There are lots of leftovers especially as this year I cooked a full turkey instead of the rolled seasoned thigh that I usually do. I also made 4 plum puddings lol... we love it, and 4 pavlovas not all for us as DD takes some to share with her boyfriends family as her contribution to their meal.
Santa has been and gone.
Quilty gifts I recieved were fat quarters and a new sewing machine. YES, due to and unexpected windfall I got a Janome 6600. I have only had a little play so far but WOW it is a lot different to my old basic Janome. A couple of things stand out so far, It is a lot quieter and the stitches are a lot straighter, hopefully my 1/4" seams will improve now. Today I will have more time to 'play' so I will see what else I can learn.
We cut back a lot this year just because we wanted to and because what do we really need. My family and I gave to charities in each others names this year and we think that we will continue this along with the birthdays from now on.
I suppose getting older and more forgetful is a good thing because Bert gave me the Mariner's Compass pattern book that he bought in Tennessee last March. I've been drooling over that all day but must get the UFO's done first. He also got me a sensor-digital camera that I can rig up next to the bird feeder that will automatically take pictures when triggered by a landing bird. I'm so excited about that. I can think of all sorts of places to use it to get pictures of wildlife.
That's all but more than enough. I have my health, home, family and job so I have nothing to complain about.
Best wishes to all as the New Year approaches.
Steven Alaska
There are lots of leftovers especially as this year I cooked a full turkey instead of the rolled seasoned thigh that I usually do. I also made 4 plum puddings lol... we love it, and 4 pavlovas not all for us as DD takes some to share with her boyfriends family as her contribution to their meal.
Santa has been and gone.
Quilty gifts I recieved were fat quarters and a new sewing machine. YES, due to and unexpected windfall I got a Janome 6600. I have only had a little play so far but WOW it is a lot different to my old basic Janome. A couple of things stand out so far, It is a lot quieter and the stitches are a lot straighter, hopefully my 1/4" seams will improve now. Today I will have more time to 'play' so I will see what else I can learn.
My husband came up trumps on fabric, he must have had a red/pink moment, but I have several fat quarters and some yardage. One is a lovely reddy pink with a kind of swirly but also leafy design on it, I'm thinking of doing a two colour lone star with it, probably with green, then doing some kind of a applique in the setting triangles and squares. I modern take on the one in the history section of the most recent fons and porter.
No quilty gifts here as I specifically asked NOT to receive fabric and such. I know, I should be shunned. However, with this law going into effect that could shut down my small sewing business, I don't want to be inundated with fabric for a while.
What I did receive was Wii Play (which came with another remote) and a new cover - bonus for me since the children have chewed on the original remotes and covers, they now know that the new one is MOMs only! I also received 2 new charms for my MOPS necklace. MOPS = Mothers of PreSchoolers and they used to put out jewelry for each year's theme. However, given that they weren't making any money, they stopped making them. So, this year I got a butterfly for last year's theme and a roller coaster for this year's theme. I also received a beautiful gold locket with "mom" engraved on it and which I was able to put pictures of my little angels in. I had bought myself 2 t- shirts: "I can't believe I own a minivan" and "They say I have ADD, but they just don't understand.....oh look, a chicken!" And finally, and statue of Tinker Bell that says "I don't Tink so!"
So appropriate and fun! Best wishes to all and may this be a wonderful quilty year for all
Congrats on the new machine, Dee. You'll love it, I'm sure.
We just returned from spending the day at my mom's house - way too much to eat, but a good day. Played lots of dominos and just enjoyed being with each other. The only quit-related gift I received was a DVD on freehand quilting on the longarm. I also had asked for a neck/shoulder massager, and my niece came through for me! I couldn't wait to try that one out, and just finished a very relaxing 15 minutes!
I hope everyone had a warm and wonderful Christmas!
Our kids and grandkids are coming tomorrow, the 26th. That gives them a day at home to rest and recover from Christmas Eve with the other grandparents :). DH & I opened our gifts for each other last night. Nothing quilt-y, but he did surprise me with a pair of diamond earrings! He is not one to buy much jewelry -- in fact the last jewelry he picked out by himself was my engagement ring 42 years ago and the pearl necklace he gave me as a wedding gift. I was pretty surprised; I'd been kidding him about diamond earrings, but never thought he'd really do it.
We spent a few hours yesterday and again today volunteering at the local Ronald McDonald House. Today a group of volunteers prepared a big Christmas dinner for the House guests and their extended families -- a pretty big group. They fixed 10 turkeys and 5 hams plus all the trimmings. We got in on the feast, too. Except for a couple hours during the meal today, it was pretty quiet over there. Lots of people came in to donate plates of cookies or breads. They are overflowing with baked goodies now. If you want to donate to a place like that in your area, it may be best to check ahead. The local house needs paper goods and basic supplies more than baked goods at this time of the year. I suspect that the baked goods would be appreciated more in a few months.
Well, yes, Kay. Mary's day sounded pretty good to us too. We have finally tossed the last cookie monster out the door. Yogi is stretched out like a dachshund on the hearth. You might say he's dog tired. Polly
"Kay Ahr" You have received the gift of peace and quiet. No crying children and no
My quilty gift was from me to me. Mother Nature was hiding then showing the sun all day, so I alternating using a spotlight or the sun to handquilt on the baby quilt I am working on. It was fairly quiet around the complex. Just got back from a walk at sunset - pretty darn cold and very windy here! We have had the drizzly rain most of the day
- just what the plants and weeds love.
A solitary day to quilt and meditate, turn things over in my mind that need turning over.
I have declared today a snackies and pudd day. We have plenty of cheese and crackers and veggies and fruit. Folk can graze when they are hungry, and we made some french onion soup for anyone who wants something hot. Sweeties abound as well, so we are set for everything. We had the big lasagna sit down last night, and I am just not up to spending the day cooking. I have been spending the day playing with the baby, watching Christmas specials on DVD alternating with movies people got for Christmas, reading my new books, and kicking assorted people's butts in chess, backgammon, and uno, and admiring DH's burgeoning skills on the egyptian lute I wound up getting for him. It has been a very busy day even without cooking more.
I got books! No sewing or quilting books, but I did finally get the fifth edition of "The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques". It has been out for years, but I have still been using the third and fourth editions. I got a trade paperbook copy of "Starship Troopers", I didn't even know there was a trade copy available. Also a copy of "Children of Hurin" which is a new Tolkien-Tolkien that I didn't even know was out. I got a spanky new copy of Kipling's "Kim", and a copy of "Dare to Repair" plus the plumbing mini from it. I got a bag of 16 assorted spring clamps, a ceramic snowman, and a way cool military knife with a sparker, too.
More importantly, DH loves his oud (the lute), I hit it on the nose with the Star Wars trilogy for kiri, DD3 was purely delighted with her wooden blocks and bag of marbles, Ash likes his guitar (Though DH hit the big score with a book that is about 3 feet by 2 feet about outer space), the homemade totebag full of sewing doodads wias a hit with DD1, the running with scissors T-shirt and morning curse coffee mug I made for DD's boyfriend are much admired and he is looking forward to wearing the shirt, and the talking singing interactive dog for Damian was driving his mom nuts inside of 10 minutes (so I won't get thrown out of the gramma's union! (G))
We haven't had ours yet. Our DS and family will be here tomorrow, and we'll open gifts later in the day. We didn't buy each other anything, the cruise was our gift this year. Besides, there's nothing we need. Gen
lol polly. Big old ds was here and wore my pooches out too. They are lying here in big heaps. One of the kitties is afraid of him and has been under the bed for 2 days. DS is fun for big dogs but fraidy cats don't like the rough housing. We did the big family last year so this year was quiet with just the 4 of us here at home. DS works many holidays so it is always a treat to actually be all together on 'the day'. It has just been a quiet pleasant season we all enjoyed. Presents were simple and that works out pretty well.
I'm very thankful for so very much this year. I didn't ask for anything, but DH surprised me with a new Garmin GPS nuvi 760. It's a bit overwhelming....it has FM traffic, Bluetooth wireless (hands-free phone !!), it speaks street names, has widescreen, has FM transmitter so the sound will play through the car speakers (inc. when using it with the phone), and is also a MP3 player. Best of all it has "Where am I?" so I can take it with me when I go to the mall and when I'm ready to leave it will tell me where I parked the car. He has a GPS for his work vans which I end up borrowing from time to time so he wanted me to have my own ... what a guy :)
Other gifts from DH included the "Mama Mia" DVD (which has been fully watched and sung-along to!) and the new Jeff Dunham's Christmas Special (he's just the most amazing ventroloquist on the planet....) and I laughted so hard my face hurt!
We had a lovely quiet day until 4pm when we went over to DD1&2 for dinner and I didn't have to cook a thing. Her first time cooking Christmas food. It was jummy fish, caught by SIL, roast pork, chicken kebabs and vegies and salad. Plus pudding and brandy sauce.
For Christmas I got a 19inch widescreen monitor, handbag, cover for my car, wallet, lovely red rose bush, a book on 'sex kittens" of the furry kind (very funny book) and the pleasure of my family.
Today, Boxing day, the remainder of my family that is brothers, sister and their families - we all met at a restaurant (17 of us) and had a really great family luncheon.
Oh my - FOUR puddings AND FOUR pavlovas!!! What a feast!
And Dee - a new 6600!! Lucky you. It's is a beautiful machine and I am sure you will love it.
I just wanted to send belated seasons greetings to all on rctq. I don't post anymore, and I don't get to read much either. But I think of you all often, and I wanted to send you all - wherever you are and whenever/whatever/whyever you celebrate at this festive time of year - best wishes to you and your loved ones.
May the best of 2008 be the worst of 2009 for all.
We don't "do presents" for each other. We find things for any kids in the family, and of course a couple of gifts for our sons and daughter-in-law. DS2 gave me an Olfa circle cutter - have to try it out today. DS1 gave me season 3 of Corner Gas, and another season of Mash to DH We had a quiet day, cooking a turkey and fixings, and going for a couple of bike rides.
On Thu, 25 Dec 2008 16:52:09 -0600, Dee in Oz wrote (in article ):
The quilty gifts I got were 2008 Stash and EQ6 Pieced Drawing book. Plus, the Sewline mechanical marking pencil which everyone in my little quilting group has been dying to try. I guess I get to be the first.
Hi, All!! Merry Holidays to all... Good to see Cheryl! and Dee, congrats on the new machine!! (i'm sooo jealous!) , and Julia's diamonds....
well, it was a fun day here...got to sleep in!, then DD and i opened our gifts. Mostly gift certificates/cards for the stores we like. I did get a few FQ's. Shopping will be cool when the sales are on! Really missed my Cricket mutt this year. she loved Christmas =(. My DS cooked supper, ham and all the fixin's, even desserts....pumpin pie, apple pie and red-velvet cake. all were awesome...i did'nt even have to do a dish!! But i did eat too much. Christmas eve was at mom-n-dad's, lots of fun with all the family.
Hope everyone's New Year is wonderful! I plan on sewing allllll daaayyy....LOL
DH got a quilting mag for me, DD gave each of us Used $2.00's and promised when she is 'rich's from book sales they would be used $20's.Said she and the bank teller had a ball picking out USED bills and not new ones. they even found one that was printed with RED INK!
DS loved his afghan and teased us about my only working on it whilst we were 'on the road'. Said it will cost a fortune by the time it's done if I only work on it then. LOL I had only re-started it 3 separate times to get his name done correctly. He was so pleased that I'd even do another. (His was stolen when he was lil and he never got over it. It was 'his blankie') I've made him a different one, but it just never was the same.... then I couldn't crochet for years..... Sooooooooo, by next Christmas, he should have a replacement.
DD liked her Christmas Tree WUH. (Her Aunt & Cousin did all the beads, strings of beads, and decorated it up) Now, I just have to put mini lights in it....
Hope '09 is a better year for all of us Butterfly (Sun's out!)
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