New Year, New Start

Happy new year everyone! Hope everyone had a merry Christmas and a happy new year.  We did here- after a long month it was nice to have a day to share together as a family and relax.  It was a crazy month, and not just because of the Christmas preparations. 

Early in the month my husband had hernia surgery- it was something we had put off for too long and our old doctor had ignored for too long.  I had switched doctors and got my husband switched over too.  The new doctor's office took one look and set him up with a surgeon.  His surgery was around the first of the month.  They kept him a couple of days after then let him come home.  He was home a few days and started experiencing a lot of pain, more than normal for the procedure.  So we went to the local ER- scans and x-rays had shown that the mesh did not hold- so he was taken to the hospital he had the original surgery at and was kept for about a week after the almost -immediate surgery.  The hospital was about an hour away so it was a lot of driving back and forth, leaving the kids with friends, etc. But he is home now and recuperating, and was in time for Christmas, thankfully.

I have been doing a little stitching here and there; I am hoping with the start of the new year I can get back into my old stitching habits and get some things done.  The Alamo is still a WIP, and I have also started a gift for some friends- it was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but that didn't happen. To inspire me I can do a little stash shopping- I was fortunate enough to win a giveaway on Laurel's Stitchery's facebook page and won a $20 gift certificate for her shop! Was browsing tonight- such decisions to be made. I know that fabric is a must, as I am always running short of good fabric.

The kids are doing very well in their new schools, and Ginger is well also.  We had a little scare with her a month or two ago- she must have gotten into something she shouldn't have, and was a bit sick, but thankfully with some medicine and some special canned food, she is fine now.  (and always expects canned food with her dry food now, unfortunately. ) She has gained a little weight but is not unhealthy, as you can see in this photo taken at Christmas.

 

As some of you who have been reading my blog for a while know, I had some links to the right for my webshots albums- wish list and items for sale/trade.  Well evidently webshots was bought out in 2012 and I was sent an email that I needed to save all my photos because they would no longer be available after such and such a time.  WELL- I did not see that email- I have a tendency to let my emails pile up and probably purged it in some mass email purge at some point.  This is a bit upsetting because I'm not sure I had some of those photos saved anywhere else. Grrrrr. Oh well.. there is nothing to be done about it now. New year's resolution: Keep a better handle on my email accounts.

 

I was really so excited- since we have a new house I wanted a new Christmas tree- we had one of those fiberoptic ones from the 90's and I hated it - the lights just do not have that glow.  Well my dh knew I wanted a new tree and fortunately a friend of his from work was getting rid of one or two- they have a large house. And he got us a new tree for a steal.  So this was our tree this year-

I ♥ it. I don't want to take it down!

 

Well that is life in a nutshell here- thanks for sticking with me! Will post some stitching pics next time(I know, I probably said that last time.)

 

Happy New Year!

Ok, so I am a couple weeks late.. sorry!  You know how it goes around the holidays..we had a very nice Christmas. Rob's mom came to visit from Christmas Day to New Year's Day, it was so much fun having her here! And we got a little spoiled, as she brought many baked goodies with her! I didn't get many good Christmas pics of the kids this year- Hanna was sitting beside me so it was kind of hard to get pics of her, but I did get this great one of David opening his Criss Angel magic kit- he wanted one sooooo bad(and so did Dad!)

and a picture of our tree of course-

One of the things I don't like about our pre-lit fiber optic tree is it just doesn't "glow" like a tree with traditional lights. It was prettier than this- the picture really doesn't do it justice.

Ah, here's one of Hanna- looks like she wanted her picture taken huh? hee hee..

And here is a pic of the kids and I with my mother-in-law- Rob doesn't like getting his picture taken.

And David took a ride back to the parking lot on the luggage cart-

Mom's plane left pretty early- we saw a nice sunrise on the way home!

On the stitching side of things- I have finished something this year, but I can't show you yet! It's a gift for a friend and I haven't sent it yet.  But here is something to hold you over in the meantime.  I have had this stitched for my MIL for a while, but finally made it into a flatfold so I could give it to her for Christmas. She always likes going to the ocean when she's here.  Thank you Vonna for your great tutorials!!

And lastly, I was reading Paulette at Plum Street Samplers blog today, and she is doing something and I have been thinking about doing it too.  It's a 365 day blog.  Basically you post a picture a day, I'm assuming one you have taken that day.  Since I love taking pictures I think I may give it a go, though by looking at hers I know already my picture-taking skills lack in comparison! I will post a link here when I get it set up.

Merry Christmas!!

I am just chillin' at home with my family- kids are playing Lego Batman on the Wii, Rob is working on Hanna's new ipod, getting it ready to roll.. thought I would check in with my blog friends and see how everyone's Christmas is going! I am wearing a warm snuggly poncho my mom made for me- I will have Hanna take a picture later so you can see. :) I did get two stitchy gifts- an Ott-Lite (Michael's had them 1/2 price, woo hoo!) and a beautiful hardcover book "A Cross Stitch Christmas" from my FIL and his wife.  All kinds of designers are featured including Donna Vermillion Giampa, Ursula Michael, Gail Bussi, Nora Corbett, and a lot more!! There are some beautiful winter scenes and a gorgeous stained glass window pattern.   Dh also go me a new camera- a Canon Power Shot(thanks Edgar! I love it!) so maybe now that I have a camera that's a little more portable I will have more pictures to share with you all. 
Rob helped me finish my ornaments the other night-he is better with a sewing machine than me-and they were sent out yesterday. I only have one to finish yet and get out, which I will hopefully take care of this weekend. I am just trying to decide how to finish it because it's a rectangular shape with a rounded top.  I never did finish stitching the Tinkerbell design for dd, I think she has forgotten about it- so I will continue to plug away at that and my Dec. flip-it. I have joined the Brooke's Books Stitcher's Alphabet SAL- I am hoping to get the fabric I  need this weekend also.  I have never started a project from the corner before, always the middle- but since all the letters aren't done yet I'll be starting in the top left corner- any tips?
Dh and I watched "The Accidental Husband" the other night- the reviews I had heard were not so good but Colin Firth was in it so I gave it a try anyway.. it was predictable but still cute, I thought.  Don't know that I'd buy it for my DVD collection but it wasn't so bad. I mean we rented it from a Redbox and it was not a waste of 1.00. lol  We've also rented "All About Steve"- hope to watch it soon. I would like to watch at least one version of "A Christmas Carol" this weekend - I have two tivoed. 
I don't think I have shared a picture of our Christmas tree yet- this was taken with the old camera-

It was taken right after we put it up.  The kids and I made Christmas cookies yesterday- this year I opted for the Toll House pre-made dough- it is delicious and so much more convenient!  Here is the finished product- the one with fewer cookies was decorated by Hanna and I decorated most of the larger plate- there are a few decorated by David- those would be the ones with the piles of icing. lol

I also got a great deal on a gingerbread house kit at Michael's so the kids and I will hopefully do that this weekend as well.

Well, I am sure chatty today aren't I? That's about it for now- hope I will have some stitchy pics soon- but in the meantime here are my attempts at taking the kids' pic for the Christmas card- they would not sit still- I finally gave up and chose the one in the middle.

This bottom one would have been perfect if David didn't have the goofy look on his face!

Merry Christmas and as Tiny Tim said -"God bless us every one!"