jump up and down

hung by the staircase with care

Here they are, finally...our very own stockings.  Before these we had kind of a hodge podge of homemade stockings about - Ryan's that was knitted by his grandma which he loves because it stretches to accommodate whatever you might want to put in it, some that I made when Ryan and I first got married which weren't as exciting as they were functional, and a few from my Grandma but I have lost mine so we still didn't have a full set.  I'm so glad we pushed through and got these finished on Thanksgiving weekend - thanks again Mom!!! And sorry about the photo quality on these - my living room is probably one of the darkest (and coldest) around. 
 
We also put up our tree and thanks to Sarah, it has a full set of ornaments.  This is the first year in a while that we have had a large tree and I was worried that we wouldn't have enough ornaments to fill it.  About a week before Thanksgiving, Sarah sent an entire box full of vintage adornments!  Hooray!  I forgot that I won her giveaway this summer and it was such a great surprise to get them - definitely made my day.  Here's my favorite from the set...

And while we're on the subject of hanging, sorry to leave you hanging.  I let finals week take over, but it appears to have paid off - I did well on my tests and have hope for some  good grades.  Now, I'll have a few whirlwind days getting ready for Christmas as I have put so much of it off until now.  It won't be terrible - Ryan is on vacation starting this afternoon when he gets home and he has promised to be a big help  I have also done a few things here and there.  School doesn't start back until the 12th of January and I'll be taking a little different mix of classes, but I think the time management will all work out as two of them are online (code word: flexibility) and I won't be working for Sandi anymore.  I'm so happy for her because her patterns have taken off, but unfortunately it's been a bit much for me to try to keep up with!  I'm hoping that means that I'll be here a little more often and I've got some plans up my sleeve for a few new and different things in my shop. 

I hope to be back here in the next few days to share a few more Christmas goodies, but if I'm not, Merry Christmas everyone!!

decisions

I just got the family photos that Sandi took of us a little while back and I'm trying to decide which one to use for the Christmas card.  Sandi did a great job!  These are by far our best family photos ever.  We are not an easy family to photograph...two rambunctious boys, one fairly reserved man (OK, very reserved...I have actually had people ask me if he talks!  Well, of course he talks - he is pretty funny when you get him going!) and me, who just might be the most photogenic of the group, which is certainly not saying much.  So, here we are and I can't decide which photo to use - help me out, will you?  #1 - where we are all looking at the camera except Peter, or #2, where the kids look great and Ryan and I are laughing so hard at them that you can't really see our eyes?  Leave a comment - it will be appreciated!

seeing red and green

I was thankful to have several stocking orders this year and even more thankful that my Mom offered to help me sew them up while we were visiting for Thanksgiving.  We whipped out seven stockings and then got really ambitious and finally made some for my own family (I'll share those later - I love, love, love how they turned out and I'm so glad to have them).  I really do have such a generous and helpful Mom.  And the the boys love her too!  Tonight when I was tucking Peter in bed, I told him that he needed to get right to sleep because he has his big pre-school day tomorrow.  He just replied, "No thanks, I want to go to Grandma's!"  Poor boy - at least we are headed back soon for Christmas!

Thank you to all of you who are still reading, even though the posts have been super spotty of late.  I'm working on adjusting some of my commitments so I have more time for family, crafting, and thus have more blogging fodder.  The last few weeks have been crazy busy with school, all of Peter's things, and the holidays and I'm looking forward to the end of the semester here in two weeks or so and a little break for a few weeks. 

I wish you all the best in getting ready for the holidays and hope especially that you may feel the peace of the season!