Happy New Year's Eve!!!

Hi! and hope you are all enjoying a great evening, the last night of 2009!! I am ready for a new year and a new start. Got my new calendar and making my plans for lots of good things in the year 2010. To make sure the year gets off to a good start, we have been cleaning and sorting and that kind of thing. Not exactly what I was planning for my days after Christmas but it had to be done. Kinda kept me from doing the quilty, bloggy, Yahoo group things I was planning but I am ready to get back at it starting tomorrow!
First, though, there is still snow out there and lots of it. This past Monday morning, I ventured out to mail these.........
yep, finally I sent the packages out that contained the charm squares that I offered up in my Christmas in July giveaway last July!! Better late than never............
On my way to the Post Office, I passed these fellas...........

Somebody that's a lot stronger than I am put these sturdy snowmen together!!! No snow in the forecast for a few days but we are headed into the deep freeze!! Later in the afternoon, the mailman delivered two unexpected little packages and one came from Nanette..............

I love her little three inch square pack and know exactly what I am going to do with it. :-) Thanks, Nanette...........

And then there was this lovely card and gift from Nihal in Istanbul. She made me a pair of "Blue Moon" earrings and I am wearing them as I write this!

Lovely, aren't they? I've checked out the "Blue Moon" that is rising on this New Year's Eve and it is beautiful!! Thanks, Nihal!

If you live here in the Henderson area, you might want to stop in at the Historical Society on Sunday afternoon and check out the quilts on display. I was asked to come and take a peek at the quilts this past Tuesday and help determine names of patterns used in the quilts. I took several pictures and will share on Saturday! :-)

As noted, we have been sorting and such and here are a couple of fun items that I came across when I unpacked boxes that were packed for our move three years ago!!

There were old linens.........my baby book and a magazine given to my mother when I was born and then an old issue of Woman's Day from December, 1960. It belonged to my mother who always bought a copy of Woman's Day and Family Circle each time she went grocery shopping. I'm going to sit down and read this one in a few minutes while my husband is watching some movie, probably an old Clint Eastwood flick. :-) It was fun to go through some of things in the boxes and then again, some of it made me feel like ....."whoa!! where did the time go?!?!"

And speaking of time, that's all the time I have for posting now. I'll be back tomorrow at about 1:00 p.m. - right after the Rose Bowl Parade is over - and I will share the first of a new Redwork block series of Angels and I'll have a little bit of a New Year's Day Giveaway, too. :-) See you then..........

Happy, Happy New Year!!!

Sandi

More Snow pictures.........

When I looked out the window on Sunday morning, the sun was shining and the trees were covered in frost. Everything just glittered. I grabbed my camera and threw open the windows so I could take these pictures of the trees in our backyard............................

and the trees in our neighbors back yard.................

and the sun was so bright and it looked so cool when I took the picture!

Remember that croquet set that I got for Christmas? Well, this is the spot where next summer there will be green grass and we will have some good old-fashioned fun playing croquet. I can hardly wait but considering we got more snow tonight, I think there's a long winter ahead before spring blossoms!

Thank goodness, I have plenty of sewing, quilty, wooly, stitching projects to keep me busy during this long winter's nap. Today, I made some curtains for my husband's office. Then I sewed more striped candy canes so I can stuff a ton of them for a project I have planned for next year. It is going to be so cool and I am so glad that Carrie shared the project during the Christmas blog hop. :-) Tomorrow, I am working on quilt blocks for my block of the month projects. Oh, and we're cleaning and sorting in the basement which is not nearly as much fun as sewing. Oh, well, ya never know what project I might find in one of those boxes!!

Have a good Monday!!
Sandi

Happy Christmas Pictures.......

Here are a few pictures from our family Christmas Eve gathering......We started with a ham dinner. Steve cooked the ham, I did the rest. :-) Please note his red plaid shirt. Next year there will be a red flannel shirt theme to our Christmas. Collette has it all planned. :-)
Prior to the big snowstorm's arrival, we were going to attend the Christmas Eve service at church but the snowstorm changed those plans. I must admit that it was kind of nice to eat a leisurely meal and not hurry to clean up and get out the door and yet I missed not attending the service. I was just glad we were all together and safe, what with all the snow and icy roads. Finally, Jacob asked "when are we going to open gifts?"...........and so we did. He was wearing his Minnesota Vikings Santa hat the whole evening. :-) There were Transformers, cars, books and a couple of electronic games so he was a very lucky boy.
All of us big kids were lucky, too......this is Collette and I getting all excited over Martha Stewart glitter assortments that Devlin gave us. He needed an idea for us and I suggested it. Nice. :-)

I am opening a big gift that Collette wrapped in fabric because she couldn't figure out how to easily wrap a Croquet set. I forgot that I had suggested this way last fall. Nice, again. :-)

We got Collette a new iron because that was what she wanted. Jacob didn't think that was a very good gift as he said "you already have an iron, mom". Yes, she does, but she is happy to have one that will work better. :-)

Our son-in-law Daryl, is a Star Wars fan and he is way happy with his gift of the Star Wars Encyclopedia. He didn't even ask for this because he didn't know it existed. We found it at Barnes and Noble and knew it was "just right". We lucked out for Devlin, too, as he wanted some computer thingy that Steve found and it was just what he needed. Stacia was in Iowa with family so her gifts went home with Devlin.

Here's Jacob still wearing the Santa hat and opening more gifts. :-)

Then there was the gift that Daryl got for Jacob because when Daryl was little he enjoyed playing it .....sorry I can't remember the name of it but Devlin had it, too, and could remember playing it. (Pat came to the rescue.......it's "Rock 'em, Sock 'em, Robots!!") Collette couldn't remember the game at all so Devlin gave her a boxing lesson and showed her what it was like to be a kid again. :-)

The "kid in me" loves to fill the Christmas stockings with lots of good little gifts and some gag gifts, too. Steve is in charge of filling the stockings with candy. Each year, I start right after Christmas collecting the things that will end up in everyone's stockings. Most are just right and even the gag gifts get a good laugh. Here's Devlin with his gag gift.......it's a giant "grow snake".....you know, it's one of those you put in water and wait for a few days to see it "grow". He always said he wanted a snake and I thought "no way". Now he can have his snake and grow it whenever he wants, too. ;-).

We had a very happy and blessed Christmas together. I hope you all did, too. :-)

Sandi

And the snow has ended.........

Well, it has almost ended. It seems to stop and then it starts again. I can't recall a Christmas with this much snow! The heaviest amount of snow fell on Christmas Eve. While our stockings were hung on the stair railing with care............

the snow was accumulating inch by inch on the lawn outside our house. On Christmas Day, there was still more snow and by Saturday (today), it was deeper than I've ever seen it since we moved out here three years ago!!

My husband, Steve used the snowblower to carve paths in the yard for Kaiser, the Wonder Beagle. Here's Kaiser wondering...... "where did my yard go?"

The sun came out for just a bit and I snapped this shot of my favorite tree in our backyard. It was my inspiration for my "Path of the Seasons" wool throw project. Now that Christmas gatherings are over, I'll get back to that project and other quilty, wooly, stitching things. Before I do that, though, I'm going to pick a few Christmas pictures to share and will post those tomorrow evening. I'll see you all then........

Sandi

Snowy weather but a wonderful night!

The weather outside was frightful and driving was something one needed to do slowly but......our daughter, Collette and husband, Daryl and grandson, Jacob all arrived safely. And then a little while later, our son Devlin made his way here after he got off work. It was not really a good night for travelling but I am glad that there was a "window" of slightly less heavy snowfall that allowed them all to get here. We had a lovely evening this Christmas Eve and I am writing at this hour because we watched "It's a Wonderful Life" and didn't start it til well after midnight! It's a great movie to go to sleep on. Sweet dreams everyone! I am headed to bed to dream of "visions of sugar plums" and such. :-)
To all who celebrate Christmas......Merry Christmas!
I have had the best Christmas in years even though it wasn't how I expected it would be. Isn't it interesting how that can happen? Enjoy this coming day wherever you are!
Sandi who is dozing off as I write........zzzzzz.....zzz

Need help from Santa!

Dear Santa,
Last Saturday I went to the post office to mail a package to my mother. I filled it with many little wrapped gifts so that she would have something fun to open on Christmas day. I sent it Priority. I insured it. I trusted the USPS. It only had to go 180 miles from here in Minnesota to my mom's in Iowa and it's had more than five days to get there. It didn't arrive before Christmas. Our local carrier said that "yes, it should have arrived by now". Now it's "wait and see if it ever arrives" and then I'll have to file the insurance claim if it doesn't get there. I just want you to know that I was a really good girl and did my part to keep the USPS solvent by sending out lots of Giveaway packages and I have a dozen packages to mail to blogging friends right after Christmas. Yes, Sir, I sent lots of packages all over the world this past year and everyone got to it's destination in a timely manner...........except this one!!! I thought I'd let you know about this in case when you look in your sleigh for gifts, you might find that package was misdirected into your pack and then you could just drop it on my mom's doorstep. You know where she lives. Hoping that if it doesn't arrive after Christmas that she will at least get it by New Year's Day!!! What a bummer!
Have a happy Christmas! Watch out for the heavy snow that's settling down on so many of us. Oh, and make sure your sleigh runners don't ice up as we don't need to hear about you and your reindeer crashing into a snowbank! Time to get out the stockings so they can be hung and ready for you to fill!!
Love,
Sandi who has always believed in Santa :-)

Snowy Days Ahead!

Sorry, I've been the "absent blogger" but Christmas things needed to be done and blogging had to take a "back seat" for a bit. Everything is ready now but it looks like no one will be able to make it to our house for Christmas!! If the weatherman is even half-right, we are in for a lot of snow!! There is no doubt that we will have a white Christmas. The thing is that we already had plenty of snow and last Sunday we got more so we don't really need what we're getting right now!!!
I took the photo above right after the snow that we got last Sunday morning. This is the "town tree" that sits outside City Hall. I loved this picture because most things around it looked black and white and then the ornaments just "popped". :-)
So, what has kept me so busy that I can't find time to blog.....well, there were Christmas cards and a letter to write. I finished those on Monday and off they went in the mail..........

Then there were "Chocolate Molten Mug Gifts" to put together for friends and neighbors. I am so glad Terry Atkinson posted this little giftie on her blog as it was just what I needed for giving. I did take a "short-cut" though.........I didn't make fabric bags to hold the mug-cake ingredients but instead found Snowman plastic bags that worked great and allowed me to put together more mugs because I wasn't spending time making bags.

I made one of these for me last week just to see what the cake tastes like. It was very rich and chocolatey. I should have added ice cream as Terry suggested and it would have been even better! :-)

Some of the mugs went to friends in my Bible Study group, so I took them along when we met on Tuesday. We were at my friend Joanie's house and it was so beautifully decorated. She has such a knack for arranging things. I've shared pics of her flowers and gardens during the summer months but here is the arrangement she had on her dining room table. It was so lovely!

I baked cookies today and then, of course, I had to make fudge! And then.......... our Christmas present was delivered today! We bought a kitchen table and chairs right after Thanksgiving and decided it would be our Christmas gift. We relegated the cardtable and chairs that we have been using since we moved here (3 years ago) to the basement!!! I should have taken a picture but I forgot. I've been too busy watching the snow fall and following the weather story on T.V. We'll know in the morning if our kids will be able to make the drive to be with us on Christmas Eve. If they can't, then all we want is that they stay home and stay safe. We can share our gifts and enjoy that ham dinner on another day. In the meantime, here's wishing you..................

Have a wonderful day wherever you are!

Sandi