Winding down

Last week I was in high gear trying to get everything done that needed to be. However things are starting to settle down now that I have time off work . I finished work last Friday and with the exception of Boxing Day, the 26th, I don't have to work again until Jan. 6th. Yippee! I went into Ottawa on Saturday and finished last minute shopping, catching some great sales at Michael's in the process. Today I'm doing some cookie baking and tomorrow I'm trying a vegetarian tourtiere recipe since my youngest is a vegetarian and won't be touching the turkey. We've been invited to our good friends' home for Christmas dinner. They're also from Windsor originally and don't have family in this neck of the woods. I'll be bringing the tourtiere(regular and vegetarian) and my DH is making his famous broccoli salad by request. For those of you who are not familiar with tourtiere, it's basically a meat pie usually made with pork or a beef and pork mix, lightly spiced. It's a French-Canadian tradition which I was introduced to by my ex-husband and family. Now our Christmas doesn't seem complete without one.

Dec. 12th marked my DH's birthday and the 15th was my son Daniel's so the two of them shared with a joint celebration on the 15th. We spent the weekend attending various Christmas concerts including one of my husband's choirs. With the exception of Christmas eve, all of our choir concerts are now complete and we are free to take in various other concerts around town of which there are many!

Last night I had time to finish stitching up my Christmas Box ornament. I love how this one turned out. There are three in the series so I'm planning on stitching the other two in the new year. Haven't decided whether I'll do them all in the same colours or not. I had hoped that I'd have a day in which to do some finishing on my ornaments but as usual other stuff got in the way. Besides I'm just too tired!

I'm also continuing to stitch on my Jingle All The Way ornie. I only have limited stitching time right now which is usually in the evenings and it would be nice to have this one complete soon but I'm not holding my breath. Lately I've been known to fall asleep in my stitching chair just minutes after settling in!

The Noel Tree which I recently finished stitching arrived here this week from Vonna's place where she did a flatfold finish for me. What a beautiful job she did!! This time I provided the fabric from my stash and I love how it turned out. It's difficult to see in the picture but the fabric is covered in gold trees. Thanks Vonna! As I sit here blogging, I'm listening to the all the Christmas tunes from your playlist. That, plus the 20cm of snow we've received in the past few days, is putting me in a very festive mood!

The Christmas following my marriage to Bob, I decided to do away with my old decorating scheme and purchased new lights, ribbon, etc. for our tree. I went with a blue and white theme since blue is one of the predominant colours in my living room. After 7 yrs of this I wanted a change and dug out the old red and green beads and plaid ribbon once more. As you can see I never throw anything away! I updated the old lights with some of the new LED ones which made a big difference. Since the kids have grown older I've started collecting handblown glass ornaments for the tree. When my grandchildren come I just move some of the glass ones up higher where they can't reach. Fortunately my cat has never been one to bother with the tree. He just likes to sleep under it as you can see from the picture at the start of this post. I've posted a few pictures below of some of my favourites glass ornaments.

All three of these ornaments have sentimental value attached to them. The skate was my first Christmas present from Bob. The moose was a special gift from my sister the first Christmas I spent alone with the boys and the owl we brought home from Muskoka to remind us of the woods around the cottage. Now I'm looking for a loon to remind us of our summers at the cottage. Instead of a star or an angel adorning the top of the tree we have something a little different. It's Father Christmas. This was a gift from my boys one Christmas and proudly sits at the top of our tree watching over all the goings on below.

To finish, I wish all of you a very blessed Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope that the year ahead is not filled with as much uncertainty as I know it is for so many, myself included. I am very thankful to have made so many good friends through blogging and I thank each and every one of you for your lovely comments and your expertise. Enjoy your holidays and I'll see you in the new year!