Musings and Moments

Oh....a new year and new...well, not resolutions.  How about new plans (not promises) to keep up with this blog.  Time is spinning away and I would like to document how my hours are spent.  The days of writing in diaries and keeping a journal seem to have gone the way of hand penned 'Thank You' notes and lovely letters written on gently colored onion skin paper that was delicately scented.  But, I hope the things I do and the thoughts that I think would be worthwhile to my children and grandchildren at a later date.

And on that note....I will start with a brief overview of Christmas and what projects are in the que. 

Christmas....it changes with the years.  Those early years with young children were full of such excitement!  The anticipation!  The planning, purchasing, hiding and then midnight wrapping of gifts so that Santa Claus could arrive with all that magic.  And, the number of gifts that could be wrapped because a Slinky that cost just $1 was a treasure.  

And then....the girls grew older, Santa was exposed, the gifts grew more expensive and so there were fewer of them and the girls really wanted to help shop for most of theirs!  But, there were great family celebrations now with cousins and grandchildren, brothers and my mom.  

Somehow, when my mother died it all changed.  I didn't realize that providing a wonderful holiday for her was the glue that bound us all together.  Once she was gone one or more of my brothers had other commitments, my daughters had other people to share the holiday with and we moved out of state which made it more difficult to have everyone gathering in one place.  

But, this year, we had my daughter Kelly and our granddaughter Amanda with us as well as two of my nieces.  It was a quiet holiday but a nice one.  I missed my other grandchildren and I hope they know how missed they were.  

Projects!!! Well, I think I will try and keep myself motivated by posting my progress.  My on-going projects from last year are the Judy Niemeyer Bali Wedding Ring Quilt and from years ago the Piecemakers Trees quilt.  Tomorrow I will post photos of the projects and start to track the work on them.