Here we are almost ready to start a new year. I still have a list of stuff to complete from this year...I know I will never have the time to do them all, so I just tore the list into little pieces and threw it in the garbage. If I have not had enough time during a whole year to get them done, it is best to just get rid of the list and start over with a new list.
Usually on New Year's Eve we do a project, like paint a room, put carpet down one year. This year I did not have a project in mind till yesterday.
We will be taking down the tree tonight! Something really out of the ordinary for me. I take the tree down usually a wee bit before Valentine's day.
But as has happened only one time before in the last 15 years, the tree has dried out in the month is has been up, and is now a fire hazzard and must come down. Even though it has "drank" almost a gallon of water a day..It is a 10 foot tree, but still that is a lot of water....
I could probably leave it up till next weekend, except the night before last, a house about 3 houses from ours, and across the street caught fire and burned. That made me think, the tree must go now!
I think I shall use the time I would normally use for a "project" to remove the dry tree from our livingroom.
The small 4 foot artificial tree that is in our sun room can stay up another week or so. and all the decorations that are not packed away in the attic, can stay up too.
Then I will start my to do list for 2010.

Christmas is............................
Not just the shopping, the baking, opening the presents, or getting together with friends.
Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus!

IT'S HERE!

IT'S FINALLY HERE!!

CHRISTMAS IS HERE!!

Everything is done, except the cooking ofcourse. Tomorrow Christmas begins with Christmas Eve and lasts, well in this house anyway, until one minute past midnight January second.

The tradition was started way before I was born...my Mother's family always sent presents to each other as they did not live all that close, and the mail was not always that fast so presents would usually arrive between Christmas and New Years. It just made the fun last longer.

Even when my children were small and grandma and grandpa lived in Florida, presents arrived between Christmas and New Years but then it was planned to be that way...Cards were just as slow...

I like the tradition as it gives a whole week to enjoy the holiday, and to meditate on it's true meaning. Christmas is not just about the presents, and the food and the fun..It is much more than that. The candles in the centerpiece are lit everyday starting with Christmas Morning and ending January 2nd. It just seems to make the celebration more meaningful.

JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON, CELEBRATE HIS BIRTH

Well now it is the 19th.
I am done with everything except the Christmas dinner, which I can start on Christmas Eve, and the cleaning which I can also do on Christmas Eve. Especially if I want the house to look nice on Christmas.
So that gives me a few days to just do whatever I want...Not sure what that will be yet...but I am certainly not going to tell my friends or relatives of this abundance of free time....That will only lead to doing stuff for them, and will eat up my free time.
Now I am not being selfish here, just want to give myself a Christmas Present, and what better present than "free time"....
I wonder where I put all the Christmas movies? Will get a few books together that I have been wanting to read but never can find the time......and then there are friends I would just love to sit and chat with.......So many fun things to fill my free time...... And I can finally sleep late!

" Time" that magical thing....I think I have finally found some...The cookies are baked, the cards are out, the presents are all done and wrapped. So now I have time to do fun things, like adding some "bling" to a Christmas present. Deceided that the walker purse needed a little something to brighten it up. So I added some hot fix swaroski crystals.
The bag is for a fun and energetic 88 year "young" friend.
She will have so much fun with it, no more carrying her mail in her teeth back to her apartment....now she will have a bag to put it in.

Things seem to be falling into place this year, and I might actually have time to spare before Christmas Day arrives. Have all the presents wrapped, the cards out, the house is still a mess, but I always do the house last. No scense in wasting all that energy since I know I will have to do it again when the decorations are all up and the empty boxes are all put away till it is time to take them down again.
Today I have started the cookies, with luck I will finish them all by tonight, or at least by tomorrow night. That will give me 9 days to clean the house...ok, 1 day to clean the house, and 8 days to relax and enjoy everything.
Will get out the Christmas movies, grab a cup of tea, a comforter, and watch movies. Something I say I want to do each year, but always run out of time before that can happen.
Tonight after supper, we will be going out to look at lights, all those beautiful displays people set up.
Last year we only got to do that one night, ran out of time.....
Always that TIME issue. Where does it all go..
This year when everyone asked me what I want for Christmas, I will tell them FREE TIME!

Finally finished putting up the Swag curtains for the Diningroom. Put the ones up in the Livingroom last month.

Even though it does not show up all that well the walls are a light celery green. I used to have white Pricilla Curtains on this window, but got tired of them. Have ripped them apart and will be making them into a new style curtains for our bedroom.

As you can tell, I have already added some Christmas decorations to the window. Tomorrow I will get the plant hangers up and add the plants.

We have a Christmas tradition in our house. It was started by my girlfriend when she gave me the first one for Christmas 1986. She had done this at her house.

So the dates on mine begin with 1986.

Everyone in the family gets their name on an apple. Then as more people join the family either thru marriage or birth their name is added with the date they entered the family.

Sadly my girlfriend died 6 months after she gave me the apple. But I think of all the fun we had together every time I see one of those apples.

Here is how the trees looked yesterday afternoon. It was pretty on the trees, but not on the power lines. A lot of people were without electric. Our lights just flickered a few times but that was it.

Today it is 9 degrees on my thermometer. I have chosen to stay inside and decorate.

This is a wall hanging I had made a few years ago. I made 2 actually, the other one I gave to one of my best friends. I have hung crocheted red and green mini doilies from it. The doilies were a gift to me.

It is hanging below a shelf with some of my stuffed cats. It is their feet that are hanging over the top of the wallhanging.

The saying on the wallhanging is: Christmas is Love.

These are the ones I have done the past few years.

The little plaid santa is sewn, the angel is a little chiffon bag that is stuffed with fiberfil and then ribbon wings and a halo and red rose are added. Her "hands" are formed from the ties of the bag.

The other ornaments are needlpoint on plastic canvas.

Here are a few of the ornaments that I made through the years, the idea is to make different ones every year. I try to keep track of what I have given to whom, so I do not give someone the same ornament twice.
The heart, cane, and fan, are sewn, the reindeer is made from wine corks, and the other cane, is a piece of trim with beads strung thru.
The idea for the fan came when I made placemats for a present and had a couple blocks left over. I always make more blocks just in case something goes wrong.

Have been so busy the past couple of days, there has been no time to post.
Managed to go to the tree farm and cut a tree, and get it home. With luck it will be decorated by tomorrow night! 1000 lights and a few boxes of ornaments. Then I can try to get all the furniture back to it's proper place.
Need to cleam up my cutting table so I can get to those ornaments. Stuff is just thrown on there now. It keeps sliding off the table onto the floor. What a mess!
My plan is to spend all day Wednesday sewing.
Must fit a trip to the grocery store in somewhere tomorrow. Need supplies for cookies, and for the menu for Christmas dinner. My list, Yes, I have one of those, is getting slowly shorter.
I may just be able to fit in a few days of just relaxing and enjoying Christmas.
All the presents except a bag and the ornaments are done and wrapped. Still have the cards and cookies to do.
So many things to do yet, so little time to get them all done.
Must rescue my camera from my son and take pictures of those ornaments as soon as I get them done.
It is again past 1am time for bed, have lots to do tomorrow, oops, make that today!

Today I managed to get some sewing done, almost finished a Christmas present. Have one more to buy and wrap and then they will all be done.
Then it will be on to making ornaments. Started the family tradition 12 years ago. Each year a different design...am starting to run out of ideas.
This year they will be mini postcards, with a fun front and a message on the back. Each is "addressed" to the person it is going to and is signed and dated..
Tomorrow I clean...such a dismal thought....but I must. I would so rather sit and sew and create.
One year I want to make Christmas cards, but no time to do that this year. There is that issue again....time.........................and only 21 days till Christmas!!

Have you ever noticed, that all the free time we thought we would have when the kids got older has seemed to just disappear somewhere.
I want my free time back! I need it just to keep up!
It seems I can find so many wonderful projects that I woud love to do, if I could just fit them in.