Wordless Wednesday.....or.....A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

(At least this year I'm not doing it in the dark!)

It's getting closer!

All the secret Christmas sewing is just about done.  Now I just have to remember to take pictures of everything before I wrap it, or as it is unwrapped.  I don't have a good track record with photo taking during the excitement so I can only hope.  :-)

The photos with Santa are trickling in.  I'm hoping for more!

 

The weather has been unusually warm so we've been able to spend time outside.  "Look Nini!  I decorate my rock!"

A little garland makes for a lot of fun.

Warm or cold, Maisy never settles down on a cold hard floor.  Piglet's bed is a better option.

 

I shoved one of Maisy's beds into the empty space under my sewing machine tables.  Our dogs are not cuddly with each other.  We were amazed to observe these two sharing....at least for a few minutes. 

It's been great weather for walks.

The Tramp and I enjoyed the Raleigh Ringers concert at Meymandi.  Fabulous as always!

 

The Viking has to put up with all the sewing and being dragged around Christmas shopping.   He's been so good and on this day earned his candy cane ice cream.

Not a flattering photo, but it was a cute moment.  He was very concerned about the motif on his t-shirt.  "But my heart don't want to be broken!"  Happily, he forgot about it quickly and went back to playing.  :-)

Today was a good day for building forts.  I pressed three sewing machines and my desk chair into service as supports.

I had the silly idea that he might nap under there.  Nope.  He never stopped talking for a moment, but it kept him busy while I finished up another project.

Piglet got serious about napping though.

The weather has cooled down some in the past couple of days and become more seasonal.  And this is the last day without rain until Friday so we took advantage of it with a couple of outings.  He's saying, "Cheese-smile," like it's one word.  At least I got him to stand still for a hot second.  :-)

 

Secret Santa Christmas Swap - SSCS

I'm not going to rant about Blogger, I'm not going to rant about Blogger, I'm not going to rant about Blogger, I'm not going to rant about Blogger.  Ok.  Got that out of my system.  ;-)

Today my SSCS gift arrived in the mail, all the way from Australia!  The lovely Fiona turns out to be my partner.  Or am I her partner?  Hmmmmm.  Oh well, either way I'm the lucky recipient.   This pretty package has to wait until Christmas Day.  I put it under the tree for the photo, but it's now safely off the floor so no dog has an opportunity to investigate any exotic smells from overseas.

 I was allowed to open the package with the Christmas ornament.  Wow.  Fabulous!

Beautiful stitching on both sides.

It's now on the tree where I can enjoy it from my favorite chair.  :-)

My other partner has received her gift from me.  Shez has put my funny bird ornaments on her tree.  They were so much fun to make. 

Last Christmas we were in the throes of having all of our plumbing replaced so decorating was minimal.  This year I also have the pleasure of displaying the gifts I received from Sharon last year.  She sent this wonderful stitchery.  It always makes me smile.

She sent this cute owl too.  How did she know I have a "bird tree"?

I missed it last year and it was nice to get reacquainted with my bird collection.

The trees were prelit with incandescent lights which I cut off.  Having done that twice, I have a keen appreciation for the workers, wherever they may be, who install the lights on these trees.  Let me tell you, it's not easy to remove them!  So we had to buy new LED lights this year and waffled about the colors.  The compromise was a string of red and a string of green.  The effect is "interesting".  That's about as excited as I can get.  At least I can change it next year.  :-)

I'm still scanning older family photos and came across this one from 1984.  The Sailor Son wouldn't stay in the playpen so I stuck the tree in it instead.  Those were the days!

Christmas sewing continues.  Isn't this the cutest darned thing you've ever seen?  Jodi's patterns are so great.  More to come!  :-)

Thanksgiving

Hmmmm.  I'm having to use Firefox for posting as for some reason Blogger has made it hard to use Safari.  Grumble, grumble.  Ok.  Rant over.

Thanksgiving was a wild and busy weekend.  The Tramp and I live a quiet life so having four young children underfoot for 3 1/2 days was new and wonderful.....for 3 1/2 days anyway.  ;-)

I did lots of sewing to prepare for the weekend and took only a couple of pictures of what I made.   That's how busy we were!  The daughters and Five have fall birthdays so we were able to have cake and presents.  I made bags for the girls and $ made the boy happy.  I'm sure it will go towards Lego.  I made sure everyone had a small giftie at the table.  Fancy chocolates for Mom and Dad and ten fun pillowcases for everyone else.  We declared it an "un-birthday" and sang "Happy Birthday to Me"!

Since The Tramp's pillowcase lives in this house I could at least get a photo of that one.  :-)



Thanksgiving dinner was a great success and there was lots of other time for fun too.  Cousins enjoyed being together.  I made some gluten-free playdough.

Lego was everywhere and we found new things to watch on the TV.

I love this photo.  They each had a tablet, but mostly they preferred sharing.

The weather was warm and sunny so we made sure to visit the parks.

 Funny faces!

Five decided to be a chicken on a nest.  lol

Batman insisted on trying to take a selfie.

 But posed nicely when we convinced him the big camera doesn't work like a camera phone.

The Sailor Son bought a remote control boat about two years ago.  After one use we couldn't find the battery and charger anywhere!  The boys ask about it everytime they visit.  Well guess what I found in the treadle drawer in the guest room when I was getting ready for guests?  Yep.  There it is.....and his secret stash of chocolate!  :-)

So we had boat time too.

Everyone also enjoyed helping put up the outdoor lights.  This weekend we decorated indoors.  Now I have to finish sewing gifts and shopping for gifts!