And The Christmas Season Begins

The calendar says it's December 6. My head says get a move on, decorate already. My body says I did, I hung a Christmas banner on the front door. Sometimes I think my body parts have a life of their own.

This post will be word heavy as I haven't been taking photos much lately. I've mostly just sat in my stitchy chair and worked on WIP's. I did finish this:

This is the Lizzie*Kate Christmas Mystery SAL for 2017. I like it but I don't love it like I have the previous ones. I don't know why that is. The colors are subtle and really pretty and it was an easy stitch. Maybe the recent flood of SALs I've joined and am loving have tainted me a bit.

I did get the new fabric for "The Embrace" 

and got it started again. IN THE MIDDLE, like I should have to begin with. 

This is my progress through last night:

I've gone back to stitching in hand on most things. That has always been my preferred method but I had to start using hoops a couple of years ago because of the pains in my wrists and fingers. That is all under control now and I can hold my fabric again. I think my stitches are much neater when stitching in hand so I'm pleased. Of course, I might have to start using a hoop again but that is okay too. I don't get along with Q-Snaps; it hurts my hands to hold them and I tend to use smaller hoops, usually 6" or 8", nothing larger.

Maybe I should have a WIP parade one day. I'll see how that goes!  LOL

We had our family Thanksgiving at my sister's on Saturday after Thanksgiving. It was too complicated to get everyone together on the actual day. With my family spread out and the grandkids getting older, it's getting harder to find a time when we can all be in one place. Bless my sister's heart, she usually hosts. She lives in Knoxville and so is about an hour closer for the kids. We are already trying to plan our Christmas get together and it looks like it will be January before that happens. That's okay. I enjoy having all my family together in one place and the date really doesn't matter.

My son and DIL, Doug and Trisha, went to the UT Knoxville football game but brought 2 of the grandkids, Ella and Elijah, through to stay with us while at the game. Lilly had decided to stay with Trisha's parents to get some one on one time with Poppy, her other grandfather. My daughter and SIL, Abby and Doug, were there with James and Sam. Papaw came through again with playtime. He took them outside to play jump rope and to run around. Then he disappeared, as he usually does after play and food. The grands discovered him asleep on the couch in the computer room so we let him sleep for a while.

Stacey put in a DVD for the kids because they were getting a little rambunctious and so we all watched "The Secret Life of Pets". It is such a cute movie and I think we all enjoyed it.

That's about all the excitement around the Braxton household at the moment. I've been Christmas shopping online, I don't do stores, and I'm almost done. I only buy for the grandkids and my niece and nephew so online shopping gets done quickly. Now I just need to get Rick to place the tree so I can start decorating. I'm seeing white lights and snowmen all over the tree this year. I'm looking forward to getting it finished and see how it looks. 

On a sadder side, my Mom's youngest sister has terminal cancer. She had surgery for breast cancer when Mom was ill. She was in the hospital over Thanksgiving and she said that the cancer had traveled to her brain and there was nothing that could be done. She came home over that weekend and is now under hospice care. I went to see her this afternoon and she is feeling really tired most of the time. She said her daughter and one of her sisters wore her out giving her a bath today but that she felt much better after the bath.  She's also going to have some physical therapy so she can move from the bed to her wheelchair for a while each day. She told me lying in that bed was getting tiresome and hurting her back. Please keep her in your thoughts. She's only 7 years older than me. Her 73rd birthday was actually Monday, December 4.

I guess I'll stop here. I need to check supper to see if it's ready and do some cross stitching. I've been on the go all day and it's time to relax a bit. 

As always, thank you for visiting and being my bloggy friends.

Hugs,

Sharon