Did you have a good Christmas?

Hope you did! I know I sure did!
I went to my daughter's house on Christmas Eve to share Christmas with them and brought my grandsons back with me for this week to celebrate New Year's Eve with them along with my husband and mother.
Here is a video of my grandsons on Christmas Eve:



My mom, James and I went in and got each one of the kids a big gift. We got my oldest, Trent, a Legos Harry Potter Mansion set and the youngest, Craig, a Big Foot the Monster animated toy.
Here are some before, during and after photos:



They really liked their gifts. We woke up at 7:30am to find the oldest in his room. He had completed 7 of the 10 levels for the Legos Mansion and was on the 3rd instruction book (out of 3!). We asked if he had slept and he assured us he did, but who knows how early he got up!
The Big Foot monster was enjoyed by all. If you haven't seen it, type in "Big Foot the Monster" on Google and watch the video. Then imagine that it is twice as funny because it is!
This year was particularly special to me. My daughter's family got a new house this year and she has her own living area (they live with her husband's family). She has a fireplace and lots of space to decorate.
I brought down ALL of my holiday stitching, from Christmas through Valentine's Day through Easter and on through the Fourth of July, Halloween and Thanksgiving. I also brought a framed sampler I had made for her in 2000 that I had been waiting to have her have in her own home.
You can see some of the stitching in the photos (the little bears and the stockings). She also received all of my stitched ornaments, some of which were made from friends that are no longer with us (and with whom my daughter grew up around).
It was quite fulfilling to pass along my stitching while I am still around to see her enjoy it.
I pray this next year brings all of you plenty of great needles, patterns, fabric and threads and that all little froggies that would get in the way of your stitching stay away.
I wish you happiness and peace and all the good things life has for you.
I thank you for your friendship and support. You all are the best!

Merry Christmas (and I am back!)

Let me start by saying thank you to Meari! Her little e-mail reminded me I have neglected by blogging friends. Not only have I not kept up to date on blogging I haven't kept up to date on reading your blogs. I promise to do better on both accounts.
Work has been really busy. I have taken on more responsibility and by the time I get off, I just want to lounge in the chair and not do much of anything. Not even stitching, so I have none to show you.
My husband and I did get away (despite hurdling some obstacles) to Austin to a comic book convention. Yes I said comic book convention. My DH collects them and we had planned the trip awhile back.
This was not my first convention with him, but was the best one yet. If you are into people watching, this is the place to people watch. People in costumes, old actors and actresses from television and movies. We met the original Batman and Robin (Adam West and Burt Ward). James had his pic taken with them both and also in the Batmobile. Ghostbusters were there also along with many others.
There was one guy who I think really thought he was Batman was there also. He had a better costume than the original. When he left, he got into a 1969 black Corvette with the Batman logo and all the bells and whistles on the car. Clearly he wasn't married because a wife would say "you spent how much on the costume and car?!!!"
It was really good to get away with my husband.
My grandsons are good and are coming here next week. I will pick them up Christmas Eve and bring them here on Christmas Day to stay a week with us.
I do have a funny story about my youngest, Craig. He had a solo (he is 6) for the Christmas musical. He was supposed to sing the first part of Rudolph and then back off the microphone (and he doesn't need a microphone anyway he is so loud). But he sang and never left the mic. He was dressed in a tux and a top hat. His gestures and singing had the audience in tears. But the best part was the end.
After he finished singing, when the rest of the kids were leaving the stage, he bowed and said "thank you. I will be performing all week. Be sure to try the buffet".
What a hoot!
You might remember (or not it was so long ago) my last post that I had stitched something for a fellow staff member who was expecting a baby. Well she had that sweet baby girl last Sunday. So we have a new addition to our office!
We have kept pretty much low key this holiday. In fact we have already exchanged our gifts to each other. I got a mini notepad from James and James got a digital drawing pad from me. Mom got her favorite button down nightgowns from us and a new television from my sister & her family.
It's hard to keep presents from each other when they come in via Fedex, UPS, etc. I love online ordering. And we don't have a tree to put them under anyway.
James and I did manage to go to the company Christmas party last Sunday. Here is a picture of us:

And with this picture, I will leave you with a wish and a promise. A wish for you to have a very Merry Christmas and a promise that I will keep up with you all more in the coming year. You all are such blessings to me!

Christmas Card Exchange

These are not the best pictures, but this is the stitched card I received from Debbie Jo. It is so cute and I just love it. I am adding it to my Christmas collection now. Thanks Debbie Jo

The Best Christmas Present

I have received many great presents this year, including my favorite Bare Minerals make-up from my husband. But the best present I will get this year will be my grandson's visit.
I have two wonderful grandsons, Trent & Craig. Trent is 6 and Craig is 4. My daughter and SIL will be bringing them to me on Friday night and then leaving them with me on Saturday. They will stay all week until the next Friday with my husband, my Mom and I (and as Craig says, "don't forget, also Alex the puppy dog").
I have included their picture. Trent is the top one and Craig is the bottom one.
This is going to be so much fun. They are great kids and this is the first time since Trent was a baby that I have kept the boys for any length of time by myself.
Trent is esp. excited because to quote him "mom can't say no when grandma says yes".
I have plans to go to a movie with them, watch them ride the bikes I have had at my house for over a year now and just enjoy them. We will do some cooking and baking together.
I want you all to know how much I appreciate your friendship. The comments you leave me mean so much to me.
I pray each and everyone of you have a very blessed Christmas!

The annual Christmas argument

I don't know why, but each year my husband and I have an argument around Christmas time. It is started by me. I either pick on him about something until we fight or like this year I just jump right in.
I don't know if it is just everything overwhelms me or what. Or if it is because I never think we will have enough money for everything or that everything won't be "perfect".
This is how this year's argument started. My paycheck arrives in my account at 9:30pm the night before my payday. This year, I decided I must go to Target at 9:30pm to buy my grandson's presents. I asked my husband to go with me and he said he would rather sleep. (Truth of the matter is he works really crazy hours and he had been out at 4:45am that morning and could have been called out at any time). That didn't matter to me.
So since my job is 2 blocks from Target and our house is several miles away, I chose to stay at work when I got off at 5:00pm until my check arrived and then go to Target.
I thought my husband would "come to his senses" and either tell me he would go with me and then I would come home and we could go together that night or he would come to my work. But he didn't. So I sat at work, stewing, getting more angry by the minute. I was going to show him by gosh. He would be so sorry.
But when I came home he was sleeping.
So all night, I got ready for "the fight". I got up at 5:30am that morning, still angry. I woke him up when I left for work at 7:30 (even though I don't have to be there until 8:30). I told him I didn't want a Christmas present from him and further more, if he bought me one, I would take it back. It was on. He had no idea why I was being so irrational and truth of the matter, neither did I. But I kept it up. Left for work by slamming the door.
On my way to work, I called him to fight some more. Then I noticed steam coming from my car. The temp gauge wasn't up, but there was steam (could have been reacting to me LOL). So I told him about the car and he said he was coming. When he got there, we talked and I told him what was going on with me. We both apologized and then went on with the weekend.
He has bought me a gift and I have bought him one and we are both back to being very happy.
I am hoping this next Christmas we can avoid the whole argument. But then again, making up is kind of fun!
Merry Christmas to all of you!

My EGA Party

Here are pictures of my Embroiderer's Guild Christmas party. This is an annual party we have in our group of which I have been a member for about 17 or 18 years. They are some of the finest and kindest stitchers I have ever known. They have been through the good times and the bad with me.
Many of you admired my tree that I posted earlier. Many of the ornaments on this tree were made by some of these stitchers.
We have an annual Christmas party. Each member that attends stitches an ornament. We draw numbers and then we exchange ornaments. But not without a fight. It starts out rather calm. The first person goes and picks a wrapped ornament from the table. The next one can either take that ornament or open a new one. That is when the brawling begins. These fine, upstanding stitchers will lie, cheat, hide the evidence and connive to keep their ornaments. Truth of the matter is there is not a bad ornament amongst them all. Everyone does such beautiful work.
These pictures were taken before the brawling began, as is evidenced by the lack of blood, cuts and bruises! Just kidding!

The Red Tree

This is a non-stitching Christmas story. But fun anyway.
My grandson Trent loves the color red. Always has.
Two years ago my DD and my SIL were having some problems and my DD, then 4 year old grandson Trent and then 2 year old grandson Craig moved in with my DH, Mom and myself for a year. It was a wild ride, esp. since my DH did not have children of his own. But my daughter and her husband worked everything out. They are a happy family now, back living together.
That Christmas Trent was having a difficult time with everything. He missed his dad and his other grandparents.
We had been talking about getting a new tree, one that was smaller than my usual 7 1/2 foot tree. The grandsons and I discussed the tree and making decorations for it. All Trent would say was that he wanted the tree to be red.
So the day after Thanksgiving I go to Michael's and there, low and behold, was a 4 foot RED Christmas tree. With RED lights.
I bought it and took it home. Trent was beside himself with glee. We put this garland of gold, disco ball shaped balls all around the tree. During the day, it looked like it belonged in a brothel.
BUT AT NIGHT!!! Oh my. It looked haunted. When you turned off the overhead lights and turned on the red lights on the tree it was spooky. It gave off a weird, devilish glow.
We put ornaments on it that the kids had made (everyday they moved to a different place on the tree) and the kids loved it. Especially Trent.
That tree is now in my grandson's room at their own house. They still love that tree. And it still looks haunted!
I like to think that red tree helped Trent have a better Christmas that year. And I am so thankful, he has it at HIS HOUSE now!

My Dad and the light switch cover

This light switch cover may not look Christmasy, but read on and you will see it's Christmas meaning.
1995 was not a good mental health year for me. Shortly before Thanksgiving that year, I went into a severe depression. It started around the first of October and by the week before Thanksgiving I was not doing well. Without going into great detail, I felt that the whole world, including my precious 12 year old daughter, would be better off without me. Some good friends found me in a hotel that I have yet to remember driving to and took me to the hospital. My dad signed my commitment papers into a local psychiatric unit where I was diagnosed with major depression. Not a fun time.
I got out of the hospital 2 days before Thanksgiving and it took awhile before the medication fully started to work. I got up each day, went to work and came home and sat in my favorite blue chair. I didn't feel much like doing anything but stitching. No TV, no holiday fun, nothing. I wasn't sleeping much then either.
I started working on this light switch cover for my dad and mom for Christmas. They had bought a new home and I thought it would be pretty. I finished it Christmas Eve.
Now my daddy loved Christmas. He loved decorating (not too much, just the right amount). He loved buying stuff he knew we would like (again, not too overboard, just the perfect little something). That year we went to his house for Christmas Eve.
My medication was working well. I felt like my old self, but not quite as energetic.
Daddy had snacks laid out and was happier than I had seen him. He kept things quiet, but fun. We told Christmas stories about past Christmases and about funny things that had happened. All very low key, but really memorable.
We opened presents and Daddy opened my light switch present. I showed him how to put it on the wall. He had tears in his eyes and said it was beautiful. It made my heart sing. Then he said the MOST AWFUL THING TO ME.
He said, I want one for the living room, one for all three bedrooms and another in the dining room. Oh my, that is a lot of stitching.
But the day after Christmas I rushed out to JoAnn's for their after Christmas sale. I stocked up on light switch covers and patterns. I planned to do one for his birthday in April, then Mother's day, Mom's birthday, their anniversary and then Father's Day. I was so excited at how much joy it would give my dad.
Daddy died that following March, suddenly. I never got to do another light switch cover for him. But I have the first one with me in my house (my Mom is disabled and lives with me). I still smile when I think of how happy that little piece of cross stitch made my Daddy.

Christmas with a grandson

I am obsessed with my collection of stitched and handmade ornaments. Have been for many, many years. All my family knows this. My daughter taught her friends over the years not to touch them on the tree.
I have several Chrismon ornaments that I made of glass gold and white beads and wire. One is a Star of David. Or rather it was a Star of David.
I had this ornament on my tree for several years. My daughter had a beautiful son, my first grandson named Trent. Trent was the first boy in our family for generations (I now have 2 grandsons, Trent and Craig. More on Craig later).
Trent loved to look at the lights on the tree when he was a baby. The second Christmas he was 1 1/2 years old and was walking. He toddled over to the Christmas tree and took that gold Star of David. The center of the star was of course, square. He promptly put it on his arm and wore it like a bracelet. My daughter gasped with fear when he did this. She tried to snatch it back from him, but much to her amazement, I said "oh how cute. Don't you dare take that from him". I thought she would faint. She said, mom, this is your handmade ornament and he is bending it. I just laughed and said, oh well!
We would put that ornament back on the tree each night and each day he would get it again and wear it like a bracelet. He didn't touch another ornament on the whole tree.
Next year, he did the same thing. Over and over he would go and get that one ornament. And wear it like a bracelet.
Now I don't have a picture of the ornament before Trent. But here is my perfectly pointed star, perfect square centered star of David after Trent. Amazing what a grandchild can do to your sense of what is important.

The Christmas Tree

Here is the famous Christmas tree and some of the stitched ornaments. I have included pics of the pickle ornament as well as some favorites. I have pics of my two ornaments sent to me from friends in exchanges. The crocheted white snowflake is from my friend Caroline that I talked about earlier. I also have some green and white crocheted ice skates that were made 35 years ago by a little 90 year old blind woman who had a stroke. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoy the tree!
Donna

The Pickle, Part two

Ok folks. I received this from Gaby:
Einschies stitching blog said...
This is soo funny ro read...ähem, I am German but never heart about that tradition and I am not sure what a pickle is??? Can you descibe it????

Gaby

So I did some more investigating. What did I find? Well according to Wikipedia, along with some other sources, I found this:

Christmas Pickle

A Christmas pickle ornamentThe Christmas pickle is a pickle-shaped ornament hidden in the tree. The child who finds it first on Christmas morning receives an extra present. While the Christmas pickle is believed to be a German custom, it is fairly unknown in Germany but widely spread across the USA. In fact it is completely of American origin. [1]

So what I thought was a nice German tradition, was actually a hoax. But it has become my tradition. And I will continue the tradition, but probably will leave the German part off!

The Pickle

One of my favorite traditions is hiding my pickle ornament. A few years ago I ran across a beaded paper pickle ornament pattern. I thought to myself, now why in the world would anyone want to stitch and hang on their tree a pickle?
So I did a little research and found (now if I get this wrong, please do not be offended) that it is an old German tradition to place a pickle ornament on the tree, hidden away so you have to look for it. I have read two different versions. One says to put it on as the first ornament and the other says to put it on as the last ornament. I chose to do it first.
Christmas Eve, the children look for the pickle. The first one to find it gets a special gift.
I carefully stitched my ornament on paper, with blending filament and beads. Cut it carefully out around the edges. It is beautiful.
I then place my pickle on the tree. I only have one daughter, but I have also have two nieces that I am close to. I tell them about the ornament and the game. My dd is about 15, one niece is 11 and the other is about 3 on that Christmas.
They almost tore my tree apart looking for it and when it was found by my dd they fought over it. I ended up almost losing the tree and the ornament. I gave them all a gift (which I had intended on doing anyway).
That was the first and last year we held an official contest. From then on, my dd just simply looked for the ornament and let me know where it was.
I now have two grandsons. Last year my oldest, then 5, found it with help from his mom.
I now have my big tree, with all the stitched ornaments, at my work. It is admired by many and gives me great pleasure to look at and remember the past everyday from the day after Thanksgiving until New Years.
In my coming posts I will be talking about more Christmas tradition. Did I tell you about my Star of David made from gold beads?
And the year we had the haunted, needs to be in a brothel, red tree?
Come back often and remember with me these fun times. And think about all of your fun times during this holiday.

Christmas, The Carolyn Saga

Carolyn Bibb was my best friend. She was the most talented person I have ever met. She could paint, sew, embroider, quilt, just about everything I love. But I can't do most of those. And spell! She could spell ANYTHING!
She and I had a lot in common and we spent a lot of time together. We met at work. We went everywhere together.
But one Christmas it all almost came to an end. We had an incident that made me so mad I didn't talk to her for a month.
The whole nasty event came during one of the ornament exchanges with my EGA that I talked about earlier.
Here is how it went down: I invited Caroline to my annual EGA Christmas party. Paid for her meal. Stitched an ornament for her to participate in the exchange. Sat next to her during the exchange. I drew number 21 out of 22 numbers. She drew number 22. All through the exchange I drooled over a cross stitched paper ornament that was a picture of a quilt shop. I whispered to Caroline, "when it is my turn, I am going to take that ornament". Then finally my turn happened. Snatch! I took the said ornament. I was pleased as punch. Then came Carolyn's turn. She turned to me and said "I want that ornament". I thought I was hearing things. Then I saw her reach out and take my ornament. My jaw dropped. Surely, no, surely she wasn't taking my ornament. Not my best friend. Not the woman for if it weren't for me taking her to the party and stitching an ornament wouldn't be taking MY ORNAMENT! But she did. And she kept it.
Luckily we didn't have to drive home together for I might have dropped her off in the lake. And when we returned to work, I didn't talk to her. She called me to ask what was wrong and I let her have it. One month passed before we spoke. It took months to get back to where we were.
All over a Christmas ornament.
Carolyn died about 8 years ago. Wish I had that month back. Wish I hadn't been so selfish and stupid and wish I hadn't fought with her and said those nasty words. You can't take it back and you can't get time back. She forgave me and I forgave her, but we still missed that time.
We made a pack after that. She went to many, many more EGA events with me. She made her own ornaments from then on. One of them I have. It is a crocheted snowflake. I treasure that snowflake. Love to look at on my tree. But I still miss my friend.

Christmas

Some of you might have noticed the countdown to Christmas on my sidebar.  Let me tell you, I am just a little crazy for Christmastime.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are not my favorite though.  It is the whole time leading up to Christmas, from the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve.

Let's start with the tree.  All of my ornaments are handmade.  When my daughter was little there were some of hers on the tree.  Now they are all stitched or crocheted.  Mostly stitched.

I have stitched some of them.  Well, a lot of them.  I also belong to an EGA that has an ornament exchange every year at Christmas.  You might as well say an ornament fight.  We all make and wrap a stitched ornament.  Then we draw numbers and like a Chinese gift exchange, the first person picks an ornament.  The next person can chose a new ornament or can take the first ornament from the first person.  It goes on until all the ornaments have been opened.

This is a group of lovely, well refined ladies (and a gentleman or two).  But there is so much lying, conniving, hiding, cheating that it might as well be a back room poker game.  But in the end we all come out friends and have a new ornament.  Since this is my 16th year in the group, I have 16 of said ornaments made by friends, some who have passed on out of this world.  I treasure them.  

I also have a few made by some friends other than my EGA.  One is made by a 90 year old blind lady, thirty years ago.  She crocheted a little green and white pair of ice skates, with paper clips for the blades.  They are precious and are the first thing I put on the tree, after my cross stitched pickle of course.  More on the pickle in another post.

One ornament is made by my best friend Caroline, who died of cancer several years ago.  I get teary eyed when put her ornament on the tree.  But things weren't always fun with Caroline.  I will post this story later also.  Let's just say it had to do with the ornament exchange I mentioned earlier...

I am so crazy over all my ornaments that I did an inventory of them, with dates and who made them.  They will be passed onto my daughter once she has proven that she will care for them with all her heart.  Actually they will be taken from my cold, stiff hands once I pass from this world!

What are your traditions?  Do you have a special tree or a special way to celebrate?  I will be posting more this month into next month on my love of this holiday.  More about the tree, the pickle and Caroline.