Not the Usual Christmas

I hope each and everyone had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. My Christmas was different than in the years past. We were not able to have Christmas with my brothers and their families this year. Work schedules and the short time my son had at home prevented the usual time with my side of the family. I always look forward to seeing my brothers, my sisters-in-law and my nieces and nephews at Christmas, since they live either out of state or out of the country. Not seeing them did leave me feeling as though Christmas was not complete this year.
However, my husband's family lives in town, so we were able to have Christmas with them.

My husband, son and I did do our usual Christmas morning traditions - eat a huge breakfast and later in the day go to the movies. This year's movie was Charlie Wilson's War. We have been doing this for as long as I can remember.

Needless to say, the best part of my Christmas was being with my husband and son. I miss our son so much. He has completed 1 1/2 years of his 4 years residency in Philadelphia, but it feels like he has been there longer. When he was at Vanderbilt, we were able to visit him more frequently. Now it is so much harder. Too far away to jump in the car and go. I've got to stop writing about him...my eyes are tearing up. I thank the Lord every day for blessing us with such a wonderful son.

I did my usual baking for Christmas. Here is a sampling of some of the goodies:


Cookies: Raspberry Swirls, Cinnamon Cookies, Red Velvet Truffles, Oreo Truffles, Pralines, Spiced Pecans, Coconut Cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies, Double Chocolate Chips, Apple Cinnamon Scones. - Yummy!

One of My Favorite Cities on the Eastern Coast

If you have never visited this southern coastal city, you should. Here are a couple of street scenes. Can you guess where it is?

It is one of the most beautiful cities during every season of the year.

Have you guessed yet? It is Charleston, SC.

This past week, I attended a conference on Blue Ribbon schools. When my principal asked me to attend, I jumped at the opportunity. The conference was in Charleston, but I stayed on the Isle of Palms.

This quaint little island is wonderful in the late fall. I think my husband and I were among about ten people staying at the hotel. This was the beach view from our room.

And this is what my husband did while I attended the conference.

At night, this is what we did together.

Yep, we ate the most wonderful food. This is flounder fron Hyman's in Charleston. Normally, you have to wait in a long line to eat here in the evenings. It was the middle of the week when we ate here, so our wait time was about 5 minutes. I am ashamed to say I ate the WHOLE plate of flounder. Yes, I was about to popped, but the streets of Charleston are a great way to walk off a meal such as this.
Now I am home, back at school and counting down the days until we are out for Christmas break. Oh, yeah... I am still in the knitting groove. Later I'll post some pictures of some baby gifts I have knitted for a dear friend who is waiting on a phone call any day. They are adopting a little one. The birth mother is due in about a week.

Back in the Crafting Groove

I finally feel like I am back to a routine of knitting and/or sewing in the evenings. Look what I have done so far:



I knitted this bag over Thanksgiving and am ready to felt this:

Of course, this doesn't show how the bag is suppose to look. It is a cute, little bag with a flap. I'll post a picture as soon as I get around to felting.
I also have knitted some more dish cloths. Love these things. So easy.

Colors of Fall

Every year my husband comments that our maple tree in the front yard is never very colorful. This morning when I went outside to get the morning paper, I noticed that over night (not really over night- although it seemed like overnight) our tree had a bright smile - it is turning yellow. Nice...love the colors of fall.

How about these colors of fall?

U-G-L-Y you ain't got no alibi...these caramel apples are ugly, but, they were soooo good! My husband and I decided we wanted to make some homemade caramel apples. His job was to unwrapped the caramel candies. Tough job, but someone has to do it. After dipping in caramel and coating the apples with nuts, toffee bits and chocolate, the caramel began to drift southward. Ugh. But a quick trip to the refrigerator prevented a total loss. Needless to say, each one of these babies were consumed with no complaints.

I purchased the Note Taker pattern from Pink Chalk Studio this summer and finally got around to trying it out. I love this fabric - the flowers and colors. Inside I tried to bring out some of the colors from the front cover.

It was an easier project than I thought it would be. This would make a nice gift to colleagues at school.

Doubly Nice

It has been awhile since I have made anything and it has been a year since I started this project. So it is doubly nice to have finished this quilted table runner. Just in time for Thanksgiving.



It also nice to see some progress being made on our fireplace. This is what the fireplace looked like for 20 years:


Behind the fireplace screen is a wood stove. We are tired of this eyesore. So after a few days of tugging and creating a mess, this is what it looks like now:

What's next for the fireplace? I share in a few weeks.