Another Thanksgiving in the Books...Moving on to Christmas

This year's Thanksgiving was strange this year due to COVID precautions.  Our Austin boys got tested before visiting and although it wasn't totally without risk, we felt that their visit was worth the little increased risk we took.  (They're all working from home and not going out much (wearing masks when they DO go out.)  We also did a Zoom visit with the relatives we would have seen on Thanksgiving which was strange but better than nothing.  I was so distracted setting up for the Zoom that I forgot to take pictures.  One of the boys took one of the table before I put out the food.  We even used paper plates for the first time for Thanksgiving instead of the good china, our nod to trying to make it a little safer.  I must admit that I didn't miss hand washing the china but I did miss getting to use it.  Hopefully next year!

I finished the Theresa Kogut's Give Thanks Turkey but didn't finish it in time to FFO it.  (Maybe next year!)

I blame it on COVID but I was very late choosing an ornament to stitch for the family ornaments (total of 5!).  Then I saw someone stitching A Very COVID Santa (from BeverlyStreetShop on etsy) and knew I'd found the one!  I'm not celebrating COVID by stitching it but it will indeed be something to remember in future holidays when we finally get back to normal (whatever normal will look like).  I popped the first one temporarily in an embroidery hoop to see what it will look like FFO'd that way.

I mailed off the rest of the stockings (designed by Bent Creek) I made for our daughter's family and they received them yesterday.  Our poor granddaughter (4) forgot that I'd made hers a couple of years ago and was a little sad that there wasn't one for her in the box (although I sent her some treats in the same box).  All was well when I explained that I stitched hers FIRST and wanted her brother and parents to have their stockings too.  I stitched them and they were beautifully FFO'd by my friend Vonna Pfeiffer aka The Twisted Stitcher.

The boys left us yesterday and a cold front arrived bringing rain that will probably go on all day.  I'm looking forward to putting away the Thanksgiving decorations, maybe putting out a few Christmas ones and then being a couch potato today while watching football and stitching.

Happy stitching!

 We've had a few cool days here but it's back to 80's weather for a few days.  The ragweed pollen count is lessening so at least I can go outside without sneezing and my eyes itching.

I've mostly been model stitching this week (almost done) but pulled out my own project last night....Give Thanks Turkey by Theresa Kogut.

I managed to finish stitching Miss Fortune the day before Halloween and have an idea for an FFO but haven't gotten around to it yet.  As is often the case, she was a lot cuter "in person" than the photo on the chart.

I worked a little on my Carolyn Manning piece for the sal.  It's going to be an enjoyable stitch;  with all the repetitions you can get "in a grove" with this one.  It's amazing to see just how many DMC reds there are!

 

Our Thanksgiving will be a bit smaller this year.  2 of our kids will come here (after testing for COVID).  This weekend I plan on 2 baking/freezing cookies (chocolate chip and oatmeal) to send back with them when they go back home.  I hope to make some peanut butter cookies too before I get caught up in Thanksgiving plans.

Be well and....

Happy Stitching!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Greetings!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Pittsburgh with my husband's family.  All our kids came along with our 2 grandchildren and also our oldest son's girlfriend.  We had a great time, ate a lot, laughed a lot, and then all made it back to our home destinations with no problems.

Now I'm concentrated on preparing for Christmas.  We'll stay home this year and our 2 youngest children will join us.  I'm getting a late start on decorating because we're replacing our floors in January and had a guy come measure this week.  I'm starting to get excited because we finally decided on what flooring to use, the color, and have nailed down (pardon the pun) the contract.  We even have a tentative date on which to start. 

I also pulled some ornaments out to send to our 2 oldest kids.  I'd collected (either bought or made) ornaments for each of the kids over the years and our oldest asked for some of hers (she's the one who's given us our 2 grandchildren) and our son's girlfriend asked if I'd send some of his to them.  It took longer than I thought it would to go through them and choose a nice assortment that fit in the box.  I had an idea when I was in Hobby Lobby earlier this week that it would be nice to put them in a Christmas box so they can use the same box in which to store them.  They're safely in the mail now and I hope they enjoy using (and storing) them.

On the stitching front, I finished stitching Cat's Meow (Drawn Thread) for my son's girlfriend.  I took the picture before pressing it and the piece is now at the framer.

I also put together a couple of Foxwood Crossings Sled ornaments for this year's ornament and tucked them in the ornament boxes I just sent out.  I'll make 3 more of these this year.  2 are stitched and it won't take long to stitch the last one.  I love how quick and easy they stitch up and taping them onto those little sleds is my kind of finishing.  Quick and easy!

I'm still plugging along on Home for Christmas by Prairie Schooler.  I'm really enjoying this one!

Break's over!  Time to get back to decorating.

Happy stitching!

A Small Finished Finish and a Model Revealed

This will be for an ornament exchange.  I love these little sled ornaments;  they're so cute and you can stitch up something quickly to mount on them.  I hope to mail it to the recipient either today or tomorrow.

I'm on the home stretch of the model I'm stitching.  I love the design!

Speaking of model stitching, Nikki (Country Cottage Needleworks) released another design that I model stitched for her.  It's called "Merry Christmas, My Deer".

For more info on this (and other) designs:  Country Cottage Needleworks

My back pain is starting to improve but I'm still moving very carefully.  Hopefully I won't have another "bout" of this for a very long time.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Happy stitching!

I'm still alive! ;-)

Thanksgiving was all a blur, it went by so quickly.  We enjoyed having the fam here minus our DS who just moved to Denmark.  He called though and it was nice to hear from him.

We had our big dinner on that Friday and then drove to Austin, TX for the weekend.

It was our DD's BF's first ever visit to TX.  He's from Scotland (his mother is French) and he had a list of (stero)typical Texas things he wanted to experience.  We checked off quite a few.  He tried pecan pie topped with Blue Belle ice cream, was dragged taken to multiple Buc-ees (between Surfside Beach, here, and Austin), bought and tried some jerky, had authentic (and really good!) Texas BBQ, etc.  (I had him try Frito pie and Dr. Pepper cake last Christmas at a Texas BBQ place in Atlanta, of all places.)  On their last day here, we drove down to the beach so he could see some of the Gulf of Mexico.  (While there we saw a poor dolphin that had beached itself and hadn't survived.)  We teased him that by the end of his visit that he'd be wearing cowboy boots, a cowboy hat, a big belt buckle and start using the terms "fixin' to" and "y'all".

For some reason, I forgot to take pictures.  (I wonder if I can get them to fly back for a "do-over".)

On the stitching front....I finished and mailed out a model and am working on finishing another.  When I finish that one, I think I'll work on my CCN Silent Night wip.

I took my CHS 2000 Christmas Sampler for framing and it is already back home with me.  (I love my framer!!)  It's sitting on my mantel.

Happy stitching!

Empty Nest for a second time.....

We enjoyed having our oldest DS here with us again for about 3 weeks but the time came Wednesday for him to board that plane for Denmark.  All of the sudden the house got very quiet again.  We miss him but are very excited for this new chapter in his life and his adventure living in Denmark for 2-3 years.  Maybe we'll even get to visit.

When we asked him what kind of food he'd miss, he said Tex Mex so I took him out for Tex Mex lunches a couple of times while he was here.

Now we're looking ahead to Thanksgiving when our other 2 sons, our daughter, and her boyfriend are here.

I won the Great Turkey Debate (roasted or fried) without even trying.  Bwa-ha-ha-ha!!!!  I prefer roasted (and it's so much less of a mess) but DH loves them fried so much that he thinks EVERYONE should love it that way.  I'd pretty much given in until talking to DD on the phone Sunday.  It hadn't occurred to anyone that we fry the bird in peanut oil.  Her boyfriend is allergic to peanuts.  (It's probably bad form to give him anaphylaxis on his first visit here.)  Now it may be OK to use another type oil, but the bird will be roasted this year.  Yes!!!!!  I was texting about it to my youngest son a few days later and he said he really prefers roast turkey over fried anyway.  (He said he didn't think Dad paid attention to him when he said it.....I know what he means.  ;-)

My DH and the turkey reminds me of the father on The Christmas Story.  Maybe next year, honey!

I caught a monster cold this week and haven't felt like doing much of anything.  I'm finally feeling almost human but still tire out (or start coughing) after just a little activity.  I'm going to be better tomorrow, though.  My stitching group is getting together tomorrow at a friend's house.  The food theme is Thanksgiving so I baked a couple of pumpkin pies to take.  I was lazy and let Pillsbury do the crusts.

Stitching:  I didn't get done nearly what I would have liked (monster cold!) but worked a bit more on PS Woodland Santa:

I also finally started CCN's Silent Night this week:

I hope to get some progress done on those next week along with a couple of models.  Oh!  And hopefully I'll get LHN's Elizabeth Hancock on the stretcher bars and start.  I've been wanting to start "her" for a long time.

Happy stitching!

On to the Christmas season

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving and now it's on to Christmas.  It took me a while playing with the image (and remembering how to post it to the blog header as well as changing the blog background) but I'm pleased to have posted a pic of my Christmas Village by The Prairie Schooler, on of my favorite things I've stitched.

I'm not much of a shopper.  I enjoy giving gifts but the hardest part for me it figuring out what people want or need;  mailing out complicates the matter too.  I wasn't brave enough to go shopping during the Black Friday weekend.  Besides I read or heard somewhere that it's questionable whether you really save any money that way.  That's my story now and I'm sticking to it.

DS is doing much better in his recovery from his surgery.  When he started complaining about being bored, I figured he'd turned the corner.  Our most recent dilemma was arguing over whether or not he should stick to his lifting restrictions upon his return to school today;  his backpack was twice his lifting weight limit.  Finally he agreed to do it my way, i.e. following doctor's orders.  I think he was actually happy to return to school today.

Yesterday I drove to a stitching buddy's house for a gtg with her and some other stitchers.  I love spending time with this group of women.  I couldn't take the model I'm stitching (top secret) so I started "Weary World" by Shakespeare's Peddler.  That one has been "haunting" me since it's release.  I finally broke down and ordered it and the threads and stitched a bit on it yesterday at the gtg.  It's an old fashioned looking sampler--right up my alley--and I'm already enjoying it.  I doubt that I'll finish it this year but will enjoy stitching it, especially after I finish the model and can devote more time to it.

It cooled down here significantly and today is an offical soup weather day.  I think I'll boil up the turkey carcass and make some turkey soup for dinner tonight.  It's always a plus when I've figured out the menu this early in the day.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's been a day in the kitchen.  I've baked 3 pies (2 pumpkin and 1 pecan), bread in the bread machine, and have a ham in the oven along with some homemade potatoes au gratin.  DS #2 is on his way home from college and since his birthday was last Saturday, we're having a little birthday dinner for him tonight complete with birthday cake and ice cream.

Between tonight and tomorrow's feast, we'll all be growning and holding our stomachs for sure.

Band is over but I've been pretty busy catching up and even had some other band events last Sat. with DS playing with his drumline and marching at the parade in our city's holiday kick-off event followed by chaperoning the band's masquerade party.  (I went as a bag lady, Buc band edition.)

DS #3 had a minor surgery yesterday so we've been home all day today.  He's doing better but not recovering as fast as he'd like (he's wanting to be back to 100%, lol!)  He's starting to get bored being stuck with me at home (always a good sign for someone recuperating from something) so if he feels ok later, I might give him the ok to go spend about an hour (quietly) with some friends tonight.

An observation:  It's amazing how much you can get done at home when you spend all day there...well, not exactly ALL day because I had a couple of quick errands...but ALmost all day.  Maybe I should do that more often.

There will just be 4 of us here for Thanksgiving.  Our DD will be flying to join my parents for Thanksgiving, our oldest DS will be staying in GA but will be enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with friends and then watching the UT/Texas A and M game with some Texas Exes.  Since they'll both be with people and we'll all be together next month, it will be fine.

I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving spending it with people you love.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just in case I don't get on the computer tomorrow, I want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving.

I spent a good deal of time in the kitchen today teaching DS how to bake pumpkin pies, baking a pecan pie myself, as well as cranberry orange scones, and some honey wheat bread in the bread machine. The vote is in and the turkey will be deep friend tomorrow so I'll let the men-folk take care of it while I busy myself making all the sides.

I have a couple of small stitching finishes to show you. It feels so good to be stitching again after marching season.

One piece is a Prairie Schooler Santa that I stitched for my final "installment" of this year's Bride's Tree ornament sal blog. IMHO nobody does Santa better than Prairie Schooler. I picked a drumming Santa since DS plays percussion in band.

I also finished a freebie (part of the 2006 Indy Town Square freebies) by La-D-Da called Schoolhouse.

I like to display holiday pics of the kids from years ago so thought I'd post some here in honor of Thanksgiving. The youngest "baby" is 15....time sure does fly!