Holiday happenings

December has been a busy month for us. It’s that living in the moment thing again. 

One of our nieces contacted the Hubs a few weeks ago and told him that while she apologized for the late notice, she was graduating from nursing school in a couple of weeks and that since she was our favorite niece (her words), she knew we’d come anyway! And we did. It has been many years since we visited Hubs’ hometown and we squeezed in all the visiting we could along with attending Lauren’s graduation ceremony and celebration party. We played games at the party, and one of them included a "how well do you know Lauren"--and I screwed up, because while I knew her nickname, I kept confusing it with her late mother's nickname and ended up saying, "Favorite Niece." After she was announcing the winners, she gave me extra props for that one.

Walking across the stage--our family occupied Rows 2 and 3 and we yelled!

Lauren with her father (Hubs' brother), her brother and niece

The moment when Hubs surprised Lauren--she didn't know we were coming

The week leading up to the trip was a bit chaotic, but more for a friend than for me. I tried my best to help her through the chaos and, thank goodness, she is ok after a few days in the hospital. 

And while we were visiting Hubs’ family, I made the decision to invite two of his siblings up for Christmas. It was a full and enjoyable time with three family members from out of town, old friends, most of our kids and their significant others, four dogs and one bird, and others, or as my late aunt would have said, "strays." I used to take offense to her statement (which was directed to my mother), but I have come to appreciate one of my mother's better traits because why wouldn't you invite someone who had nowhere else to go? With a smaller home, however, sleeping space is at a premium. I hugged my brother-in-law when he told me he could sleep in my recliner. He ended up on the couch and proclaimed it comfortable. 

In the midst of all of this, I decided to make 16 two-sided napkins for Christmas dinner. When we got home from Texas, I washed and pressed the two fabrics (10 yards total) and cut everything on Tuesday, sewed up the squares on Wednesday, Hubs turned them out for me on Thursday, I pressed them on Friday, and topstitched them Saturday—it’s a Christmas miracle. I did not make another thing for Christmas besides baked goods. 

Coconut cream pie made for Robin

And on top of all of that, instead of snow this year, it was a very balmy 74° on Christmas Day. The fireplace roared on YouTube, and we left ours alone. I thought the temp would be a record breaker, but the record high happened just four years ago—78°. Go figure. I’m not complaining. While making our menu for Christmas week, I asked the Hubs if he wanted the Mexican hot chocolate I usually make and he said, “Why? It’ll be in the 70s!” The temps move to the low 30s and high 20s early next week. 

The two Texas siblings left this morning, and my sister will arrive sometime today to pick up her dogs and head home. The Hubs and I are already relishing the quiet, but I'm also moving about doing laundry and trying to determine how much we have in leftovers that we'll need to eat this week. Our 30th wedding anniversary is Monday and we will dine out this year, so I need to remember this while planning the dissolution of the leftovers.

I have a project that has to be finished by next Saturday, and I'm still in the figuring-out-how-to-digitize-it phase. Honestly, I have done this particular step before, but it left my brain and I'm watching Embrilliance videos today to recapture that ability. Wish me luck.

I hope to have my year-end project wrap-up before the end of the year, but it may hit on New Year's Day or shortly thereafter. Most of it is written but the project I'm working on now may be included--the suspense is killing me! 

I hope you have a glorious holiday season. I am constantly reminded of everything I have and don't have, and am grateful. The Hubs and I know we are lucky and now that we are settling into retirement, we're coming up with our list of projects and making the attempt to prioritize and actually execute those ideas. Of course, plans always include quilting, but I'll talk about that more in a post coming to you soon. In the meantime, go make!