.  DH is having surgery tomorrow so I'll do the rest when he comes home.

We're expecting all 3 of our sons (including the one who lives in Denmark) to visit for Christmas so we're looking forward to it.

Happy stitching!