Merry Mickey Christmas!

To all my wonderful readers, I wish you a very Merry Christmas!

The Photo Reveal

It's me!  Click on the photo to see the effect up close and personal.

I still haven't gotten back to sewing, but it's tough with company staying here to find the time. Maybe tomorrow I'll have time to stitch a bit.  I hope so!

Elizabeth is hobbling around, still in a bit of pain, but overall doing well.  We had a nice drive around town looking at Christmas lights tonight.  Tomorrow we'll go to the Christmas Eve service at our church and eat dinner at my parents.  Mom has been cooking for days!

I'm Playing Again

I've been playing with photo editing again.  This is a portion of a photo that I've been working on.  Can you guess what it is?  The answer will be revealed tomorrow.

Doggy Christmas

Santa came a bit early for the dogs around here.  He left a version of himself in the dogs' Happy Howlidays stocking.
Have I mentioned that dachshunds have no patience?  They absolutely couldn't wait.  So they've been very happily enjoying Santa for a few days now.  Unfortunately, Santa has lost one leg in the process of their camaraderie with him.

Elizabeth's foot surgery went well this morning, though she's in some pain and on crutches.  One thing I've learned about surgery (of any kind!) is to take the doctor's explanations of the recovery progress and throw them out the window.  If they say the surgery will be a breeze, you can walk on your foot immediately, you won't need crutches, don't believe them!  

She's on some pretty strong pain meds.  We just put her to bed and hope she'll sleep a LONG TIME!  Hopefully tomorrow the pain will be reduced.  

Mickey Monday

Don't think I'm ditzy (even though I am!); I know it's not Monday quite yet.  But Monday will be a crazy day around here, so I thought I'd better do this post today.  As you can see, I've made a little more progress, but not much.  Tis the season!

Emily's fiance left Friday to spend Christmas with his family.  Elizabeth's boyfriend will be arriving today for a week.  And tomorrow morning, Elizabeth is having some minor foot surgery.  You may remember that last Christmas Emily had to have thyroid surgery.  So yes, we have another Christmas with a hospital visit!  But with the kids in college, Christmas is usually the longest period of time they are home, so we have to fit these things in when we can.

Last night, the girls and I went shopping for a wedding dress.  What fun!  This was supposed to be the first of several stores we'd visit over the holidays.  But, wonder of all wonders, we found the PERFECT DRESS!  Trust me, it's gorgeous!! We bought the dress, veil, undergarments, and heirlooming kit.  What an accomplishment!

Candy for Artists

One day last week, Hubby arrived home from work and surprised me with this lovely box of candy.  Have you seen these?  Whitman Soho Artist Inspired Chocolates.  What a nice surprise! How did he know I'd had a rather blah day?  I guess after 25 year of marriages, he just sensed it. 

You'll have to click on this picture to see the detail on each piece of candy - my photography skills are lacking.  Aren't they beautiful?

It's interesting - now that Emily and Tommy are here, you'd think I wouldn't be blogging much. But I was really busier getting ready for everyone to be here.  The preparation is always the most time consuming part of the holidays, don't you think?  Now I can relax and enjoy having family here.  So I am.  And I even have time to blog!

Daughter 2 (Elizabeth) is driving home from Furman today; it's a five hour drive.  She should be home this afternoon - can't wait!!!!

More Quilt Guild Photos

Here are more pictures from show and tell from our guild meeting yesterday.  There were SO MANY beautiful quilts!

I was standing behind Gwen C at one point in the morning and took a picture of the back of her vest.  She bought a thrift store vest and added these cute appliques using her stash of vintage wool and rick rack.  Very cute!
I forgot to add a link yesterday to my new friend, Carrie's, blog - you can find her here.

Emily's fiance, Tommy, arrived this morning.  I love having young people here!  They made Chex snack mix this morning.  This afternoon we picked up my mother and had a nice Target shopping trip.  We bought some silver Christmas ornaments we'll use in centerpieces at the wedding reception.  The ornaments came in huge plastic cylinders - 40 ornaments per package.  We bought four of these.  On the way home, I went over a bump and one of the packages came open.  For the rest of the ride home we could hear the ornaments rolling around in the back of my car.  Luckily the ornaments are plastic so none broke.

We got tons of wedding planning done last night.  We finished our invitation list.  It had seemed like it would be a huge task, but with Hubby, Emily, and I working on it together, we were done in no time.  Maybe I'll sew tomorrow?