December WIPocalyse and Smalls SAL

December.... a busy month at the best of times and not enough time for me to post twice this month. Consequently you get a combined WIPocalypse and Smalls SAL post. 

 Blackwater Hollow had very little attention paid to it this month. I suddenly realized how little time I had left for Christmas stitching and put this one aside. Sadly I don't expect to have it complete by year's end as I had hoped, not unless I have a stitching marathon which is highly unlikely. Our family have not had their Christmas gift exchange and dinner yet. My sons and families are only arriving on New Year's Day for our celebrations.

I did manage to get three small finishes completed in time for the Christmas season. Only two of them received final finishing as they are gifts for my granddaughters.
First up is A Festive Noel by Tina Woltman of Early Workings.

This is the third small involving a fruit basket which I finished this year. I have since purchased a couple more which I hope to complete in the next month or two. I love this design and can't wait to see it finished up as a small pinkeep.

The next two designs are by Prairie Schooler from their Evergreen leaflet. My granddaughters each picked out the design of their choice. Summer wanted the reindeer and Oceanne picked out the Peace design.

I found the backing fabric for these in my village fabric shop just last week. I love it and thought it was perfect to finish off these small stitches. I know the girls are going to love them!

I also started a larger work on a Christmas theme. I took a fancy to one of the new releases by Plum Street Sampler called Pomegranate Santa. As you can see, I haven't gotten very far on it yet.

Since our family wasn't joining us for Christmas dinner, we were invited to the neighbour's home for dinner with their family. All in all we were 14 and enjoyed a lovely turkey buffet dinner. I just had to show you a pic of the dessert we all enjoyed. It's a chocolate mousse cake! Yup, those are Kit Kat bars all around the outside!

Christmas Eve between church services, Bob and I took a drive up to Parliament Hill in Ottawa to see the Canadian Heritage light show. It was the perfect evening to see this as it was fairly mild. The show had been running since early December and would finish on Christmas Day so we definitely made it a point to get there to see it.

The light show was fantastic and pictured the adventures of a snowman, fox, and grizzly bear. It started with a countdown on a clock and ended with a tribute to Canada's upcoming 150th birthday in 2017. In anticipation of that event there will be a huge fireworks display on the hill on New Year's Eve. I wish I could be there but I don't think I'll make it since I'm picking up my granddaughters that day out of town.

I'll leave you with a pic of sweet Clarisse, enjoying my little twig tree on which I display all my stitched ornaments. She loves hanging out by the tree whether it's this one or the larger one downstairs. Happy New Year everyone and I'll see you then!