A Visit from the Grandsons (and stomach flu too)

There is absolutely nothing more precious than a little one having a bottle. Pure peace, pure satisfaction. Last weekend, Meghan and Justin and the grandsons came up for a wedding. Unfortunately, dear, sweet Taplin had some sort of stomach bug, and he had a hard time off and on all weekend.
Aunt Shannon and Uncle Nathan joined us for dinner Saturday evening. Shannon is helping Taplin appreciate Grandma's quilts. He liked the red and the buttons, I'd say.
Bubble fun! Bridger likes it when Grandpa fixed him a bubble bath Friday night with the jacuzzi turned on. Taplin and Louie want to help too, but they don't have the luxury of actually getting in with Bridger.Mmmmm. Saturday during the wedding, Bridger and Grandma made chocolate chip cookies. Bridger saw his opportunity to help and scooted the chair across the kitchen. Nothing like licking the spatula. And the beater. And the bowl. None for Louie, the poor, neglected pug.
Uh-oh. Bridger's fine, but by Sunday morning Grandpa had Taplin's stomach bug. By Sunday evening, Grandma had it. Then Aunt Shannon and even Meghan had it. Poor us. The boys and Meghan are coming back in February so that Meghan can go to a conference at A&M. Let's hope everyone stays healthy!
By midweek, I was feeling better and couldn't resist getting back to my sewing. I am working on a paper pieced block of the month quilt on my Internet quilt show, http://www.thequiltshow.com/
To paper piece, you print out the pattern pieces, place the fabric on the back piece by piece, and sew on the lines on the paper. If manipulating objects and using the old noggin stave off Alzheimers, I good for this week, at least. The process really boggled my brain, but towards the end, I got the hang of it. I could never have achieved such precision without the paper piecing.
This is the final product for the January block of the month. I am pretty darn proud of myself. This was not easy for me. It is about 15" square, and it will be the center medalion in a quilt. I don't know if I will follow through for the entire year, but so far, so good. I cleaned up my sewing room after this was finished, and I can report that paper piecing is messy, kind of like having grandchildren around. Of course, the fun far, far, far exceeds the mess.

January Projects

Isn't this guy wonderful? Shannon finished this tea towel embroidery for me, and he has come home to live in my kitchen. The design is her original idea. It reminds me of some of her paper and pen doodles. She said she almost didn't bother finishing it because of all of the little errors. Sorry, Shannon, but I don't see what you see. This is my new hand sewing project. I cut the circles out and then baste the edges so that I can draw them up around a sheet of heat resistant mylar, iron the edges under, pull out the mylar, and then hand applique them on the squares. I have seen a variety of quilts made with circles, but I am not really using any particular pattern for this. When I'm finished with all of the patches, then I'll machine sew them together. I have an idea for a border, but it will be a while before I get there.Here's my stack of squares and a couple of the circles ready to be appliqued on. I think it will probably end up being 14 x 16 patches per row, a sizable quilt by time I add on a border. Road trip required to purchase the backing, but not for a few weeks.

Louie is happy to have both of us home this week. For all of his mischievousness, he really is a good dog. His best trick is to run to bed on command. He thinks he knows when to go to bed without even being told. Yesterday, we were putting on jackets and rounding up the car keys on our way to lunch, so he took himself to bed and waited happily for us to close the door. Sweet pug.

Christmas Week Flew By!

Allen and I have been blessed with a wonderful holiday and precious time with our family. Christmas night was perfect, with Shannon and Nathan with us to welcome Meghan, Justin, and the boys. It is fun to have our own children home and exchange gifts with them, but there is nothing like watching little ones open their presents. Bridger exclaimed, "Wow, wow," for each package. He's opening the movie Kung Fu Panda in this picture. Allen and I watched it with him when his parents went out. What a great little film. Bridger is quite the movie nut, but he really enjoys music too. Meghan was playing lines from Disney movies, and he could name the song and movie.
Here he is listening to a CD with the little CD player we got for him. I remember when he was just a tiny fellow how he was fascinated by his daddy's headphones. He will no doubt be a musician of some sort.
Taplin was the entertainment for all of us, including Louie. Louie, who has never had a taste of people food, learned quickly where to wait for treats. Taplin especially liked the dinner rolls, and he likes to feed himself, so that meant lots of bread bites landed on the high chair between his legs. Louie loves Taplin.
Taplin loves his mommy. He follows her when she's in the house. He had a death grip on her leg while she was cooking. He is leaning to say ma-ma, but he's not quite there yet. He has the deepest little voice, and he makes lots of wonderful baby noises. He will watch your mouth intently when you talk to him.
I had one wonderful afternoon with just the boys -- Allen, Taplin, Louie, and Bridger. Taplin is on the move and curious about everything, so while Bridger and Allen watched Wall-E and played with puzzles, Taplin entertained Louie and me. Louie was a thief, as usual, stealing the smallest of Taplin's stacking boxes every few minutes.
We aren't the only luck grandparents in the world. I love this picture of Greg with his little baby Mac. We had two Christmas dinners, one at noon with Shannon, Nathan, Greg, Ruth, Michelle, Sean, and Mac. We love our extended family.
Louie got in on the Christmas gifts too. His plastic squeakly Nathan's hot dog was in his stocking this year.
Nathan and Shannon make a snuggle spot for Bridger on Christmas night. I know Shannon has enjoyed her extra days off even though she loves her job. She invited Allen and me to visit her work and see where she makes graphic magic for the magazine. I drooled on all of the sewing supplies and the huge sewing room.
What a wonderful week of special moments. The holiday has flown by in a blur, but it has been a happy time. I have loved spending quiet time with Allen too. He's been working some because of the go-live with ULA, but he's been home, at least! We rang in the New Year with a day trip to Nashville (to my quilt store which has moved to a new location and to lunch at the Chophouse), and then we spent the evening at home watching movies. Today, the last of the decorations have been stowed in the attic for another year.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Louie is ready for Christmas. He's been helping me in the kitchen and watching for the mailman and delivery trucks. Our mail(wo)man has been giving Louie treats when she sees him outside walking. Now he waits for her and thinks all trucks must be for him. He was watching me make dessert to take to Shannon's for Christmas Eve.
I found him sitting under the table looking up at the finished cookies (made with my mom's old cookie cutters). They have been safely relocated to a higher dog-proof counter. Tough luck, Louie, but maybe there is something in your stocking.
And indeed, the stockings are hung. Left to right, they belong to Meghan, Taplin, Justin, Bridger, LOUIE, Allen, Shannon, Jean, and Nathan. Mine is the one my mom made when I was a child, and my brother had a matching one. Allen's Scrooge stocking is appropriate, don't you think? Nathan -- now how did he end up with the biggest one? Louie has been sniffing the toe of Nathan's. We can't let Louie out of our sight. Thanks to Mr. Pug I've re-wrapped a few more presents from under the tree. Wait until he has little boy toys to steal once Bridger and Taplin are here tomorrow night.

Anticipation

Guess how Allen and I spent Sunday afternoon? We cleaned off the table and the kitchen island, gathered paper, tape, and scissors, and wrapped, wrapped, wrapped. We listened to a Christmas CD that Shannon put together, and we had fun anticipating Christmas. We talked about the years when Shannon and Meghan went to a movie on Christmas Eve so that we had some alone time to hurriedly wrap the Santa gifts. When I was little, we opened presents from Santa on Christmas Eve, but our kids always opened gifts from out of town on Christmas Eve, and Allen and I opened presents from each other and the girls. Santa gifts were opened Christmas morning. This year we will open presents at our house after dinner on Christmas evening after Meghan, Justin, and the boys are here.
I finished a Christmas quilt for the dining room table this week. We'll have nine adults for Christmas lunch -- Nathan's parents, his sister's family from Atlanta, and Uncle Jimmy. Rib roast for dinner. Allen brought home several pounds of deer meat from a friend at his work. I'm not sure how that will be cooked, but it won't be Christmas dinner. I read an autobiographical Truman Capote story to my students last week. He lived in southern Alabama, and he says in the story that they had flapjacks, fried squirrel, and grits for Christmas breakfast. I'll pass on the squirrel.
Aren't they cute? Mwah. Kissing pug salt shakers (a gift from my friend Brenda) are right at home on the border of the new quilt. It's nice to actually see the dining room table where we had accumulated all unwrapped presents. While the stockings are not yet hung by the chimney with care, besides all of wrapping, I managed to take the packages to UPS and they are finally on their way to out of town relatives. Thank goodness school is closed until next year so that I have a bit more time.
The presents are wrapped. (Except for three now, compliments of Louie.) Hmmm. Wonder what's in them! It even feels like Christmas with temperatures this morning in the teens. After nine inches of rain in the last two weeks, the cold and sun are a welcome change. No, Allen, yours is not under the tree. Don't bother looking.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Christmas time is especially precious when you can share time and laughter with friends. This is my Bunco group. We have been getting together once a month, playing bunco, eating, and laughing together for what, going on nine years, I think. We are very official -- Lynne helps us keep a running record of who wins and loses each month, and we have a set rotation of who will host which month. We've had just a few changes of faces, but we are a great group of gals. You know, all of us are married (to our first and only husband), all of us have children (half of us are grandmothers), and all of us work or have worked at Mountain Gap. One tradition is to gather for Christmas Bunco and play Dirty Santa. This year, a cold front was threatening to turn rain to snow, so we met an hour early, ate a wonderful meal of lentil soup and salad prepared by our hostess, Biddie, and then played Dirty Santa. No Bunco this time, which is, I think, a first. Next month, my house...
Louie has had a wonderful week of thievery, walks, and naps while Allen has worked at home. So far, he hasn't bothered the Christmas tree much. Ten days, and he will have two little boys to play with. I can't wait.
Allen and I purchased our Christmas present from us to us last Sunday. We visited the studio of Guadalupe Robinson and came away the proud owners of some of her pottery. She is a friendly, talkative, and talented potter who lives just a few minutes from Shannon's house. We enjoyed visiting and getting to know her a bit, and then came the hardest part, choosing what to take home. Merry Christmas to us!

Christmas Decorations and Elephant Cookies

It takes lots of time and energy to decorate for Christmas, but once I'm finished and the boxes are put away, it is nice to sit back and enjoy the house. Frosty, the Snowman, was a jolly happy soul! These snowmen have been around as long as I can remember. If I have the story right, my mother made these Papier-mâché fellows for my brother when he was little. I am guessing she made them in the 1950s. I think they maybe had hats at one point, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I love them and have them sitting at the top of the stairs. We'll see how long that lasts, but Louie hasn't discovered them yet, or he has and isn't interested.
This nativity set was a gift to me from John and Mary the first year we were married. They brought it back from a trip to the Holy Land. Last year, Bridger arranged and rearranged the people, carefully naming each one and telling me his version of the Christmas story. Then we would have to go to the next room and see the next nativity set and do it all over again. I cannot wait until he is here for Christmas this year. I don't think Taplin will be interested in them yet this year, but he will love the lights on the tree.
And it is a tall tree! We have had this one for six years, and when Allen moans about putting it up, I remind him that for many years, he went with the girls and cut down a tree this big, hauled it a long mile or two, got it into the truck, heaved it into the house, wrestled with a heavy trunk, and finally got it up. The big fresh trees would drink water like crazy, and then they would start to shed. One day, we probably won't have a twelve foot tree, but it is fun for now. I remember that when I was little, we had a real tree in the snowy mountain tree stand that my mom and dad made. There was a stable in front for the nativity. Now that set is in our dining room.
We have lots of Santas that I love, but these three are my quilt Santas. The one in the middle is from John and Mary two years ago. The tall one on the left is by the same artist, Jim Shore, and we got him in Nashville on our weekend trip to the flea market with Shannon and Nathan in October. That same day, Allen surprised me with the Santa on the right. I saw him at the street festival of wood carvers in Franklin, and when I walked on with Shannon, he went back and got him for me. He is a special fellow. When it is time to put the Santas away, he may stay in my quilt room to maintain the Christmas spirit through the year.
We have had a wonderful stretch of excellent weekends. We've especially had fun with our Crimson Tide football parties with Shannon, Nathan, and their friends. Yesterday, we enjoyed the day even though the Florida Gators won. The elephant cookies were a big hit. I don't think Allen even got to eat one before they were gone. I got the cookie cutter at the Country Living Fair back in September, and I followed their recipe. It is definitely a keeper recipe. I haven't made cookies in a long time, but I had fun in the kitchen yesterday making wings and party food and sugar cookies. I guess we can have one more football party for the Sugar Bowl.