"We wish you a Merry Christmas, We wish you a Merry Christmas, We wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!" 

Can you believe Christmas is only a week away - yikes!  Most of this month has been taken up with preparations for the holidays... We set up the tree before our December Open House, and put out my big Nutcracker who guards the bottom of the stairs... and the gnome in the garden has on his festive hat and collar, LOL.  I did up all the Christmas cards nice and early - I used up some old ones I still had on hand, then used my new X's & Oh's CHRISTMAS CARDS for the rest.  I love how they came out, and I'll try to remind you about them in October (2021) in case you want to order some for yourself - I meant to do it this year, and just lost track of everything... I blame it on Covid brain, (GBG). 

I also dug out the gifts I'd bought throughout the year, and we bought presents for those we didn't have yet.  They were all wrapped and in the mail and most of them have arrived safely - I think we're waiting to hear about one more... We were able to go see Bill's mom (in Kingston) and have lunch with a couple of his many siblings... Mom G is being very careful and not going out much, and the boys are being very careful not to visit her often or all at once.  We'll miss the huge gathering at her house (almost 50 people last year!!), but look forward to getting together in the summer (fingers, toes and eyes crossed we're allowed to get together by then).  I also got my homemade buns done - took a dozen for each of the folks at lunch, and still have some in the freezer for the 25th. 

But it hasn't all been fun - MY mom fell and dislocated her shoulder (she decided to rearrange the furniture after my dad went to bed one night, and tripped over a carpet she had folded back out of her way!!).  It was a very bad dislocation, and she'll be out of action for at least 6 weeks, so a lot of our time has been spent driving them to appointments and doing errands for them, since she can't drive and dad can't see well enough to either.  I even had time to take dad Christmas shopping while mom was in physio, so he's done now too, LOL. 

Since I was over there so much anyway, I got the new vinyl floor laid in their bathroom and laundry room, so their bathroom renovation is pretty much complete.  Bill came over and helped move the freezer / washer / dryer and put in new  baseboards, oh and he also had to shorten the door just a hair so it didn't drag, and those finishes really made a difference! 

Of course I'm still working (wink).  I've had a few people come out to shop, or order by phone, and in the evenings I'm busy working on the second version of the OWL HARDANGER BOX for EAC Seminar 2022.  Still haven't heard if I've been picked to teach, but it's a really nice box, so I wanted to get the adjustments made - and make notes, LOL, while it's all fresh in my mind! 

Unfortunately, I had TWO projects I thought would be ready and I could use one for December and one for January, and one isn't done, and the other seems to be lost in the mail (sigh).  If it DN show up soon, I'll have to have it re-stitched. Of course it's my fault the other project isn't done, as I have to finish stitching the second sparkly purse... I have the gold one stitched, now I'm working on the silver - but I got tied up with the OWL BOX and didn't work on it (thinking the OTHER project was on it's way home).  Ah well...

In the meantime, I whipped up an adorable little 4x6 design to release as a Little Leaflet.  It sez :"RELAX, you're on (picture of flip flops) TIME!"  I'm doing my flip flops blue, and using an overdyed floss for the larger lettering, but I think I may include other color options, for those who want green, or yellow, or pink flip flops!  This should stitch up fairly quickly, so I'm off to work on that - have a great holiday and enjoy your Christmas no matter where you are, or who you're with!  Make some hot cocoa (spike it with Baileys, yum), put on your favorite Christmas movie, and enjoy! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!