Christmas Wrap-up and Plans for the New Year

Well, I survived Christmas and now to see how things go in the new year. Drove to my sister's lake house in NE Oklahoma ( 4/12 hour drive) on the Saturday the 22nd. Snow was predicted, so our trip was up in the air until that morning when we got up. It was not doing anything, so we were on the road before 8. About an hour from home, it started raining and rained all the rest of the way. Got there about 12:30, in time for lunch with my family and all of my sister's in-laws for a total of around 40. By mid-afternoon, the rain had changed to freezing stuff, etc. The in-laws left to return to their homes 2-3 hours away and it took them 5 hours. We had our gift exchange with my family and had homemade ice cream. Got to see my great-nephew Ethan for the first time. He is 7 months old and weights about 23 pounds. He is a very big boy.

My youngest sister and her family returned to their home in Missouri in early evening and were concerned about the roads. She called back to say that once they got into Missouri the roads were better. However, she did tell us that she had heard on the news that there was a 32 car pile out west of Topeka where I live. I knew then we had been hit with some snow. Heard from Anita from The Sunflower Seed about noon that it was snowing so hard you could not even see 1/2 block. There was a total white out that created the big crash. Found out the next morning we had, at least, 9 inches of snow in Topeka. That concerned us about our trip home. I know to some of you that does not sound like much, but we seldom get that much at one time, so people do not know how to handle it. Coming home was not a problem until we got about 30 minutes from home and there was one stretch of 10 miles that was completely snow-packed. Strange since the county side roads were clear and almost dry. Seems like the state DOT forgot about that stretch of road. It was great to finally be home.

Monday we drove a little over an hour away to pick up a 37-in TV from my niece. They had gotten all new flat screens for their house and no longer were using this one. It is bigger than anything we have so we said we would take it off their hands. Now all we need is a stand for it. Where we thought it would fit, won't work. Getting a stand is on the agenda for tomorrow.

Since it appeared that Morris and I were going to spend Christmas day alone and I found out some other good friends were going to be alone too, I called and invited them to spend it with us. They have been having a rough time in their life with a variety of things, so I thought it would be good to spend some quality time with them. I made an entire dinner with turkey and most of the trimmings without even running out to the store. We both had crisises with elderly father that morning, so getting together was great for all of us. Morris and Corky spent most of the afternoon doing a jigsaw puzzle, Jim took a nap and I attempted to help with the puzzle. I am not very good with them. I could have done some stitching, but that would have put me in another part of the house and that would have been rude.

There is still on Christmas stitching that I have not shown here. It is for my good stitching buddy Sandi. We have not had time to get together between the weather and her family get togethers. We will do that in the next few days. Here is what I have finished for her. It is one of the Krenik's "Remember the Ladies" series. Framed by the local frameshop. This was a project that I had started for Sandi several years ago and decided this was the time to finish it and give it to her.

Blessed Are .....

by Kreinik

25-ct Natural Pearl Linen

Kreinik silk Mori included with the pattern

This puts a wrap on Christmas giving and celebrations.

Many of you have made goals for the new year and ways you want to complete WIPs, etc. Well, I have made a plan on how to complete one WIP that needs to be done in the coming year. It is a wonderful design that I picked to do for my friend Sandi as a retirement gift. It is her colors, etc. She has now been retired 2 years and I cannot seem to get this done. Here is a picture of the design from the January/February1995 issue of CrossStitch and Country Crafts.

It has a lot more specialty stitches than I thought. Each of the letters of the alphabet are done alternating between the Rice Stitch and Eyelet Stitch over 4 threads for each letter. Besides that it eats thread like crazy to do all those stitches. I have decided that I am going to stitch at least 1 hour a week on this project on Tuesdays. That is the day that I am most often at home all day. Here is the progress so far.

Although the new year starts on Tuesday, I will not start my weekly stitching until the following week. There I even putting off the start. Still not sure what we might be doing on New Year's Day so don't want to plan to work on it and then have to change my plans. Wish me luck with the is project. Never tried stitching on a schedule before. We will see how disciplined I can be.

We had a few more inches of snow last night. That is the 3rd snow in 6 days. Feel like we are in the mountains of Colorado. That almost never happens here. Just gives me more stitching time. I don't like to drive in the stuff and our driveway can be a real mess.

Muffin Update: It has been 10 days of crating and anti-inflammatory meds and I took her back to the vet yesterday. He said there is some improvement, but he would have liked to see more. Gave her another steroid shot and said make sure she stays in the crate as much as possible. When she is out keep her on a leash so we can keep her from jumping around. She has not learned very well that she needs to eat when she is out. He says she will if we keep her in there all but the 3-20 minute sessions out. We go back again in 10 days. This crating is killing me.