Quilter's Night Before Christmas

My friend Cheryl sent me this little ditty:
  
Twas the night before Christmas, I'm glued to the tree.
I'm wondering what Santa brought just for me.
Could it be fat quarters or a pattern or lace?
Or a quilt kit, I said, with a smile on my face.
And that's when I heard him,
"Hi Santa," I said
"You know....good little girls should be in their beds ".
"I know I should Santa, and now I've got caught.
But I was just so excited to see what you brought."
"Well, let's take a look in this room where you work."
He shook his head quickly, And left with a jerk.
I heard him exclaim as he put it in gear.
"You've got enough stuff, I'll see you next year!"

~Author Unknown

Christmas projects

I have a little quilt as you go wall hanging up, a dozen fabric candy canes, and a new flannel pillow done this past week - today I'll be baking cookies!  Yum - the best part of the holidays!

Here's a picture of my projects:

The directions for all of these projects were included in the recent Cross Country Designers Blog Hop sponsored by 12 quilt designers, including Gudrun (the quilt) Pat Sloan (the pillow) and the Candy Canes were offered by Miss Rosie's on day 10. All of the projects included in the Blog Hop were quick easy holiday patterns and one participant even managed to get all 12 projects done by the end of the Hop - impressive work from bro3ther! 

The designers even gave away prizes for those who commented on their blogs on 'their' days and there was a Grand Prize (which yours truly received, amazing!) which I just HAD to spread out and photograph for posterity:

An amazing and very generous assortment of goodies, patterns, books, tools, fabrics, and kits - I'm still stunned that I won all this just for making comments!  and the blog hop itself was so inspirational with all the holiday traditions, memories, old pics, etc., and even a blast from the past - it was so much fun, it was worth getting up extra early every morning just to read them all!

If you would like to see more Christmas quilts, check out my friend's blog:
http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com/

I'm off to the kitchen to bake cookies now - merry merry time!

Thanksgiving prep

It's time to finalize the plans for Thanksgiving - the menu, the schedule, the headcount, the seating arrangements, or maybe the restaurant reservations!

My very favorite Thanksgiving restaurant has been closed for several years, so we went shopping for a new alternative - last year, we went to an 'all you can eat buffet' for Thanksgiving - it was great - everyone had their favorites, there were no leftovers, and no cleanup - I highly recommend it. Admittedly, it was not as much fun as the time we spent Thanksgiving with my brother and his family in San Diego....

I had just started to have hot flashes that year.... and had not yet realized that wine increased the 'power surges' so my beloved S-I-L and I were having a glass (or two) while we prepped the turkey, peeled potatoes, etc. and along with having the most fun I've ever had in a kitchen - I had ice pops stuffed in my clothes to help counter the 'power surges'.... it's possible we had a little more fun due to the fact that the turkey wasn't done until 8PM, so we had plenty of time for wine and finished the bottle off well before the food was ready to serve.
Good times, good family, good wine! Great combination.