Merry Christmas

 Since people are not up yet, I have not opened my final MSQC box present but I have watched the video!

Excuse the stuffing on the floor... someone has not picked up the dog's latest crime scene yet.

We had a nice evening with my MIL last night with dinner out at Outback and then Christmas games and gifts. Today will be a laid back day with grazing of food and just hanging out with some board games. I might even get some stitching time in!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Day 24 of MSQC Jennys box

 Today we got this cute little hand made woven bowl from Rwanda. Such a pretty design. Jenny opened the gift today in Africa and mentioned they got the bowls from 6 different villages to fill their order for the boxes, I do love how they find such treasures and share them with us and help those people in the villages as well. 

I think this will be a thread catcher by my recliner.

I have yet to wrap presents, good thing there are not too many. I'll handle that after I finish working today. Then we are headed to my MIL's house for dinner out tonight and then Christmas eve at her house. She is continuing the tradition of eating out at Outback as this was Papa Andy's early Birthday dinner out the last 6 years. This is year 2 of doing this in his memory.

I ran out later last evening to Aldi and Publix to get a few things needed for Christmas nibbles. 

I think this is what we will have around the house that day....

Fried raviolli with marinara sauce

taco salad with chips (cream cheese/sour cream bottom, salsa,onion,tomato,lettuce.mozzarella)

pigs in a blanket

veggie platter (cause we need something healthy!)

orange salad 

salami roll ups with cream cheese

cheese ball with crackers.

cheese.pepperoni,olives

Seems someone got into the chips I had bought, and the kids added the orange salad (orange jello,cool whip, cottage cheese, pineapple and mandarin oranges) which I did not have things for. Greg added the salami roll ups as well. At least the stores were not crazy at 7PM!

Day 22+23 of MSQC Jenny's box

 Day 22 was the book Handmade Mysteries by Hillary Doan Sperry. I got one of her books in a previous box. This one has a QR code which allows us to listen to Jenny reading it! I started listening to it at lunch, but popped out so hopefully it will pick up where I left off. We also got a flat Chuck as a bookmark.

Day 23 is a composition book cover pattern with a composition book. I've not done journaling really, but maybe I should start? Maybe a book of projects and status? I did find a list of projects I had written out back in 2023. It was nice to see that I have actually finished things off the list! Not so much this year, but a few things have been completed.

The Christmas box is down to 2 lonely gifts. 

At the end of my doggie walk today (he gets a 30 minute meeting in the morning if I'm not too busy and I take a shorter lunch). This squirrel had me cracking up. He stared at the dog from the top of our fence, then jumped to the tree and stood frozen, upside down. He is right above the leaves and blends right into the tree trunk. 

The dog headed into Emily's room again after his walk and has been with her since. I guess I am just the food and walk me person.... and someone to snuggle with from 6-9 at night on the couch. Did I mention he is spoiled? Emily had her Winter Guard Christmas party at the teachers house last night. I opted not to go, since the boy was feeling slighted, I have not cooked for the last few days! I made him lemon chicken over pasta with prosciutto wrapped asparagus for dinner. Well, I did cook a huge beef rib roast Sunday, but it was done around 4PM and I might not have told people it was done! I had a great meal though, and seal-a-mealed a bunch so Emily will pull them from the freezer for her meals the next few months. Not as low a price as last year, but lower than normal. 

Day 19-21 of MSQC Jenny's Box and a project completed!

 Sorry. Had a power blip Friday around 1:36PM which fried our modem. We have horrible cell service at our house, and tend to use our WIFI for phone in the house. Lets just say, we figured out Saturday morning it was just us and not an actual outage like the message said when we called. They did send someone out fairly quickly - within 4 hours. It was back online before 1PM Saturday.

So - I got off work a little early since I need internet to work. The kids were not happy once they got home.... so Aidan decided it was game night. He and I played backgammon. Had to remember how to play but it came back pretty well. We should be set to play my Dad when back home next week. Then we moved onto Rack-0. Aidan and I played a few games, then he asked Greg and Em if they wanted to play. Greg was a no, but Emily joined us. Did I mention, Aidan got out the record player and pulled out the Christmas records we grabbed from Tom's house. I think we listened to all the 'Readers Digest records' of Christmas music in the set. Then Emily pulled out another record with about 6 songs for each year - the 50-60s. We ended up playing until about 11:30PM! Saturday, as it was still down, the kids headed to Grandma's house. Aidan had a 5PM timeline to sign up for the Senior trip to NY,PA and DC. It sold out in 2 minutes! He did get in as did his friends. 

So, Friday was the 19th and the gift was a mini version of the Embroidery box. I almost ordered the Bee box on the daily deal the previous day. I guess I should have done it. Emily seemed interested in it, so I'll wrap it up for her for Christmas!

Saturday was a panel with these colorful squares, and the rest of the panel has blue, cream, green and brown on it. They mentioned there will be something to go with it on Sunday.

Sunday was a pattern for this bag, interfacing and the hardware for the purse.

Back on day 13, I think was a snappy purse pattern and the snaps. I finally gave it a shot today. I messed it up, had to undo seams, take out the snappy parts and turn them over, then redo it from that point on. Not perfect, but I know how to make it now. I have enough to make 2 more. It finishes about 8x6 I think.

Day 17 & 18 msqc Jenny's box

 Day 17 is this MSQC string of lights. It is battery operated and super cute.

Day 18, is a pattern and puzzle. I love puzzles but rarely do them anymore. I do envision working this on the new printer table (old library table from my FIL's house) in my office room. The puzzle is 20x20 and looks challenging. They did say there will be a tutorial on the pattern released tomorrow. 

It is called Winter Stardust. I 'might' have peeked at day 19 to see if it was fabric for the pattern, alas it was not. It was something I have been looking at getting on their site though, but have not pulled the trigger to get. 😁

Last night was a GS planning wrap up meeting and Christmas gift exchange. Ornaments was the gift exchange.  I got #1, so had the final 'steal', which I did to get Waldo! 

I've got a dermatologist body check today (just annual check, no worries). They ran the new insurance and got the right amounts, so I guess it is all working! We will see how it goes. I got 2 forms notarized last night from a GS friend for Aidan's 2 overnight trips - the senior trip to PA,NY,DC the end of next month and his Skills USA for a few days up in Jacksonville in April. Waiting on the Dr to fill out the form needed to try for the Tennis team next quarter. Hopefully that is completed for pick up today, so he can turn it in tomorrow, their last day until January 7. I ordered them a couple stocking stuffers - warm hats for both and gloves for Emily. Grandma gave a pair to Aidan a couple of weeks ago that she had from LLBean - leather ones with fuzzy inside. That reminds me... I really need to wash my winter coat and find my hat and gloves. It will be chilly up in Vermont after Christmas.

Day 15+16 of MSQC Jennys box

 I forgot to post day 15, so here it is. A tin that looks like a thread with a needle attached.

Inside were these packages. I had to google them to see what they were. One is silicone thimbles. The others are all versions of bobbin thing or to wrap around thread. Do any of you use things like this? I've never seen them before!

Day 16 is this set of magnets. A slap bracelet, that says 'Sew along with me, the best is yet to be'. A little cat face magnet with a suction cup on the other end. 

Yesterday was a day of phone calls and tasks after work. I need a physical form for Aidan so messaged his doctor through his portal. I need to double check on that status. I had to call the VA - they had denied my mail scripts when I changed them over. Guess they thought I still had my other insurance so a form needed to be filled out. I did the call me back when I got to the front of the line (1 hour and 25 minutes later) and she was wonderful and filled out the needed form for me and the kids so hopefully that will ship in the next week or so. I returned a book to the library for Em, ordered something for my parents I had put off and finished the last 2 Christmas cards. It was a productive day! 

I stitched up this guy after dinner before heading out to the Winter concert at school.

The music director is out on maternity leave and she got a retired music teacher from another county to cover for her while she was out. She attended the concerts (chorus was at 6, symphonic and jazz band was at 7). Her sub was very charismatic and was very pleased with the environment she created in her classes and the leadership and talent she has created. The kids are lucky he stepped in to lead them until she returns.  Of course I missed the one little smirk smile when she saw her Dad and I in the audience. next to her is her co-leader on the JV Winter guard team. She is a senior, but opted for JV to help with the rookies and get a few extra hours a week so she can work a job as well. Crazy the amount of things these kids manage.

Harmony is finished!

 My third finish for the UFO Fall quarter. 

This is Harmony from a Hand pieced quilt along with Kristin Esser and Patty Dudek. I attempted to quilt mine like Patty did with circles going out from the center. 

This finished at 59x59.