Monday 22 December 2008

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!



9 comments:

  1. My son has gone through the vegetarian thing a couple of times, but not this year. We end up cooking so many things to cover everyone's likes and dislikes and it's just 4 of us this year!!...lol...I don't mind, I just want everyone to enjoy:)
    I love Jingle all the way and your stitched finishes are so pretty!
    I wish for you and yours a most wonderful holiday and New Year!

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  2. Beautiful tree, stitching and ornaments, Lynn!
    Deb

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  3. Oh Lynn! It's just looking great at your house :o) I wanted a little change with our tree this year too and bout some new things and put the old things away for use another year :o)
    Your Flatfold is gorgeous, glad it arrived in time and safely!
    Your little stitched present is GORGEOUS...who is the designer? LOVE IT!
    Have a very Merry Christmas :o)
    Hugs!

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  4. Things are winding down here as well.
    Your stitched pieces are gorgeous and I love the ornies on your tree.
    Have a terrific holiday and Merry Christmas.

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  5. Lynn, your tree is just lovely! I wish I had the wherewithal to bother putting mine up!

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  6. Dearest Lynn what a lovely Christmas post. I love the glass ornaments on your tree and your little elf sleeping under it.
    It has been a real pleasure sharing time with you this year and hope to do so again next year.
    Many hugs and the Merriest of Christmas wishes from my home to yours

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  7. Hi Lynn,

    Merry Christmas!!!

    Finnigan looks so sweet under the
    Christmas tree. Rupert likes to
    sleep under our tree too, and I've
    noticed that there's less fur on
    the furniture these days, probably
    because of that. Phoebe likes to
    play with the tree skirt and will
    try to go down the hole where the
    tree trunk sticks out.

    Your Noel Tree looks lovely all
    finished up into a flatfold. That
    Vonna is one talented lady isn't
    she?? I'm sure that your sister
    will love this present.

    I love your glass ornaments, and
    most especially the moose. He's
    very funky. I love how a Christmas
    tree turns into something of a
    memory keeper, with many of the
    ornaments being gifts from friends
    or having connections with things
    that mean a lot to us in our daily
    lives.

    We did the turkey thing yesterday
    and the left over thing today.
    The only thing I make that's sort
    of special is a turnip casserole.
    I don't make it often because my
    DH HATES turnip, so I'm the only
    one who would eat it. At least
    at Christmas my SIL will eat it
    and will take some of the left
    overs home. I'll still be eating
    turnip casserole for about a week
    though. Including breakfast!!!

    The Christmas Box is beautiful
    and it would be cool to see all
    three designs in this series
    stitched and made into ornaments.
    The material that you're stitching
    it on is so pretty. The sparkle
    even shows up on the photo.

    The weather up until Christmas
    day was pretty nasty wasn't it?
    Especially on Christmas eve.
    Shoveling snow in the morning,
    flooding and fog in the afternoon
    and gale force winds and chilly
    temperatures in the evening.
    Something for everyone indeed.

    My best wishes to you and your
    family this holiday season.

    Cheers!

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  8. Fun finish, and nice progress on Jingle too. What a beautiful flatfold. This was so pretty when you finished it, and Vonna did a lovely job on the finishing. Hope you had a lovely Christmas, and the weather was good for travel.
    Sue

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  9. I love decorating our tree and seeing all the ornaments that have special meaning to us. It's nice to be able to do that.

    Our cat doesn't bother the tree either, but he does enjoy napping on the tree skirt

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