And now for the quiet

On Friday morning, the day that we celebrated Christmas, I finally finished these stocking that I had been working on. They were a bit of a challenge for me, and my sewing machine broke in the middle of them and had to be torn apart. No one could have been more surprised than me when I put it back together (the third time) and it worked. We had a fun, crazy Christmas full of lots of noise and too much food. I love having all the kids together at once. For as close as we all live, it does not happen that often.

I look forward to January and February more and more each year. The shop is slower and there is more time to stay at home and nest/rest. I have tons of projects that I want to do and a few that I need to do. Mostly I like the rest and break from the busy time of the year which for us is March through December.

This is a pic of my daughters and stepdaughters on Christmas Day in a break from being a rock band. What fun that game was for them...I just don't have the coordination for it.

I have so much to be thankful for this year and I count my blessings daily for all the big ones, but I would like to also list some little ones that happened the last few weeks.

1. A good haircut, thanks Bryan, I am sure that you are back in the warmth and sunshine if you are reading this! Wish you could come back in six weeks!

2. A 25 cent sale at Goodwill two days before Christmas when I ran in before dinner with friends and came out with four bags of wool! What a find!

3. A gift of warm knee socks that I have been looking everywhere for...thanks Tina!

4. Finding the "green" scarves of recycled plastic bottle yarn from Natalie over at Tins and Treasures. The girls loved them! Thanks Natalie, I love mine also.

Tomorrow is John's 50th birthday. Now we are both "in our 50's" and I am so glad that he is now getting the AARP envelopes also. He can't make fun of me any more. He wants to spend it at home watching the Steelers, of course.