Birthday Wishes

I am late with birthday wishes. Dec 30 was Wes's. He is my DSIL.
I had to take a picture of him because all I had on my computer was him sleeping. That's what he does best at our house.
On Dec 31 was Cortney's birthday. She turned 14. It is amazing how fast they grow up.
Happy Birthday everybody.

They are home again

The power came back on last night. DH got the well pump working and there was no busted pipes. One line had frozen but did not break. Everyone is happy again.

It was fun to have them around but we are glad the are in their own home for Christmas.

Ice & Cold

We have lots of ice. The good thing is we have not lost power. The down side is my son's family does not have power. So we have 2 more adults, 6 kids, another dog (which our 2 dogs don't care for) and their cat is living with us. They said it may be Wednesday before they get power back. It really hasn't been too bad. Kind of fun to spend time with the grandkids. Karly is 2 and she is a riot. Definitely likes her Grandma. It is much harder on them than us. There house is only about 5 miles away so it is easy to run and get more clothes or toothbrushes, etc.

I just hope their pipes don't freeze. The wind chill is 28 below. That wouldn't be fun to go home to especially at Christmas.

Sara came home with us from church. She had plans to bake and to make candy with Grandpa. What is one more? They have been playing games and watching movies.

It sure makes it hard to finish up Christmas shopping. Plus I was making pillowcases. Maybe tomorrow I can sneak off to my sewing room without too many eyes following me.

A Special Friend

Before I start on my story I have to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISAAC!!!! He turned 8 today. When I talked to him tonight he said he wanted to celebrate Christmas Day. That way he could have double presents.

Now I have mentioned I host a doll swap on about.com. We just started a new round the middle of November. I had a person named Amanda sign up. When she emailed me her name and address she said she was surprised to find someone else from IN and told me the town she was from. When I emailed her back I told her I grew up about 20 miles from where she lives.

Then she emailed me back and gave me a name and asked if I knew him. I went into shock because it was my husbands brother. After a couple more emails it turns out Amanda is best friends with my niece Becky. I had heard about her and she knew some things about my family.
Kathi on about.com had a secret Santa exchange and I got her name. I was so excited to get stuff for someone who I had a connection with. Sent my gift and she was real happy with it.

Today I got my package and it was from Amanda. We had each others names. Now how funny is that! My box weighed a ton and I couldn't figure out what she had in it. The post office lost money on that fre box. She had everything wrapped in pretty Christmas fabric.

Then put a pretty card on top. Super nice letter inside that made me laugh. She sounded like my niece when she explained her cooking.

There was a pretty musical snow globe.

There was another fabric wrapped present.

That turned into what made the package so heavy. I burst out laughing when I saw all my favorite goodies. I have already eaten a ton of Milky Ways! There are other candies that were in the bottom that did not show up in the picture. I gave my husband the Kit Kat.

There was a stack of fat quarters folded like trees. I want to take them apart slowly so I can figure out how to fold them myself. Thread Heaven, needle puller and a threader were there too.

So know I am thinking "Boy she really did so good. These are my favorite things." I am happy and very pleased. BUT she wasn't done yet. She was kind of sneaky!! Amanda has been reading my blog and knew I had seen Becky at our Thanksgiving dinner. So she emailed me asking about how it went and by the way what are the names and ages of my grandchildren that were in the picture I had posted. Innocent me told her about them.

Well she had my fooled. At the very bottom of my box was a doll quilt. I am not kidding. I started crying. She couldn't have given me anything more beautiful.

Isn't this just the greatest?

I have been wanting something with all their names but hadn't come up with a lay out because of having 11. She figured it out and I LOVE IT. My DH was running around saying where are we going to hang it. And by the way it was hand quilted. She did an awesome job.

Thank you Amanda for being such a wonderful friend. I have really enjoyed getting to know you.
Bonnie

Lots of Goodies

I have lots of good stuff to show off.

I went to a serger class tonight and made a Christmas Stocking. I even finished it tonight. It was fun. I really need to use my machine more. I have some presents in mind that will get me to use it. If I get them done.


I also got a Secret Santa present in the mail from Michele. The reversible bag was soo cute. The scissors I will use while traveling. I like to do bindings and hand work while riding in the car. The fq are very pretty and I love the kisses. She did good!!! Thanks Michele





I went to the ear Dr. the he cleaned the packing out of the outer ear and said it was coming along pretty good. I still have to put drops in 2 times a day for a couple more weeks. I go back on Dec 23. I sure hope it took. Now I can wash my hair without a hassle.

I need to get my tree up and decorate some. I don't think I will do too much. I hate putting the tree up because of all the dust etc. I usually have an allergy attack. What I really need to do is start sewing. There is always tomorrow I guess.

It was a big hit. Tracy got her quilt and she liked it. I was worried because it comes out wonky. The pattern is from Jo Morton's Club. It is hard to make a quilt for someone else. Thanks Tracy for you kind words.

I made another doll quilt. I decided to try my machine embroidery and practice machine quilting too. It turned out pretty good for my first time doing it this way.

Here is a picture of the embroidery. I hope it shows up.

Isaac came to spend the night. We are having the whole family Thanksgiving/Christmas tomorrow at my youngest son's house. He was playing around because we got Sandy a new dog bed.
She really likes it. But so does Isaac. He is not really asleep. Just goofing around.

More later.