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!  :-)