Peace and quiet again

The festivites are all over, the kids have all returned home, the tree is down and the decorations put away for another year. I can't believe how quiet the house is once again! Until the family all lands in at once you don't realize how much you've grown accustomed to the quiet of just two.
Mind you we had an excellent time! I finally finished my long stretch of working and on the 31st I headed up to Drummondville to pick up my son Jeff and his family. We'd had another couple of cm of snow fall which was just enough to make the roads greasy. I was worried about travelling through Montreal because a snowfall is not about to stop them from rushing but fortunately I was stuck behind the tandem plows all the way through the city. This was one of the few times that I didn't curse them!

I had picked up my middle son Dan after work on Sunday so he was already at our place and by the time I arrived home with the gang, Chris had landed in from Ottawa. I had gifts waiting for my granddaughters and they had so much fun opening them. True to form, the youngest one, Summer, had more fun with the bows and boxes than with the actual presents! Oceanne ran around from person to person assisting them with the opening of their gifts. Since both girls had received plenty of toys from their other grandparents I chose to give them some much needed clothing. They're both growing like weeds!

New Year's Day brought us another storm which dumped us with another 15 cm of snow. My DH was visiting his family in Windsor and was due to return home on the New Year. However road conditions were extremely hazardous and so Bob decided to remain in Windsor for one more day. I was relieved but this meant that he was not with us for our holiday meal. He did have plenty of leftovers waiting for him though!

Over the course of the holidays we paid a visit to Upper Canada Village where they have a holiday celebration called Alight At Night. The village consists of a replica 1860s village complete with farms, shops, mills, etc. Over the holidays they decorate it with 250,000 lights. You can take a horse-drawn wagon ride or horse-drawn carriage through the village or you can do as we did and just walk. The night we visited was just after a snowfall and everything was so pretty. There was carol singing at the church as well as ice skating on a new artificial rink surface at the town square. The village restaurant was open and we grabbed a bowlful of chili to ward off the cold. The driver on the wagon ride told us that normally the lights will stay up until spring even though the village closes in early January. However this year all the lights have to come down immediately afterwards because there is a movie shooting in the village in the new year. Next year we plan to take our camera tripod with us for some better photos. We did get a few good ones but because of the low lighting there was just too much blurring in some cases. I don't know if that was from the camera or my hands shaking because of the cold!! On our way out of the village we had a close collision with a deer. Apparently there have been two killed this year right on the roads leading into the village.

Now that the family have all returned home I'm finally able to put in some stitching time. I finished my Christmas Play ornament. Finishing will come later.

Better late than never! Actually I'm hoping to do a few more ornaments this year to set aside as gifts. I recently found a cute Helga Mandl ornament called USA tree which I plan on doing for my sister who lives in the States.

I've never really set any goals for my stitching before. However I did give it a shot for 2008.

As mentioned, I plan to do some ornaments( at least 4 if possible) and continue working on my CdC. I'd love to have it completed by the end of the year but time will tell! I'd like to do a few more LHN pieces and PS too. My next LHN start will be Snowflakes. I'm just waiting for some floss to arrive. In the meantime I'm starting a cute little piece called A Cat in Snowman's Clothing by Hillside Samplings. I got it all kitted up today and plan on starting it this evening. Since I wasn't able to stitch CdC on my normal SAL night I'm going to devote some time to it tomorrow.

I hope that you have all had a happy holiday and that 2008 brings each and every one of you many blessings!