Christmas At My House

I did not have time to post over the holiday so instead of Happy New Year 

I will catch up on Christmas first! 

 I plan to post a WIP With Friends Tomorrow so get your posts ready!

My youngest daughter was here from NC so we had a house full for Christmas day.  

We were dog sitting for our nephew and my son brought Abbey and our daughter brought Beep 

(the peacock).

Up first is the dog's present.

Oh Abbey!

I thought I would tell you about one of my favorite traditions at my house.  

See that metallic green candle to the right of the angel?  

Can you see the silver one near her left ear and the red one on her head?  

This comes from all three kids trying to get "theirs" the highest on the tree.  

Now technically the green one wins as it is "on the tree" but to be fair, the red one is on the angel that is on the tree so I declared that one the winner.  

Silly children!

Beep with with us for the celebration.  We bought her a Xylaphone.  

My duaghter took a video of her playing it once she got home 

(she was too distracted to do a good job at our house).

The two youngest opening their gifts. 

This is my nephew's dog, Segram.  

She decided that I was her BEST friend, sigh, of course she did.  

She was a good dog but I forgot what it was like to have a dog around my ankles all the time. 

 Cats are so much easier for me to deal with!

I did make an apron for my son and it came out great! 

 Did I take a picture of it?  NOPE. But this is the fabric I used.  

The pattern did not call for it to be lined but I thought it would look so much nicer

 so I used that blue fabric at the top and lined it. 

 I'll see if I can get him to take a photo with it on.

We took our daughter out to the new place to eat in town, World Of Beer.  

This pretzel was gigantic, and the beer was wonderful 

(although a little expensive).  

After daughter #2 went back to NC we did a lot of cleaning up and chilling.  

Here was Hal hanging out with me on the couch watching a movie.  

It was so nice to be able to relax and just chill for a few days.  

Although you know me by now and that is not my MO.  

That being said, I did manage to get some sewing in and I will share that with you tomorrow

 as well as our NYE shenanigans

 (no there weren't really any shenanigans, but it sounds good). 

Let's meet up back here tomorrow and see what we have going on.

~XOP~

My New Great Niece and the Holly Dicken's Festival

My chenille blanket arrived and my new niece is now wrapped up in some love from me! 

 Isn't she a doll?

This weekend we did a little Christmas shopping and 

on Sunday we ended up in Holly for the Dicken's Festival.  

We try to go every year.  

There are characters from A Christmas Carol strolling around some were singing, some were acting.  Always fun.

There was a live nativity too.

I think this was the first year there was no snow. 

 I usually pick up a few "creepy elves" for my daughter but there was not a creepy elf to be found.  Sad.  I did spy a "Pansy bowl". 

 Have you ever seen them?  

My grandma had one, hers was green.  

You put Pansies in all the slots and eventually you end up with a beautiful Pansy ball. 

 I would love to find one of these.  

This one was close but the slots were a little big and it was not quite domed enough.

I did find this adorable reindeer but not creepy enough and my daughter said 

we are keeping to elves or angels or Santas.  

So I left him in the store.

I tried these odd felt animals but she said no go with those either.

I found the cutest apron. 

 I think, in the future, I may try to make one similar.  

Wouldn't this be adorable with Dresden plates along the hem?

Of course hubby liked this cuter apron. 

 He really wanted to get it for me, but between you and me, I think he had ulterior motives ; ) 

 It was kind of sassy!

On Saturday we did some thrifting in our shopping extravaganza and

 I found this great cake stand, still in the original box! 

 It is called Spirit of Christmas made by Portmeirion.

 I think it looks pretty Scandinavian, don't you?

Well that was my weekend, almost, in a nut shell. 

 I did get a couple of things cut out and ready to sew. 

 I REALLY need to get the Christmas decorations put up, the tree too. 

 Most of the Christmas shopping got done though and that's a great thing.  

I am making some things this year and we are cutting way back, obviously, 

since hubby is still unemployed.

How was your weekend??

~XOP~