Traditions ...

Happy New Year Everyone!  I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve doing whatever makes you happy *smile*

We have lots of traditions during the holidays ... one very special tradition is spending New Year's Eve with Ken and Lisa.  We usually cook dinner, play games and do a fare amount of drinking lol .. we've been celebrating New Year's Eve with Ken and Lisa for 20+ years.   It started out being a big family thing, with their two boys and our two boys, playing games all night long and the kids always wanting to stay up for midnight.  Over the years our New Year's Eve celebration has dwindled to just the four of us ... kids do grow up and have their own parties to go to .. but we still have lots of fun!  This year we decided to go out to dinner at a Japanese Steakhouse and then home for some dessert and games and wait for midnight to come.  It's a tradition I hope never ends!

Here's a few pictures that always make me smile ...

another tradition I started back in 2007 is adding the year to my Happy New Year pillow ... it's always my last stitches for that year.  I'm enjoying watching the years grow ...

I forgot in my last post to share our family Santa picture with you.  Another tradition that has been going on for 31 years ... our first family Santa picture was taken when Chris was 7 months old.  When Monica joined the family (7 years ago) I had thought it would be a good time to stop the pictures ... but no, my wonderful daughter in law wanted to join in the family tradition ... and I'm sooooo very glad she did.

I'm really looking forward to 2014 ... I'm calling it the year that is all about me because I'm turning 60 on the 11th of January and am planning on celebrating it all year long with family and friends ... and in September, Lisa and I (Lisa turns 60 in May) are going to Paris for 5 days to celebrate turning 60 together.  We've known each other since high school, longer than Terry and I have known each other ... and I'm looking forward to sharing Paris together ... it will be our first visit.

Terry was ok about me going without him but reminds me that in 2015 we'll be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary ... think he wants to go to Paris too *smile*

I hope 2014 is a great year for all of you ... make it so!

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for family and friends ...

Merry Christmas ..

I hope this posts finds you all well and resting from your very busy and wonderful Christmas ... whether it was with friends and family or just a quite one.

Our holidays were a bit different for us this year.  About 3 weeks before Christmas my dad had a cardic episode and ended up needing a new stint put in.  He had a stint put in about 6 years ago and there was some scare tissue that started blocking blood flow.  Once the new stint was put in everything seemed to be going well when he came down with a terrible bout of the flu that is going around.  It really kicked his butt and with him living alone and being 82, he gets kinda needy so my brother and I spent the few weeks before Christmas trying to get him healthy.  Unfortunately a couple of days before Christmas he decided it really wasn't feeling good enough to enjoy the day with all of us so we've moved Christmas to this coming Sunday ... we were concerned that not all the grandkids would be available, but after everyone got their work schedules it was a great surprise that everyone will be able to make Christmas ... so we'll enjoy family and a Seahawk win too!

Because we weren't going anywhere for Christmas the kids decided to all spend the night Christmas Eve ... we had Christmas Eve dinner with my father in law and then all came back to the house to play games and watch movies before heading to bed.  We ended up playing Christmas-opoly which was lots of fun!  The reindeer were the railroad replaement ... guess who got ALL the reindeer squares?  Yep, me!  lol ... after the game we settled in to watch Muppets Christmas ... Christmas morning we all slept in a bit and then enjoyed a morning of presents and breakfast.  I tried a new crockpot breakfast recipe .. never try something new ... it was an epic failure :(  but I still had more stuff for breakfast.

After presents and breakfast Monica made a lovely huckleberry pie and some dinner rolls.  She also made her family favorite ... orange rolls ... they were so yummy!

It was strange not spending the day with my dad, my brother and his family ... but thanks to my kids it was a very full fun couple of days.

Here's a few pictures of the day ....

 Chris made his wrapping paper this year ... very clever don't you think?

 They are all ready to start opening presents ...

Monica make her huckleberry pie ...

 Dinner rolls ...

orange rolls ready for the oven

dinner ....

 Terry got me lovely garnet earrings ... complete with teddy bear :)

 the aftermath after dinner ..

 Three of us were playing dots on our phones ... Terry got a new phone and was listening to music ... we had a good laugh about this picture ...

I've been stitching a little bit ... but between getting ready for Christmas for both my dad and us ... I spent my down time resting lol

I'm looking forward to a quite time and lots of stitching!  Boeing closes down until January 2nd, I took a couple of vacation days so I don't go back to work until the 6th!  woo hoo!!!

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for family and friends ...

Happy Thanksgiving

and Happy Hanukkah to all that celebrate ... this is such a wonderful time of year ... time to spend time with the ones you love and unfortunately time to miss those that are not here with us ... but it's all good *smile*

This is one of my favorite Thanksgiving decorations ... a brown paper bag turkey that Robert made many many years ago ... he's 25 now so I think this makes this turkey 20 years old ... he's getting pretty tattered but he always makes me smile when he emerges from the Thanksgiving box.

Life is good these days and I'm really looking forward to a whirl wind of Christmas activities over the next few weeks ... it will be here before we can blink our eyes.

We have a very busy weekend ahead ... love having four days to enjoy and not think about work ... Friday we are going to dinner with my FIL Al.  He's 92 and enjoys going out to dinner these days ... works for me!  lol but I do miss leftovers!  Chris and Monica are heading east of the mountains (Spokane) to spend Thanksgiving with her family so it will be a small dinner and an easy day, think we might take in a movie.  Friday is a long standing tradition with my best friend Lisa ... yes we do Black Friday ... but when we started this tradition, back when the kids were all young, it wasn't all the craziness that happens now ... but we still enjoy it.  Just the two of us, starting with breakfast at a reasonable hour and then just walking around taking in all the Christmas decorations, enjoying an eggnog latte, sharing memories and talking about what gifts we want to buy.  Of course we have to stop at Williams and Sonoma to pick up a can of hot chocolate mix, our favorite ... and we always come home with a gift or two, sometimes for ourselves and no one else ... but it's all fun!

Saturday Lisa and I are planning to do some Christmas cookie baking ... with both of us working and with weekends already booking up with Christmas activities and get togethers, well, it's Saturday or no day ... I'll probably make a batch here and there during the weeks leading up to Christmas too.

This is a picture of Chris, Monica, Terry and I from back in October when we went to a couple of pumpkin farms ... we have so much fun doing these things with the kids ... when they were little and now when they are all grown up *smile*

I've also been stitching and getting things finished!  I finished this Halloween design just before Halloween, it's from the Halloween JSC magazine .... I just love it!  It was a really fun fun stitch ...

and this sweet design is JBW's Reindeer ABC ... of course I HAD to stitch this one!  Love the fabric the design called for ... has these cute dots all over it ...

I have so much to be thankful for this year ... my health is doing really well, my kids are happy and healthy, I have a wonderful supportive loving husband and so many friends ... both online friends and in person friends ... and I'm thankful every day for all of you.

However you spend this long holiday weekend I hope you have a wonderful time ... and don't eat too much!  lol

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for family and friends ...

Pretty Finished Finishes ...

Happy October everyone!  Yep, October!  Can't hardly believe it .. where did September go???  I missed it! lol  I did so enjoy reading everyone's blogs and see all the pumpkins for Cathey ... I'm sure it put a smile on her face to see so many of them ... just for her!  We are an amazing group of women!

Speaking of amazing women ... I sent Faye some of my finishes recently and here's what I got back ... omgosh she makes my stitching just sing!  Love Love everything!  Here's a few pictures ..

I sent Faye the picture of how this needed to be finished to work with the hanger ... I'm so pleased with the results!

love these little pockets ...

this is one of my husband's favorites ... I'm using it as a candle mat ...

don't you just like the extra touches ... like this sweet bell ...

She turned my favorite bird into a Christmas box!

who doesn't love buttons??

or bells ...

she even added a little leaf to the back of October Curls ...

Thanks Faye for the lovely work ... it's so nice to have things finished so I can enjoy alll the stitching I do.  She has a few more to finish ... can't wait to see what she comes up with this time!  Funny, I can't remember what else she has to finish.  Should be really fun to see them!

I've been stitching on a few things but only have one picture to share.  This is a Halloween design from the JCS Halloween issue .. love this design!  It's so much fun to stitch ... I really love the pumpkin head on the N, too darn cute!

Thanks everyone for all your comments ... I love reading all of them!

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for finished finishes ...

Pumpkins for Cathey

 Happy Bloggiversary Cathey!

I don't know Cathey very well ... but wanted to help make her smile throughout blogland today on her bloggiversary.  I hope you have a wonderful day Cathey and I hope for your health continues to improve ... stay strong!

Thanks DaffyCat for pulling this all together .. fun!!

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for pumpkins ...

Happy September!

Hope you all had a wonderful long weekend!  We had a great long weekend here .. the weather was perfect!  Friday night we met up with my Dad, my brother Mike and his oldest son Josh and his girlfriend ... had a wonderful meal out and it was great to visit with everyone ... This is Josh, my oldest nephew and his girlfriend Mackenzie, they had the big banana split for dessert ...

Saturday was our annual trek to Bumbershoot ... it's a large 3 day music festival.  Went with Lisa and Terry.  Her husband had other plans ... he really missed out!  We had a great time!  Ended the evening see Led Zepplin Experience and Heart ... omgosh was it a fantastic concert!  Felt like I was 20 again lol ... Ann Wilson's voice still holds up to all their old songs and their new stuff ... incredible!

 Lisa and got henna tattoos ... very fun!  Here's what they looked like right after getting them ...

and here's what mine looks like two days later .. I'm loving it!

 Me and Lisa after a long but fun day ...

Sunday and today have been just kick back sort of days ... enjoying not doing anything *smile*

I did finish a couple of pieces last week ... I got this one when I went to the Silver Needle retreat back in July ...

 Fa La La by Shepherd's Bush

finished with floss and fabric supplied in the kit

AND I'm really excited to have this finished!!  This was a really fun piece to stitch and I can't wait to get it framed for Halloween ...

Lizzie Kate's Mystery Halloween Sampler

stitched with recommended WDW and GAST threads on

30 ct WDW linen

Here's to a great starting for September!

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for relaxing days ...