A New Year...And a Little Holiday "Report"

Happy New Year!

We enjoyed a bit of travel to visit our daughter, son-in-law, and grandbaby.  Our sons were there too and it was nice to have everyone together under one roof even though the roof wasn't ours.  Some of us traveled together on Christmas Day.  It was actually a pleasant day to travel.  We joked about our "traditional" Christmas lunch of pizza in the terminal.

We got there in time for a nice Christmas dinner prepared by our son-in-law with dessert of a wonderful flan prepared by our daughter.

Then we opened our Christmas crackers and proceeded to open gifts.  The center of attraction, of course, was the baby who seemed to enjoy her first Christmas.

The siblings and our son-in-law (who is behind the camera) went hiking.

We went hiking another day.  We hiked up a hill but the most challenging part of the hike was hiking back up the street to DD's house.

We really enjoyed the family time...and playing with the baby who is such a fun age.

We arrived home late Tuesday night (actually early Wednesday morning) and have been pretty busy ever since with work, taking down Christmas decorations, rehearsals, stitching with my friend one afternoon, our monthly night out playing cards, and church.  A cold front blew in Friday and we enjoyed a weekend of winter temperatures even down into the mid 20's.   (I say "enjoyed" because it's already back in the 60's today.)

On the stitching front, I was able to finish Little House Needlework's December Calendar Girl.  (I have a few more to do to finish the series.)

I'm working on Day 1 of PS Twelve Days of Christmas for the Christmas Ornie SAL blog.  I've stitched the whole design on one piece of cloth but always wanted to stitch the individual days for ornaments and, since the theme this year is 12 Days of Christmas, this is the perfect opportunity.

We really enjoyed our holidays but it's always nice to get back to (our version) of normal.

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!

It's been a while

We returned home a few days ago from spending almost 2 weeks "up North" visiting with friends and family.  We missed going back last year so it was great getting to see everyone again.  It was also great to escape the Texas coast heat and humidity for a while.

Unfortunately just before the trip I bashed my (bare) foot against a basket filled with magazines. (My parents didn't name me Grace for a reason.)  I went along my merry way and it started feeling better until I walked all over the airports on the return trip like nothing had happened.  Turns out I dislocated my (and possibly broke it).  For the most part I was doing what I should have (let's not talk about that 2 mile hike in flip flops).  It's a lot better now but I still can't tolerate a shoe.  Hopefully soon.

Timing of the trip was a little complicated since our older children who live in CA and GA didn't have as much time as we did yet both wanted to visit both sides of the family (OH and PA).  We spent a few days with my parents in OH, drove to PA where the kids flew in to meet us (on different days from one another), spent time with DH's side of the family enjoying wonderful Italian food and wine (and s'mores cooked over a fire pit in the back yard).  Then we drove the whole crew back for few more days in OH.

I also got to spend a day in Columbus to visit with my buddy, Renee.  We had so much fun and the day went by way too quickly.

I spent a lot of time enjoying the weather outside with my foot propped up and got to do some stitching too.  Here's some of my progress on:

Beds of Roses:

CCN's Red, White, and Bloom

Hopefully it won't be so long before I post another blog entry.  Happy July, everyone!

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!