Christmas 2008

We had a lovely Christmas with Josh and Anya on Tuesday (Christmas Eve eve). Both kids gave us lovely, thoughtful gifts and I think they enjoyed what they received as well. We had salad and pizza and fun chatting.

Wednesday morning George and I left for Philadelphia and the kids went to spend Christmas with Dave and Heather in Fredonia. Thankfully the roads were good and it was just rainy during part of the 8 hour drive. We arrived around 5:00 to see the absolutely cutest baby girl in existence!!! My goodness, what a doll! Elizabeth is full of smiles most of the time and excellent at entertaining herself at just 6 months!! She was adorable in the little coat I made for her and she loved her new book as you can see from the pictures! What fun!

Lily, the dog, has been amazingly good and has not chewed up one toy yet!! She was much calmer than when we saw her in August. What a good dog! She occasionally gets a few licks in, but otherwise seems to know that Elizabeth and her toys are off limits.

On Christmas day Amy's family came over and we had a wonderful dinner. It was great to get a chance to get to know Amy's parents and brother and sister better, as well as Amanda's boyfriend, Adam. Amy has a very nice family.

We spent a delightful morning with Amy, Mike and Elizabeth this morning and headed back to Ohio. I'm sure Elizabeth will be so different next time we get the opportunity to see her. It may not happen until May! It's too bad we live so far away.

You can see more pictures from Christmas (and of Elizabeth and family) if you scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the slide show. It will take you to our Flickr website full of pictures.

Anya's Home!

Anya arrived home despite the ice storm only an hour late. Which was vastly better than her boyfriend, Steven, who had his flight canceled yesterday out of Boston. Hopefully he will make it home today. Anya was dead tired and went to bed shortly after our dinner with Josh. She actually got up this morning and had breakfast with us at 7:30 am!!

Above are some of my Christmas creations! I just finished the fleece baby jacket today for Elizabeth that I created from an old baby dress pattern . I had to switch the opening to the front and redesign the collar and pockets and added a pleat to the back. It closes with snaps that I covered with ribbon rosebuds I had in my stash. I bought the pink flowered fleece as a remnant (along with lots of other beautiful colors of fleece in a moment of weakness!).

The flannel for the boxers as well as the boxer pattern I've had for a while. I changed the pattern slightly by substituting a jersey knit covered waist band which I think is more comfortable. They have flat-felled seams - which take a while to make, but are worth it in looks, durability and comfort.

I knit a lovely headband for fun and just to try out the pattern and am currently tackling knitting socks out of colorful wool yarn. I have one more Christmas sewing project I will hopefully start and finish tomorrow.....we'll see. I'm also making another red dishcloth to give to Amy's sister Amanda. I must have made 3 dozen of those dishclothes by now this year! I seem to have to have several projects to work on at once. At least I'm done with baking cookies for a while. The chocolate dipped cheesecake bites were a hit as were the almond toffee crescents half dipped in chocolate and the spiced chocolate crinkles. I sent a plate of the pumpkin spice cookies in to George's work which they all loved and wanted to the recipe. Our circle of ladies at work did a cookie exchange so I have several other kinds to add to all the cookie plates we'll need during the next week's events!

Made a great pumpkin soup the other day (from the pumpkin that graced our table as a fall decoration - the cookies used up the rest of the recycled pumpkin centerpiece!) and a yummy mushroom soup as well. I've been baking oatmeal bread frequently since its become our new favorite.

Snow covers the ground here but at least it isn't ice! We lost power for 2 1/2 hours yesterday and branches fell from the weight of the ice in the morning.

Make it a good day!

On to Christmas!

It's snowing again today! Wow! Non stop winter since the week before Thanksgiving! Had a nice Thanksgiving at Bruce and Susan's. It was Susan's birthday too so I made a carrot cake in addition to the pies Chris and I made. It was a very nice, relaxing Thanksgiving day. We had a house full with Adam, Vanessa, Chris and Anya staying for a few days. It was so nice to see them all and get a chance to visit a bit. I sure did a lot of cooking!

Visited George's other sisters in New York last Saturday.

Shampooed part of the livingroom rug this morning and washed and waxed several floors in preparation to tackling decorating for Christmas. I won a cute angel at the Finnish Ladies Luncheon that mom bought as table decorations. That has inspired me to get busy and decorate.

I'm about done with Christmas gifts although I have a few more things to make and a bunch more projects swirling around in my head to start just for the hell of it. I should be focusing on getting ready for next semester, but haven't gotten too excited about that yet.

And the snow continues....

We will have to retrieve our driveway since it looks like most of the stones have already been plowed up to the fringes of the parking area.....sigh. We were plowed 3 times in the past 24 hours! I'm glad we will be getting our monies worth! $200 was a bargain for snow plowing for the season if this keeps up!

I spent the most I've ever spent at a grocery store today - over $660!!!!!!! Of course that included gift cards and a Petsmart card and all the stuff for guests and our Thanksgiving contributions. I also spent over $100 on items to fill a tote container for a family (a mom and a 1 year old and 2 year old) that fled from an abusive situation with only the clothes on their backs. They need everything to start over. They are being sponsored by the Hiram community. I bought basic bathroom and kitchen items - stuff I thought you would need to set up a household with babies. I also got towels, hand towels, washcloths, scissors and a sewing kit and the 18 gallon tote at Kmart to add to the grocery store items. Whew! I'll take it all in on Monday. I understand they will be moving in to an apartment next weekend.

Snow kept us from traveling this weekend. We'll try again next weekend. I have a whole house to clean and get ready for Chris, Adam, Vanessa and Anya anyway. Plus I have several sewing projects and knitting projects competing for my attention! I also have the decorating urge....

George installed rigid plastic on the outside of the door to help insulate it (since we removed the storm door due to the doggie door). The insulation he installed in the attic seems to help keep the upstairs warmer. The snow isn't melting off the roof like it used too over that part of the house.

Watched a good movie last night I'd recommend : "Charlie Wilson's War". Historic, moving and funny all at once. Tom Hanks plays the main character.

Nasty White Stuff!

The only negative thing about snow is driving in it....and it's cold....and it lasts for far to many months! Yikes! We have had snow all week and this is occurring before Thanksgiving! I didn't enjoy brushing off my car to drive home from work today and the ride home was a bit harrowing as the semi-truck in front of me kept sliding sideways when it tried to stop. The several cars off the road along the way home were rather unnerving too.

Everything else I have to say is positive. I'm so thankful that we have jobs and aren't in any danger of losing them with all the financial fiascoes occurring daily. I'm also thrilled that today was my last day of teaching for the year. Hurrah! I have only one more folder to finish grading and I AM DONE TEACHING FOR THE YEAR!!!!! Of course, I'll need to go to work to prepare for the next onslaught in January, but it is much more flexible and I can even work at home. I'm looking forward to welcoming Chris, George's sister, and Anya and Adam and Vanessa next week for Thanksgiving. I'm also happy with myself for exercising regularly this past 2 weeks at the gym at school with my work friends and with George doing yoga almost every day. I'm also looking forward to visiting George's other sisters in New York this Saturday. We (Sue, Gayle, George and I) are all going to visit, Peggy (George's sister who is profoundly handicapped at the 18 month level and is unable to speak or walk due to a bad reaction to the small pox vaccine when she was a baby) and then we will all visit one of our favorite wineries in the area. Hopefully the snow will let up by then. I've got all their Christmas presents ready and wrapped to give so we won't have to mail them.

All the pets have moved back in the house for the winter and each has their favorite spot to snooze. There are usually 2 dogs, 2 people and 3 cats distributed around the living room in the evening.

Make it a good day!

YaaaaaaaaHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

I am so proud of my country right now. I had tears flowing down my cheeks as I read that Obama has won! Yeah for Ohio!!

I am much more optimistic about the potential for positive change. We did it! We showed the world that we aren't all bigoted, ugly Americans who can't see that we are ALL people despite our differences. Just think what we could do if we all worked together instead of constantly just thinking about "me". What I liked best about Obama was his even-keeled, unflappable, level-headed approach to his whole campaign. He has guts and perseverance. He didn't always succeed at staying on the high road, but he sure did the best job of avoiding the mud slinging that I've seen in a long time.

I respected Senator McCain also. It wouldn't have been a tragedy if he had been elected, although the unfortunate selection of Palin as his running mate made me seriously question his ability to make good decisions. Electing Palin as vice president WOULD have been a serious set back for America for many reasons. For one, it would have empowered those that promote teaching "intelligent design"! Good grief! I can't believe she was even considered as a possibility!

Obama certainly has his work cut out for him. I certainly wouldn't want the job. He has a tough road to follow with the huge problems created over the last 8 years. It will be an interesting time. But at least there is now hope and energy and optimism. My hope is that that can be built upon instead of wearing away. There will be so many problems, obstacles and distractions.

I loved this comment I found and totally agree with it:

Morris Wills (Morrie) wrote:

Congratulations President-Elect Obama on your sweeping victory. Thank you Senator McCain for your very gracious concession speech. Following the example of these two great men, it is now time to move forward and to repair all of the damage that has been done over the last 8 years.

We need to unite as a nation over themes and ideas that are important to us all.

Themes like the supremacy of the rule of law in our constitutional democracy.

Respecting fundamental human rights as a global principle, not just an American one.

Renouncing torture and the suspension of habeus corpus.

Renouncing extraordinary rendition and prisons like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.

Respecting civil rights for all people, whether they be white, black, brown, yellow or polka dot. Whether they be gay, straight or anything in between. Whether they be young or old, rich or poor, natural born or foreign born. We are all just one race, one people, sharing one planet.

Moving from an oil based economy to a renewable energy based economy. Becoming a world leader in the creation of a green infrastructure which will support green jobs and green technologies.

Mending fences with our neighbors for all of the damages caused by the Iraq war.

And finally, leading the world in the slowing of global warming, and finding solutions that will allow us to share the planet equitably with all life.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008 3:59:59 AM

IT IS A GOOD DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sewing and gardening

Finished a cute fleece jacket for part of Jill's Christmas present. I was pleased with how it turned out! It's a "swing" jacket with a pleat down the back and a seam down the middle of the top of the sleeve. It wasn't meant to be a fleece pattern, but I adapted it. I had a good time searching through my button collection to find the right buttons. It's good to refresh your memory on what you have in your "stash". I have lots of interesting buttons. I made George make the ultimate decision from about 5 different possible sets. I may make a few more of these jackets. There is a cropped version of this jacket with 1/2 length sleeves.

I bought a nifty vintage Vogue pattern for a jacket that looks like a cape but it has sleeves, so I need to try that one out too. I may make it in this interesting "fur" that I found in the discounted fabric bins. I wasn't sure what I wanted to make out of it, but I couldn't pass it up. I just hope 2 yards will be enough to make something....

The weather turned gorgeous this weekend after last week's dismal, cold and snowy weather. Cleaned out all the front garden beds, except for the leaves which are still falling. Started on the back yard, but actually got too warm!

George insulated about half of the upper attic yesterday. We also went out to dinner with Evan, Josh, mom, dad, Bruce and Susan in honor of Evan's birthday which is 11/03. He's 23! We went to River Walk in time for the live music. Josh is going to Las Vegas again on 11/11 with his friend Andy.