Christmas Part 2

Jeff and Frieda arrived the day after Christmas, driving all the way here from Utah. Last night they got to open their Christmas gifts, which Jeff had already been poking at. Liz was on the phone, so she was able to hear their reactions to the gifts she gave them. Here is Jeff with his.




Now Jeff really has to get a sea kayak!
To Frieda from Liz:



Can Jeff make Frieda fall off the ball?



Talking to Liz on the phone:

Opening more presents!

Fabric for Christmas

Here are photos of the fabric I got for Christmas! The first one is the 50 fat quarters from Tom. He has given me this gift for several years now; after he did it once, he realized it was a relatively easy gift, but got a good reaction and so, he has continued the tradition. Wise man! LOL He picks out each fat quarter himself but this year, he wrapped them in two separate boxes to be sneaky. There are one repeat, the blue print with the yellow bus, but that's not bad. In the past, I've used the fat quarters, one here...one there....but this time I thought it would be fun to make a quilt with all the fat quarters! I've been paging through books for patterns.


The other lovely fabric posted here was from Liz, who also has figured out "Mom likes FABRIC!" She ordered some of Robert Kaufman's "Last Frontier" fabric from a quiltshop in Skagway. I haven't gotten past just petting and admiring this fabric yet, to coming up with a project for it.

Another Baby Quilt give-away

This is a photo of Olivia, who was born December 12th. I managed to get a photo of her and her lovely mother, but you can't really see the baby quilt I had just given her. Oops! But the baby IS the cuter part of all this.

Aha! Going back through my photos, I found one of the front of Olivia's quilt.

Liz complained that, in that whole mess o' photos from Christmas morning, there wasn't any of Mom! HA! Clever of me, I am the one taking them. But...since Tom was also loose in the room with a camera and Liz voiced her request (via a phone call) where HE could hear...I promised to post a few of me on the blog. My favorite is the one with the crazed look in my eye, as I hugged some of the fabric Tom got for me. He bought 50 fat quarters--sneakily wrapping them in two separate boxes! WOW!!!


I tied a bow on Taz. She was tolerant, but mysteriously vanished for a few minutes, only to return without the bow! Hmmm! Later I found it and at Tom's urging, posed for a photo. It was only fair...right?








There you go, Liz!

Christmas Morning

This is the first Christmas in 32 years, when we haven't had any of our children in the house! Empty Nest. Hmm. Usually I like it, but for Christmas? Not so much. However, later Jim and Sheena came over for brunch, followed by the traditional ripping and shredding of wrapping paper. Many goodies were exchanged! Obviously we have all been very very good this year... The following are photos of the day, posted particularly so Liz can see them. The rest of you (is there anyone else out there?) well, you can look too--or if you'd rather, go slurp some eggnog and have a wonderful holiday!

Happy Christmas Eve EVE!

When I was a kid, my little brother and I used to count the days until Christmas. Today, for instance, is Christmas Eve EVE. Yes, the day before Christmas Eve. We took that to more annoying levels, however, in the weeks before Christmas, with exclamations of "Happy Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve" etc. I'm sure you get the picture. Driving our parents crazy until they shouted, "Knock it off!" Ahhh, so with that tender memory, I wish you all a very happy Christmas Eve EVE!


Last night was the Christmas party at church. It was pretty well attended. Tom and I were in charge of the ham, making sure the platters stayed full. Tom had a sharp knife, so he happily cut the ham to put on the platters. Give that man a sharp knife...and stand back! Our little friend, HaiLee, asked if she could sit with us. Of course I said she could. I had a wee gifty for her, an ornament for their Christmas tree. It's a little girl with RED hair. HA! A HaiLee ornament! She seemed delighted with it.

Here are photos of everyone sitting around, eating. Afterwards there was a short, rather unsatisfying program. Usually we have a program that is centered on Christ, the reason we celebrate Christmas...but this year....nope. It was more like a talent show, with only four people performing. Very short! One lady sang a lovely song while she played her harp. Her husband played Christmas songs on glass goblets. Both were amazing! Hidden talents emerging. The attempt, shortly thereafter, though, to have us all sing Christmas songs didn't go very well---as no one had hymn books. The fellow who was in charge of the program said, "If you have a hymn book, you can sing along." Did he think to pass them out? Most of us do pretty well with the first verse of the traditional Christmas songs, but when the chorister keeps going to the 2nd and 3rd verses, she tends to lose singers. Such was the case last night. In the past, the words to the songs have been printed up and on each of the tables. That would have been nice.




But...today is another day. Christmas Eve EVE! The Sunday before Christmas. I'll be with the other Sunbeam teacher, with our class of 3 year olds. The lesson in on the birth of Jesus. We have pictures of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus to color so they'll have something to take home with them and for a few minutes, we'll get the focus off Santa and presents--and talk about the Savior.

My Sunbeams: "Robin Hood" (a.k.a. Michael), Jack, Owen, Taylor and Julie.
In two weeks we'll get a new class, fresh from the nursery and these children will move on to another class, with a new teacher. Sunbeams really mature a lot in a year--these children are much better at sitting in their chairs, MOST of the time, than the new group will be. Wish me luck!