HAPPY NEW YEAR

My, My how time flies!! I can't believe it is 2008 already. Christmas went past in a blur. Both of my DD's were home for the holiday. This made me very happy. DD2 helped me clean, decorate and bake cookies for the holiday. So I have a lot to say and will have to break it up into several posts so keep checking back and I will work on posting more! First there was Christmas with DH's family. We get together with his whole family on Christmas eve. This year it was in Kalamazoo at his brother's house. DH is the oldest of 7 and there are 15 nieces and nephews too so it is a lot of people and a lot of fun. Last year Williams and Sonoma came out with a pan that would make a train. Well, DH thought it would be fun to make 2 trains and bring them with candy and frosting for all the nieces and nephews to decorate. It was a HUGE success. This year they came out with a new pan...cars and trucks. We had fun choosing the candy and decorating stuff. Here you see Aunt Sarah with my DS (in the orange shirt) and 2 of the nieces.



This is my Godson, Mark. Even some of the older kids joined in making some and helping the littles with theirs. Isn't he a handsome guy??

Now, if you remember, I was making a quilt for my In-Laws but I don't think I posted any photos. Here they are opening it up.

This is a photo of the quilt. It is totally in their colors and they loved it!

Now I am moving on to our house. I took a few photos of the decorating but really the tree is the most beautiful, right? Here is ours on Christmas eve after Santa had come.

So before Christmas, I met my friend Yuki for lunch and to exchange some small gifts. We went to one of our favorite shops, Treasure Mart, in Ann Arbor. It is a consignment shop and seems to get a lot of antiques. So I found this beautiful armoir (not sure how to spell this). Isn't it just gorgeous?? Well, it was priced right too so I bought it for DD1 for her apt in IN. It was a steal at $125!!! (hope she doesn't read this, lol. She just loved it. It will stay in our garage until we can load it into our van and take it to her.

I guess no Christmas is complete unless someone is rolling in the papers, right Laxy??

Awwww, isn't he cute?? This was one of his favorite gifts. I also got him a fishing lure box at Treasure Mart. It was a chest off an old sail boat. He loved it! (Of course I stocked it with fly tying "stuff")

We bought DS a book on Sign Spotting and it had such gems as "Beware of invisibility" in it and DD1 abd DH were cracking up!

Then I took my girls and met my friend Shelby for lunch. My DD1 is named after her and she is one of my oldest and dearest friends. We had a good time. She lost her husband a few years ago to and aortic anuresim (again, not sure of the spelling. He was a great guy and we all miss him a lot. Funny story, since both she and DD1 share a name we were calling them big and little, when "Big" asked if we could call her something else, so to this day they were Aunt Shelby and Uncle Mike. We miss him but every day is better for her and it was a treat for us to be all together!

Happy New Year everyone. This is what we woke up to this morning! It is beautiful. I sure am glad I don't have to go out in it (except to play with the dog, lol)

Last but not least, Santa (aka DH) was very, very good to me. Here I am modeling my favorite gift. My new green clogs!!! I just love them!! I also got a new portable sewing machine to take to the church and to classes etc. It is a Brother and has 110 stitches on it, a 1/4 in foot and a walking foot and too many features to name here. I just love it. I plan to try it out soon as I took my Bernina to the shop for PM. Should be back in a week or so. I suppose that gives me time to put all the decorations away and get the house cleaned up just in time for her to come home. I have been reading with interest the stash busting posts and I think I will be joining in on that. I have also read some of the NY resolutions. I will be making a list soon for that too. I have a list of projects that I want/need to finish and I think that will top the list. I will save all of this for the next post so I can have some time to think about what I want to do and make sure I can stay with it. I did begin the 365 day challenge quilt today! I made one for my DF Ellen and my DD1, so we will see if we can motivate each other to keep up with it. I actually only have 2 rows of mine sewn but that gives me a month or more to finish it up. I guess that is the first one on the list! I also gave my DS his Texas quilt. He is in love with it. I will get pictures of it and post them soon too. Liz the quiltin' whiz did a fantastic job! (I have a photo of her and the CL's to post later) Wow, who knew there was so much work to do posting stuff??

I hope you all have a wonderful and productive and healthy New Year! What was your favorite Christmas gift?