After

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all have had a great few days!  We had a quiet, but really nice holiday.  It was just my husband and myself this year but we had friends over for Christmas dinner, so that was really nice.
It seems so strange that after all of that work--the decorating, the wrapping, the shipping, the cooking, the cleaning, etc. suddenly--it is all over!  Actually, we enjoy the season up until the First, but the radio stations that play Christmas music (sometimes beginning as early as November 1) turn it off at midnight on the 26th!  I would prefer that they begin it a week before Christmas, and let it play until New Year's, but I guess they are sponsored by stores who already have fitness equipment and Valentines Day stuff out on the shelves.  On our tour of Colonial Williamsburg, we learned that the Colonists didn't begin Christmas celebrations until the 25th and they continued for the Twelve Days until Epiphany.  Twelve days of parties and celebrations sound a lot better to me than a month of work and effort for one or tow days like we do these days.

Do any of you do anything to celebrate New Years Day?  When I was young, there used to be another big meal, but these days, we just stay up to watch the ball drop in Times Square and that is about it.  New Year's Day falls on one of our regular Quilt Bee days and we discussed if we would meet or not, and enough of us have nothing special going on and so we are going to meet!

 In the "old Army" days (which I can remember from our early years) it was Tradition to pay calls on the Commander on New Year's Day.  I can remember getting all dressed up and then assembling in units outside of the homes and waiting for our "official" time to go in.  Once inside, we would go through a receiving line and then visit with everyone and have punch and appetizers/cookies.  When the assigned time was up, we would all troop out en mass and see the next group outside waiting for their time.  Over the years that evolved into similar parties, but more casual--the football games may be on in the "den" area.  Then it changed to other days.  Sometimes it wasn't done at all.  Last year, they did it a few weeks later in the middle of a Saturday afternoon.

At any rate, I am digressing.  I was going to write about our Christmas--not the rest of the upcoming week!  In particular, I wanted to show you some of the wonderful, quilty gifts that I was lucky enough to receive!

One of my sisters lives near Temecula, CA.  You may remember that she went to the Temecula Quilt CO. for their Blue and White quilt show when my quilt was hanging.   She did her Christmas shopping for me while she was there!

 She picked out some lovely blue fat quarters and got this fun alphabet quilt pattern!

She also picked up one of these long, divided ruler boxes from the shop, too.  Santa was kind enough to put the other two in my stocking!  I was not disappointed to get two of the same thing, instead I was delighted!

I'm not sure yet how I will use them, or what I will put in them, but the three of them fit nicely together if I want to put them in a drawer.  They are way too cute to be hidden away, though!
If you find yourself falling in love, you can find them here.

My other sister gave me an Amazon card.  I have quite a few quilt books sitting in my cart, so now I can choose just which ones I want and order them!

My parents got me this.  

Yes, it is a rolling tool chest.  I learned about the quilt value of this from this post by Karen at Moose Bay Muses.  When I read it, I immediately called my mom, since we don't have any Menards around here.  She got it for my Christmas present.  Notice that Karen also mentions the TQC ruler boxes and how they fit nicely into this!

My husband gave me a quilt retreat visit at the end of January!  Okay, perhaps I arranged this one my own and asked him if he would like to give it to me.  I would have to say the buying gifts is not my husband's strong point.  However, I have learned that I can help him get exactly what I want!

He was the recipient of this year's best gift, again from my mom.  I will write about that later, though, on one of those days when I don't have much else to write about.  It is worthy of a post all it's own!

The past week or two, once the crush was over, I have had time to do some sewing.  I have gotten several things done lately and so I will show them to you next time!  I need to do some good photography today while the sun is shining!

Have a great day!
JoAnne