Once again, Christmas has come and gone

And in it's place are the left over decorations, waiting to be packed up for another year. I love having the same treasures to unwrap every year. We add something new each year of course. Our two main things we add yearly are a dated ball and an animated figure. My mom and dad gave us a Christmas ball that said First Christmas Together 1981 the year we got married. Since then, every year we have added a dated ball. Some years have new babies on the ornament. Some celebrate special things that happened a particular year - the year our football team won the championships. Some celebrate "world" things such as the American flag proudly waving on the 2001 ball. But each is special because it celebrates another year of togetherness. We hang them on a lighted garland around the ceiling in the livingroom.

The animated things are the little dancing, singing snowmen from Hallmark as well as some Santas (one on a motorcycle lol) and a few Nativities. We have a snow globe that I just love. Each night after the children put the ornament on the Advent tree they pick one to play. We have a house that plays The Night Before Christmas that we always save to play the first time on Christmas Eve.

Well since Christmas is over and all the gifts have been given I can update you on what I've been working on. This is Ryan's quilt:



And this is Cassie's:



I had posted a picture of the adorable little tree my daughter made in school. Here's my version of it:



As I was making ours I somehow committed myself to making eight more of these - yes that's right - three days before Christmas and I needed to make eight of these for presents. So Tasha and I started drawing, cutting, stuffing and sewing. And here is the result:



And even though Christmas is over the tree making isn't. We're going to try some in different sizes. But not for a week or so. lol.

I've removed my quilting gadget wish list from my sidebar because I was blessed to receive everything on it for Christmas! But I'm sure it won't be long before some other nifty thing crosses my path that I just "have" to have. lol.

Looking forward to the New Year I'm going to try some things here. I'm going to try to keep my quilting list to a minimum this coming year because with the added hours at work I'm going to be having less time to commit to quilting. So I'm going to gather up a list of things I really, really want to get finished and post them here and try to stay accountable to that list when all the neat ideas my friends forward to me come along. I have a few things I have made commitments to make and a few things I just want to make.

Well before I go here's the latest of Thunder. He got three wonderful presents for Christmas - his duck that he has already chewed the feet off, a box of gourmet dog biscuits and his pillow. And he loved them all.



Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Getting Ready

Christmas is only a little over a week away and we are pretty much done with the decorating (finally lol). The tree is up:



The nativity is out:



And I have done a bit of Christmas sewing. We normally put a train and village under our tree but not this year. Thunder is still a puppy so we didn't want to spend all our time pulling him out of it so we decided to skip it this year. So I made a tree skirt. It's not finished - it needs sandwiched and quilted but I still have one more quilt that also needs sandwiched and quilted and it's a present so it comes first. So the tree skirt is together just enough to be used and will be finished after the holidays.



My darling daughter has been taking "home ec" classes at school and made this cute little tree and brought it home today. The picture really doesn't show how cute it is - and believe me it is cute. lol.



And of course Thunder loves sitting by the tree looking out the window hoping someone will come to play with him.



Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Christmas Cookies

Memories of Christmases past abound at this time of year. I've been thinking about my mom a lot because Sunday was the eighth anniversary of her passing. I was talking with some friends and cookies came up. My absolute favorite cookie is called Mommy Bakes. They're actually called Joan's Cookies but when I was little I would ask for the cookies Mommy bakes and so the cookies ceased to be Joan's Cookies and became Mommy Bakes.

I went through a phase of making scrapbooked recipes. I have very few things in my mother's handwriting. She was sick for a long time before she passed and she didn't do a lot of writing after a time. So this recipe in her handwriting is very special. I found a picture of her with my sister and me and make this recipe page.



Not much going on as far as the quilting goes. And I really need to fix that. I have one more quilt to get made for a Christmas present. I'm going to do the Last Push Quilt-a-thon December 13th. But since I won't be able to post a picture of that until after Christmas anyhow I'm posting a picture of a Christmas quilt I made a few years ago with blocks from a swap with an online group.



Before I go - here's a funny picture of Thunder.



Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody