One last Christmas Picture

 

The oldest of the little brown dogs - Lucy - lying in a dog bed at the front of the picture.  Lucy does a lot of sleeping these days but she seems to enjoy her life.  Loves her mealtime.

All the little brown dogs and their moms are gone again.  The house is way too quiet.  There were a few quilting and sewing lessons.  A last stop for pick up at the quilt shop on their way out of town.  For beverages at the coffee shop next door to the quilt shop.

So now I'm feeling grateful for texting to keep track of their trip as they go down the road.  And for my Wednesday Zoom meeting with friends to chirk me up tomorrow.

For yummy leftovers.  For not wearing a mask tonight.  (That was our agreement, that we would wear masks and socially distance.  And we did.)

Backyard Christmas

 

Yesterday afternoon was warm, 50 degrees, and we had our backyard Christmas.  So many lovely things, I am overwhelmed with gratitude.

Just as we gathered in the back yard the Bengals won, which was a nice start to a celebration.

Steph is a health care worker and got her first vaccine dose on Saturday.  I am so eager to get mine.

At first I was thinking in terms of a Christmas do-over next year, but have realized that this has been a special Christmas.  Folks have made adjustments.  The Grinch must be looking down from his mountain with amazement.

Quilting

 

I have been quilting, and quilting, the star quilt.  And quickly learning that the small free motion that I love on small quilts makes for a LOT of quilting on a larger one.  And this one is just lap size.  

It isn't helping that I've only been quilting in small increments because, you know, 'tis the season.

Because I'm a little lazy, I've been using prewound M bobbins with Superior thread but when I went to reorder they were out of stock.  I tried ordering from a different supplier, even though the new bobbin thread is a slightly lighter weight.  At first the bobbin thread broke but now it's seemed to have settled down.  I hated to change thread in the middle of a quilt, but no one will notice the difference on the back except for you and me, and the quilt isn't going to the quilt show.

My family arrived last night, an uneventful trip this time except for a delay as soon as they got on the interstate because of a seven-car accident.  I'm enjoying the three little brown dogs coming and going.

Ah, Christmas!

I had a Christmas photo I wanted to share with you, but pictures aren't sending from my phone.  Friends have been talking about AT&T troubles because of the explosion in Nashville, maybe that's it.  You may see it later but so far no luck again today.

Christmas Eve Zoom church service was lovely, then I called Sarah and Winnie to see where they were on their travels, coming my way.  I was hoping they were at least in Kentucky.  But they said they had had to turn back, the snow in the North Carolina mountains was so bad.  When they left home it was 52 degrees and raining and it didn't look like there would be problems.  It was a long and scary trip back home for them.  They will probably try again today.

In the meantime, they got good news about the Covid tests they were watching for.  No symptoms, just wanting to be sure they weren't bringing it.

Christmas morning was a lovely Zoom time of watching the grands open gifts.  To say that Zoom was a blessing to me and many families is surely an understatement.

I had salmon for dinner, didn't want to try to keep it for another day.  Green bean casserole with fresh green beans and mushrooms.  Sweet potato casserole with baked sweet potatoes.  Mashed potatoes from Steph, along with Chex Mix, we traded dishes on Thursday at our garage Christmas Eve.

Steph had a festive tablecloth and a little tree in the garage, door up.  Masks on and socially distant.  I gave the grands their gifts and enjoyed that time together.  I had renewed the zoo membership for the family and presented that with a wrapped sticker book of zoo animals.  Turned out that Nora really enjoyed the book, it was sort of like a jigsaw puzzle of stickers.

Like many other people, this will be a Christmas I will remember for its weirdness and its joy.

Santa and Macy's

 

Seven years ago, I think.  Nora would have been nine, Aaron six.  We were at the downtown Cincinnati Macy's.  With the real Santa - every year the same Santa so he must have been the real one.  

There is no longer a downtown Macy's.  I heard rumors that Santa had relocated to a mall but that was never verified.

I can easily recall the joy of being in that downtown Macy's at Christmas time.  Riding the escalator, admiring the huge red and silver balls and other decorations.  And the perfume and make-up counters.  One year, I bough pajamas for my sister.  And, of course, waiting in the line to see Santa.

Even the skywalk between Macy's and Carew Tower is gone now  There is still the big tree on Fountain Square and ice skating on the square.  The big tree in the building across the street.  The selection of ice cream and bakery goodies at the downtown Graeter's.

An excellent memory:  one summer afternoon it was just Aaron and me, downtown.  He paused and looked up at the buildings and said, ""Oh, downtown's high."

Slogging Along

Slogging.  That's the word I feel describes my days lately, and I don't even know if that's a word.  It feels like there's sticky mud on the bottom of my boots, hypothetically.

And so, my blog has been quiet.  I've felt like there is just nothing to say.  Nothing begs me for a picture.  My sewing machine has been quiet.  I spend too much computer time, news, Amazon emails, setting up my new laptop.

But, yesterday, for my family, there was Christmas Eve planning.  Sarah and Winnie are coming on the 23rd.  On Christmas Eve, the family will have a driveway Christmas Eve.  Cell phones charged and on speaker, in two different cars.  The pile of packages on the driveway.  Trash bags in each car, Chex Mix, I hope - I've been hinting mightily.

(When I make Chex Mix, I use twice the amount of cereal, nuts, pretzels, little oyster crackers to the regular amount of butter.  It tastes pretty good.  But then I taste Steph's, with the "correct" proportions, and it's incredible.  That concept probably describes why my cooking is relatively yucky.)

Anyway, the driveway celebration will be early in the afternoon.  Hopefully it will be warmer then.  There will be separate plans for later in the day. Nora works at Kroger from 3:30 - 6:30.  My church's Zoom Christmas Eve service at 6:30.  Steph's church's outdoor candlelight service at 7:00.

We'll exchange Christmas Eve dinner dishes for separate dinners.  Maybe Zoom in the evening.

In years to come, when we gather together in the evening and celebrate into the night, we'll always remember this Christmas Eve.  

Third Sunday of Advent

 

The third Sunday of Advent.  

Times goes on.  The tree is not decorated but I'm doing pretty well with gifts.  Not a thing wrapped though.

The washer is washing and I am grateful.  

I got a new - refurbished - laptop right around Thanksgiving.  This is the first blog on it.  I take things a piece at a time.  Figuring out Windows 10 (yes, I had Windows 7.)  Setting up my email.  Transferring my documents.  Downloading pictures where I can find them.  Getting into my blogger account with a new password.  

This laptop - I chose one that is super sturdy - I could, apparently, drop it and it would be fine.  It's like the ones in police cars or construction vans.  Really, I don't plan on treating it roughly, I just liked that it had a lot of memory and storage.  I keep my stuff for a long time so I always go for the memory and storage.  Knowing that what seems like a lot today will be minimal tomorrow.

I just got the tiniest usb flash drive.  Thumbnail size, meant to stay in the usb port permanently.  Big enough to store movies and able to download them quickly.  I won't download any movies, probably, but it should be great for easy file back-up.  Things like this delight me.