Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

We had a lovely Christmas with all my kids at home on Christmas morning, something that hasn't happened for a long time. My mother and her boyfriend were unable to make it over unfortunatly due to the heavy snow fall we had been having over the week. He is 83 and it is enirely understandable that he may not want to drive in lousy weather. It was the first Christmas for me in my 53 years of living that I was unable to spend with my mother. So I really missed her and so did the kids. Luckily Nicole and Ian were going into Vancouver to his grandparents so they were able to stop by and visit with my mom for a while. I sure she really enjoyed the visit. We had a small crowd at dinner, just six of us, where we usually have ten or more so we were able to have a sit down dinner, rather than balancing plates on our laps. That was kind of nice. We got spoiled from Santa as usual and it was a fun day.

Christmas stocking

A Christmas stocking for our dear Briar. He has been a part of our family for three Christmas's and this year he is getting his own stocking. I did the blocks slating them to be a leaders and enders quilt. They look better as a stocking. The leaders and enders quilt is actually a brilliant idea. See this link
http://www.quiltville.com/leadersenders.shtml
This is the best site I know for scrappy quilts.

I just go nuts at Christmas

This was the title of either a song or poem, I can't remember, but I do know it was spoken with a swedish accent. It describes me to a tee.
I have been very busy but I don't feel like I've made much head way. I have only a few gifts left to buy, I have some baking done, lots of sewing accomplished and no decorating at all. Hubby is out of town next week and I should be able to get everything finished.
I made three more bags, one for me, one for mom and one for hubbies mom.
The one with the block on the front is mine, made from an orphaned block slated for a quilt that I changed my mind about. They were all made from scraps, which feels good but didn't put a dent at all in my scrap pile. Actually it feels like its grown.