Christmas Catchup

I know, I know, it's been forever since my last post. I can't even blame it on the new computer, as it's been running fantastically for a while now. I guess I'll have to blame my over-all sense of laziness over the holiday. I feel like I've been doing only what must be done and letting the rest go - which includes housework. I can't tell you how many times DH has pulled through and done those dishes for me. He's definitely a keeper.

Speaking of keeping DH, check out what he did for me for part of my Christmas present this year:

For those of you that might not know what this is at first glance, it's a quilt hanger that he made for me with his own 2 hands! I have a similar, smaller one that I bought from a quilt bee friend a couple of years ago hanging in our bedroom, and he decided to make a larger version for the huge empty wall in our dining room. I think it's great!

Here you can see it with a few of my Jim Shore pieces on the shelf on top, and my third quilt top I made about 10 years ago and it's still waiting to be quilted hanging off the hanger.

I think it's looks great! Thanks honey :)

He also got me a bell jar to add to my collection - I've filled it with buttons and a few of the pincushions I've made over the years.

There were a few other gifts - a couple of DVDs and a huge frying pan I've been wanting for a while. It was a good Christmas in that regard :)

We had everyone over for dinner on New Year's Day - as that was the only time my brother could get here from North Carolina. That was a noisy day! I am really not used to having 13 people in the house - 4 of which are children. But, no mishaps and it was a really special day.

Unfortunately, Boots, the kitty I introduced you to last, got sick just before Christmas. She stopped eating on Friday night and stopped drinking water on Sunday. Monday morning I asked my DSis to bring her to the vet's office for me (an adventure in itself). The vet did some bloodwork and started pumping fluids into her. They kept her overnight and started her on antibiotics. We picked her up the next day with a diagnosis of very early stages of kidney disease. It seems odd that she would stop eating with that diagnosis, but whatever. We've had her on soft food since then (boy, feeding time is becoming a dance with the other animals), and she seems to be doing much better. However, we are still paying that vet bill....next week we'll finally have it paid off - whew!

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention the craft show DH and I went to this Christmas! Our town puts together a craft show the first Saturday of December and we've never been to it. We've heard about it over the 8 years we've lived here, but never ventured out to it. Boy, what a mistake! They take over the local middle school (2 blocks from our house) and set up tables in the gym and all the hallways. We got there at 9:30 when they opened and spent 2 hours in there and I don't think we hit every table! And we weren't browsing slowly, either - DH can get impatient in crowded places, so I was doing my best to skim the tables quickly. We did get lucky, though.

I found 2 Jim Shore pieces for my collection - each under $10.00! We found a couple of stuffed animals for DNephew (which he loved!), gifts for DH's family and the best thing - a hand-turned pen made of deer antler! My brother absolutely loved it! It was right up his alley :)

Overall, a very successful holiday season was survived here. Always a relief in my book :)