A Lovely Holiday!

I had a wonderful Christmas this year.  Keith was so excited that he decided he was going to sleep out on the living room floor by the Christmas tree.  Of course, this meant I was sleeping out in the living room as well to guard the packages.  Didn't want a repeat of last year when he opened some packages during the night because he couldn't wait.  Unfortunately, it ended up being an all night SLUMBER PARTY.  He actually only slept from 1:45 AM to 2:00 AM - sadly I know this as I never did get to sleep that night.  Didn't even need the alarm to put the turkey in the oven.  The family arrived around 9:45 AM and packages were opened, pictures taken.  We then spent the rest of our time together enjoying a wonderful dinner, great conversation and lots of laughs!

I didn't get a chance to show you this ornament I had made using a photo of the piece I stitched called Village in the Snow.  I even included the year in which it was stitched.  I'm so happy with how it turned out that I'm going to do this with a few of the other Christmas pieces I've stitched over the years. I will also include on the ornament the year I stitched them.  

The guys all went back to work the day after Christmas so I spent my day putting away all the Christmas decorations.  Keith always tries to get me to start dismantling the tree as soon as the family leaves.  I can honestly say I was too tired to even think about doing it this year.  Honestly I'm not a Scrooge it is just the tree sits in front of a window and by Christmas I am so craving the light from that window in the living room.  I'm always teased by my family that if I put one more ornament on the tree it will fall through to the basement.  I kind of thought it had a few bare spots this year.  I was actually asked the question this year of how many ornaments are actually on the tree.  I tell you it has been a year of questions from the guys in my family this year on numbers of things I do.  Yes, I actually counted each ornament as I wrapped it in tissue paper to put it away this year.  The grand total was 255.      Mmmmmm - should I make it an even 300 before I stop?

I finally decided to do a coffee table vignette with some of my wooden bobbins.  I've been wanting to display some of them for awhile and thought this was a perfect opportunity to try my hand at creating one.  I put the lovely piece Teresa (At Willow Tree Pond) stitched for me as an Advent exchange gift in my display.  I'm pretty happy with the results.

Yesterday I was supposed to spend the day shopping with my BFF, Rene' but unfortunately she woke up ill and our plans were cancelled.  I had posted on Facebook how excited I as to be going and then had to post a follow-up comment that my plans fell through.  Imagine my delight when my friends, Mary and Belinda invited me to join their quilt shop/lunch plans together.  It was so kind of them to include me in their plans and they are both so generous that way.   It was so wonderful to hear about their Christmas celebrations and I got to see Mary open her gifts from Belinda.  She must have been really good this year!  I also received a surprise gift that so overwhelmed me I ended up in tears.  I truly do have the most amazing friends and I love them all.  

Now that Christmas is a wonderful memory it is time for reflecting on goals/resolutions attained (or not) in 2012 and pondering what goals/resolutions to set for 2013.  I'm not a huge fan of setting resolutions as for some reason I think that word sets me personally up for some kind of failure.  Just the term seems to rigid with no room for flexibility.   I try not to "bite off more than I can chew" but to set steps to a bigger goal.  If I set a goal so large that it is unattainable, I end up giving up and feeling like I've failed.  I find I am much more successful in achieving my larger goals by getting to them through a series of smaller goals.  This year I've in mind a couple of goals for my health and well-being, a financial goal, a goal for simplifying/organizing, a goal for my stitching/sewing, and a goal for my reading.   

I promise to have one more post before the end of the year as I am going to give you my design for the placements I made for my friend, Allison for Christmas.