Whew!  Happy New Year everyone!  Honestly, after doing the 12 Days of Christmas we wondered if we would EVER blog again.  That was quite a feat for a coupla gals in the midst of Christmas preparations and book editing.  But we had such a great time sharing traditions with all of you and had fun choosing gifts for our 12 lucky winners!  You all should be getting your pressies any day now!  Meanwhile, our book is ALMOST ready to send to the printer, and the Lizzie B girls are finding time to catch our breath.  Well sort of.  As much as is humanly possible for busy quilter mom’s!  And to kick off the year just right, I’m working on a little campaign here and need the help of ALL my quilty friends.

After years and years of Scouting, my son Trevor is FINALLY working for his Eagle Scout!  For those of you with Scouting son’s, you know just how much goes into getting to this point.  It takes a LOT of prodding, pushing and motivating from the mom, I can tell you THAT first hand!  And finally, after a few failed attempts at finding the “perfect” project….we landed on one!  An important component of doing a project is that it has to involve the community and give BACK to the community.  And boy does this ever do both of those!  Last fall at a special Sewing Day at one of  my local quilt shops, I met a woman who set up a special table to promote this non-profit organization.  I’d seen their signs before, and heard bits and pieces about their foundation, but had never really known the entire story.  Until now.

Meet Ryan and his mother Cindy Kerr.  The Kerr family, live in my town.  When Ryan was 12, he was diagnosed with cancer.  He fought the disease for over 6 years, he fought through 5 recurrences, 30 months of chemotherapy, 15 surgeries (including the amputation of his right leg), over 150 days of physical therapy and two broken bones in his healthy foot.  Despite all of that, Ryan never let it slow him down!  He was adventurous and never let his disease dictate his life.  Most of all, he lived his life with such joy and courage that he inspired thousands of people in our community and around the country.  Ryan is no longer with us and we are very sad to lose one of the best friends we will ever know, but are thankful for his memory, his inspiration and the light he brought to the world.   During his battle, his mother Cindy (a quilter, of course!) started making him bright happy pillowcases to brighten his hospital room.  Before she knew it, ConKerr Cancer was born!

ConKerr Cancer is dedicated to Ryan and the thousands of children like Ryan who bring such courage and light to the world, despite their life changing illness.  ConKerr Cancer is a way to keep their light alive.  Ryan was a year older than my son Trevor and went to the same High School. He remembers the effect Ryan’s passing in 2008 had on the kids at school.   So when I mentioned the idea of making pillowcases for his Eagle Scout Project for ConKerr Cancer, he got excited.  It sounded like the perfect way to give back to the community.  Luckily, his Scout leaders thought so too!  Trevor met Cindy Kerr, and was amazed by her stories.  In just two years, Cindy and thousands of volunteers have provided over 150,000 pillowcases to sick children in hospitals across North America and in South Africa.  School groups, sewing circles, church groups and fabric stores have all pitched in and are making pillowcases for the kids. She even told of a story of inmates at a high security prison making and donating pillowcases!

You may have noticed the “Pillowcase Challenge” from American Patchwork and Quilting.  Challenging quilters to make pillowcases to donate to their communities.  Can you believe they didn’t even know about Cindy Kerr when they started their challenge?  But they do now!  And guess who’s at the top of their donation list??  Because ConKerr Cancer has a system to get these cases to hospitals that need them, they have chapters all over the US now.  And of course, hospitals have very strict rules about what comes into those cancer wards, because they don’t want anything to make those children more sick.  American Patchwork and Quilting put out the challenge, but didn’t really tell people HOW to donate all their pillowcases!  Well I’m here to tell you exactly how.

On Monday, January 18th 2010, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we will be making pillowcases for Trevor’s Eagle Scout Project.  We will be at my local quilt shop, Steve’s Sewing Center at 156 West Dekalb Pike in King of Prussia, PA, who have kindly offered to let us use their classroom for an afternoon of sewing.  We’ll be working on pillowcases from 2:00-5:00 that afternoon.  If you live nearby….COME HELP SEW!!!

Don’t live in my area but would love to help??  Fantastic!  WE NEED FABRIC.  Lots and lots of fabric!  Our fabric company, Henry Glass, has generously offered to send us some fabric for the cause, but we want to get LOTS of people involved!  Trevor has a goal of only 100 pillowcases, but I think he has sorely underestimated the quilting community.  I would love to FAR exceed that goal!  So I’m calling on all of  YOU, my quilting friends, dig into that stash, find some happy fabric and PLEASE send it along!  Even better….how about MAKE A PILLOWCASE?  Although we only have one day to sew, we will be accepting pillowcase donations until the end of the month when, hopefully, Trevor will get to go to a local hospital to make his donation with Cindy Kerr, and meet the wonderful children who inspire her.

Please send any donations to:

Trevor Hawkins

978 Heatherstone Drive

Berwyn, PA 19312

Pillowcase instructions:

• Use cheery fabrics for kids – colorful and fun as possible
• Remember many patients are adolescent boys and girls, we always need pillowcases appropriate to teenagers
• Cotton or flannel only!

Go to ConKerrCancer.org for more information
Supplies:

• 3/4 yard of fabric for pillowcase
• 1/3 yard of fabric for border of pillowcase

Sewing Instructions:

1. Cut the body of the case 26 1/2″ x 40 1/2″ and the border 10 1/2″ x 40 1/2″.
2. Fold the border in half lengthwise, with the wrong sides together, and press.
3. Place the right side of the border on the right side of the body of the case. Stitch together using a 1/2″ seam allowance.
4. Place right sides of the pillowcase together. Stitch down the side and across the bottom. Turn to the right side and press.

Well, the days of Christmas have come to an end.  We certainly hope you and yours have had a wonderful Christmas and have enjoyed the little things that make the season so magical.

We have one last name to pick to complete our list of 12 winners!  It’s Cari… send us an email!

Enjoy the rest of the holiday season.  We won’t be blogging tomorrow (SLEEP!!!  YES!!!!).  It’s relax time, bring out all the leftovers and spend lots of time with family and maybe even do some leisurely quilting.  Thanks so much for making our holidays merry…. AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

It’s Christmas eve!  Seems like all the preparation and busy-ness leads right up to THIS day.  Either it’s a day of celebrations with family and friends, or a LAST day to get it all done.  In the west coast office, it was just a nice, low-key day.  Santa knows I have needed one of those for a long time! It was a day to just SIGH and relax and actually enjoy doing not-a-whole-lot!  (Of course, that was made much easier this year since Mama C is here, helping with all the cooking and household tasks!) It was a great day to hole up inside, work on a few creative projects, and just hang out with my boys.  My favorite moments during the holidays are pretty simple, just the quiet times when there is not much that NEEDS to be done.  It’s hard to find them sometimes, in all the hustle-bustle of the season.

This is the 4th year in a row that ONE of our four boys is away from home over the holidays.  My oldest son spent two Christmases in South Africa, so having him 10,00o miles away  was a bit hard.  He’s now a cop here in Tucson, and this is the first Christmas that he has a house of his own.  But he’s here, tonight… I told him that if he wanted Santa to come he had to be sleepin’ at our house for Christmas eve…!  Our second son is in Mexico this Christmas… again.  I talked to him on the phone a couple of days ago, and tomorrow… we’ll call him and everyone that’s here will get to talk and laugh and hear his voice again. Our two boys still at home are both teenagers… but still, they love Christmas and all that it brings. (Especially ALL the home-baked cookies that their grandma brought with her!) Maybe next year all 4 of my boys will be here, sleeping under one roof, waiting for Christmas morning.

I LOVE seeing my boys grow up… but on Christmas eve?  Man, I sure miss those freshly-bathed little boys and footie pajamas.  But still, they are tucked into their beds now, dreaming of…sugarplums?  I’m not sure, but I know that I too, need to get to bed, so Santa can make his visits over the warm, sunny Southwest!

This marks our 12th blog post in a row (during the holidays for goodness sake!), and for THESE Lizzie B girls…well, we’re just about as tired as Santa after his long trek around the world.  When we came up with the idea of a 12-day presentfest, we thought it would be a fun way to end the year and THANK all of our friends and fans and customers with some fun gifts in the mail.  We had NO IDEA how much we would be inspired, touched, and tickled by all of the comments that were left on each post.  So THANK YOU, friends, for making this a fun way to connect with each other and share Christmastime traditions and stories.

Our winner tonight is Julie B (who drove til the wee hours of the morning to arrive for her Christmas eve festivities!).  JULIE…please send your address to  LizzieBgirls@gmail.com so we can get you on the big Santa shipping list!

So there is one last chance to win a present!  Comment on this post and we’ll pick our 12th winner tomorrow, on Christmas day.  What’s been YOUR favorite holiday moment this year?

Holy cow!  Did I just type 11th?  The 11th Day?  How can that BE???  Where did the TIME go?  Where have the days gone???  I always feel this way when we’re down to the wire a couple of days before Christmas and I think, wait, did I enjoy the season ENOUGH?  Did I reconnect with friends?  Did I make new memories?  Did I spend enough time with my family?  Did I keep up our traditions?  Did I hear all my favorite Holiday music at least once? Did I get ALL the presents?  Did I forget someone? Gosh, the questions go on and on!  Because you KNOW you always forget SOMETHING, right?  Hopefully it’s just the batteries.

This day started out pretty funny.  We sent a singing Elf telegram to our friend the Chiropractor!  He’s turning 40 on Sunday, and well, we didn’t want it to go unnoticed! He was completely embarrassed!  But hey, to make up for it I baked him that yummy cake you see there…it’s our favorite Hummingbird Cake that we talked about like crazy while we were in Houston….just about the best cake EVER!  Banana, crushed pineapple, cream cheese frosting.  What’s not to love?  I threw in a handful of mini-chocolate chips too…just ‘cuz it sounded like a natural addition!  Here he is with the singing elf in the background….he’s trying to figure out what to wish for!  (I think he was wishing we’d all disappear!)

I had to do all the food shoppin’ today too, because there’s going to be a LOT ‘o cookin’ in the next couple of days!  On Christmas Eve we do a progressive dinner with family that live in the area.  This year it’s MY turn to cook the main course!  We’ll go to my sister’s house first for appetizers, then my house and finally my parents for dessert.  While we drive from house to house we take a meandering route and go down all the streets that put out luminaries and make sure we take in as many pretty lights as possible.  It’s a fun tradition!  But before I could think about my main dinner tomorrow, I needed to finish all my baking!

My brother John came over (he’s visiting from Miami!), I donned my “A Christmas Story” apron, we had the movie playing in the background and we got to work.  Do you see some of the shapes on that pan? Here’s a closer look:

It’s the “fragile” (must be Italian) Leg Lamp from A Christmas Story!!!  The all time classic Christmas movie!  And….

Who could forget the bunny suit???  Are these hilarious or what?  They came with the apron and DVD in a commemorative tin!  We just HAD to have them.  Can’t wait to frost these babies tomorrow!

What I should REALLY be doing is wishing you all a Merry Christmas Eve Eve!  Again, back in France, we had neighbors who held a yearly Christmas party on Christmas Eve Eve.  Every year we’d go and each year we were supposed to bring a memory, story, or talent to share.  Well, this got a bit taxing year after year and I’d find myself wondering if we couldn’t just do the same thing every year?!  I mean really.  Anyway, one year we all sat around to share stories.  I shared some of my favorite childhood memories like the year someone did the 12 Days of Christmas to us.  Ringing the doorbell every night and leaving treats on the doorstep.  We’d try to catch them every night, but never ever even saw them!  On the 12th day, Christmas morning, we found a box full of food for Christmas dinner.  A whole ham, potatoes, veggies, dessert…you name it and it was in the magic box.  I saw tears in my mother’s eyes when she found that box!  We didn’t have much money and she’d been worrying and worrying about what to feed us on Christmas Day.  I still don’t think we know who our Secret Santa was, but they sure brought joy to OUR house that season!  After I shared my story, Doug’s turn was next.  He told of a Christmas when all he wanted was a Red Flyer wagon.  You know the one I’m talking about…the classic toy!  On Christmas morning he was SO excited to find it in a box under  the tree!  But it wasn’t put together.  He needed his dad to help him get it ready for use.  So he asked him for help.  But he was busy putting other toys together.  So periodically, Doug would ask again, “Dad, can we put my wagon together”  Pleeeeaaase???” He kept getting the same reply, we’ll get to it, we’ll get to it.  Well Doug got tired of waiting and eventually, months later, the wagon in its box and all, got shoved underneath his bed where it stayed all year.  Until the following Christmas when he woke up to see what Santa had brought.  And THERE under the TREE was his long-forgotten wagon!  PUT TOGETHR this time!!!  The gift that just kept on givin’!

After we finish up our progressive dinner tomorrow night.  We come home, open presents from each other and watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” together.  Every year, we also like to read from a beautiful book I picked up from The National Gallery, London. Years and years ago when I used to actually do my Christmas shopping in London! (that’s a whole other story….)

Inside is the story of the birth of Christ, depicted with paintings featured in the National Gallery.

It’s so beautifully illustrated with Renaissance paintings of the First Christmas.

My kids LOVE this book!  My son, who is now 17, is the one who first noticed the cow in the background of this painting.  He was almost 2 years old at the time.

And that’s it for MY contributions to the 12 days of Christmas blogging.  Thank GOODNESS there are TWO of us!  We’ve plum worn ourselves out, but it’s been fun sharing our memories with you and reading about all of YOURS.  Thanks so much for participating!  And lest you think I’ve forgotten to announce our winner today, it’s…….

Karen Holland!!!!  You’re the next Lizzie B winner!  Emails us at lizziebgirls@gmail.com.

Do you have a Christmas Eve Eve tradition?  Or one last Christmas memory to share?  Leave a comment!

With all the hurry and hustle this season brings, it’s nice to stop and remember the true reason we celebrate it.  Whatever your religious beliefs may be, whether you celebrated Hanukah this year, or will be celebrating Christmas or Kwanzaa; I hope that you find the time to truly feel peace and joy. Wishing you a VERY Merry Christmas from the East Coast Lizzie B!

Oh the weather outside is… frightful?  Delightful? Here in Tucson, it’s pretty much “all is calm, all is bright” most of the time.

A couple of posts back, Liz wrote about the falling white stuff that was happening there on the east coast.  It looks a little different here on the “west coast” .  (I know, Tucson isn’t exactly the coast, but we ARE in the west…the wild, wild west!)  See, we do have lots of green… it’s just in the form of a whole lotta CACTI.  And when Christmas time rolls around…just take a LOOK of how it’s decked out.  Santa Hats.  Kind of silly, really.  But seriously…you can see Santa hats on all KINDS of cacti here.

Really, who decided this was festive?  Not a good look, I don’t think.  And WHO THE HECK climbs up there?  Ouch!!

But the last few days, it’s been pretty cold!  (Well, for us Tucsonans anyway.  Winter and 60 degrees and we are breaking out the scarves, baby!  Kind of fun to wear a fuzzy scarf now and then. We gotta do it while we can.

(And check out this colorful pile of soft warm fuzziness that Mama C brought to me when she arrived for the holidays…. she loves to knit scarves!  Yay!)

Today, the wind blew in and a storm hung around… RAIN!  And tomorrow, we MIGHT wake up to a scenic view of snow on our mountains. Or, we might get something like this.  Either way, it will be nice.  And we won’t need a snowblower!

Ready for yesterday’s winner announcement?!  It’s …… Sarah Vee!!  We need your address Sarah— send it to LizzieBgirls@gmail.com

Baby, it’s COLD outside.  Might have to close our windows tonight!  Comments will be entered to win tomorrow’s present give-away… so let us know what YOUR favorite kind of weather is for Christmas day …?

It’s Birthday time at MY house!  Yes, on top of EVERYTHING else this time of year, my two girls have Birthday’s one week apart.  Here’s a picture of my cuties as we made treats for Adele to take into class today.  One GOOD thing about winter Birthday’s is that there’s a LOT to choose from theme-wise for treats!  We’ve done snowman cupcakes, peppermint cookies, chocolate sheet cake with candy canes…you name it!  Well this year, I decided to do something a little different.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I have time at my computer (or just need to sit and procrastinate!) I totally browse blogs all over the web!  And aside from quilting blogs, my next favorite are COOKING blogs!  I’ll admit it.  I LOVE to cook.  Cooking and baking to me, when I really have the time, is creativity at its best.  And SUCH a huge outlet for stress!  Anyway, you all know I love the Pioneer Woman and her blog, she totally cracks me up and her pictures are SO mouth-watering, I was going through her blog one day looking for ideas when I came across one she wrote about another blogger Bakerella and her trip visiting the ranch!  I was so excited because I vaguely remembered my OTHER sister-in-law Cari (the one so nicely having the in-laws over for the Holidays!) had introduced me to Bakerella’s blog last year when Cari was visiting US for Christmas.  It was one of those things I filed away and forgot about until I stumbled upon it again on the Pioneer Woman’s blog.  It was quite amusing because they had a “Cake Pop Party” at the ranch, which looked like a total BLAST!  And these Cake Pops were SO cute!  They made mini-cupcakes, Hello Kitty pops, chocolate pops, you name it….they were all so cute too!  I went and looked through Bakerlla’s site to see if she had some winter-y treats I could make for my daughter’s class.  She had cute little Reindeer, Christmas tress and Santa hats.  But I wanted to make snowmen!  So I thought, why not just make the cake balls two different sizes, pop both on the stick and make us some snowmen?

Oh boy was it fun!  Just going down the cake baking isle at Michael’s was a treat!  When do we quilter’s ever get to do that???  I didn’t even KNOW half of this stuff existed.  All different size sticks, a million types of sprinkles, molds of every shape and size…even edible marking pens!  I had a blast finding everything I’d need to make my snowmen.  I got the white meltaway chocolates, sparkly sugar crystals, lots of sprinkles, mini-M&M’s, mini-choco-chips and my FAVORITE find….orange colored chocolate covered sunflower seeds!  Do those look just like little carrot noses or WHAT?!

So if you haven’t checked out Bakerella’s blog, you really need to go over there.  You’ll be blown away by her creativity!  And all of her stuff is SO fun.  She also has a GREAT store.  I already put a “bakerella gift certificate” on my wish list for Christmas so I can go buy all this fun stuff and bake some MORE over Christmas break.  Anyway, her revolutionary “cake pop” idea is actually pretty simple.  You bake a cake, let it cool, then brake it up in a bowl, plop some frosting in there and mix away with your hands until it’s all blended.  Cake AND icing all in one!  How is this NOT a good thing?  Then you dip those babies into all sorts of melted chocolate and you have yourself a cake pop.  Talk about making am impression!  The teacher and the whole class were SO impressed.  They think I’m very talented….hahahaha!  No, dear, I just read cooking blogs and get inspired.

Apart from Christmas shopping, party hopping, Birthday planning, treat baking, house decorating, book writing, gift making and all the OTHER stuff we find ourselves doing this time of year…when you have musicians in the family, you’re also bound to be attending winter concerts at various schools.  Am I right?  Well.  We like winter concert time.  It usually means a trip to Starbucks afterwards for their very yummy peppermint hot chocolate!

Who can resist THAT on a cold winter’s night?  This year the concerts were really good.  You know, it’s always hit and miss.  Adele, whose Birthday is today on the Winter Solstice I might add, sang in her 4th grade choir.  Usually, I wouldn’t share this kind of a concert because, well, it probably sounds like all the 4th grade choirs YOU’VE heard, but this year they sang a song their teacher Mr. Haines wrote himself called “Winter’s Wish” .  The song is so cute, and the lyrics are really beautiful so I’m going to post it here for your listening pleasure!

Adeles Winter Concert

The last concert I had to attend was at the high school.  My two eldest are in the Wind Ensemble.  My son plays percussion and my daughter plays the flute.  Every year, they do a stirring rendition of “Sleigh Ride”, which is actually really good!  I’ll post it here as well, so you get to listen to the fun stuff instead of sitting through all the OTHER performances before my kids took the stage!  This was worth waiting for though.

Conestoga Wind Ensemble

Well I’m feeling a cake and ice cream hangover coming on from all this Birthday celebrating.  We have Birthday cakes all OVER the place!  One on the kitchen counter, one in the extra fridge and one outside in the cold, cold garage!  I always try to do that, hey, dontcha want to SHARE a Birthday cake with each other, thing, but it never seems to go over very well.  So let’s pick a WINNER for tonight so I can go pop some TUMS and snuggle under my double duvet bed covers!

BETSY LYNN!!!  You’re the lucky WINNER!  Send us an email: lizziebgirls@gmail.com with your info!

Keep those comments a’comin’!  We still have 3 days to go.  HOLY COW 3 DAYS!  Yikes.  I gotta get wrappin’!

Do you have a cooking blog that inspires YOU?  Please SHARE!

One thing I LOVE about Christmastime is the lights!!  Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved to see all the holiday lights while driving around town.  It was a big deal… I don’t think we had lights on OUR house til I moved away to college.  Dang!!

Since having kids, and from the time my boys were little, we always had one evening during the holidays that we’d bundle up the jammied kids into the car, let the dog hop in, and we’d drive around to see all the “good” displays of the season.

We’d oooh and ahhh, and drive all around (probably until the kids were yawning and we were guaranteed an easy bedtime).

We would always be amazed by the homes that were just completely covered and lit up with the holiday spirit!

It was an annual tradition!

OK, fast-forward those 4 boys a few years, and you can just IMAGINE the excitement.  Teenagers are kind of hard to bundle up in cute footie-jammies and pile into the car.  But we’d try!  Oh yeah, maybe with a few grumbles and groans, but we knew they really loved it but could not admit it. The dog was ALWAYS happy to venture out, though! When we first moved to Tucson, our oldest was in his first year of high school… so that is when the groaning probably began. That’s when we had to step it up a notch.  As in BRIBERY.  In most parts of the country, that might be the promise of hot cocoa and marshmallows or something to warm ya up at the end of a long night in the car.  But in Tucson, it meant ICE CREAM.   That worked for a few years.

This year, we haven’t had time to fit it in yet.  There’s still this week, though!  Heck, we have all of next week too!!  I mean, no one is on the ball enough to take their lights down at least until New Years.

And, just in case… we do our own light display.  

The boys and I are convinced that their dad is trying to channel Clark Griswold, of Christmas Vacation fame, as he hangs the lights.  His goal is to be first and BEST on the block.  (He was first, all right.  I hadn’t even begun to think about Thanksgiving when the ol’ tubs of lights and extension cords were hauled out onto the driveway.  See, here is where teenage boys and lights DO mix…. bribery too, for that matter.  He had the 16 year old up on the tall, tall ladder doing all the vertical work.  But it was only early November.  We wouldn’t let him flip the switch til at LEAST Thanksgiving week!

And I must admit, it is nice to be welcomed home by festive lights after a long day of errands and Christmas shopping!  Just too bad there are no little ones to bundle up these days…

Hey!  Maybe if we go in search of THESE kind of Christmas lights, I can talk those big ol’ boys of mine into driving ME around this year…

Sooooo…. time for the nightly drawing!!

LIGHTS camera action, drumroll, and a big “come on down” to YOU….JOYFUL QUILTER!!! (Pam….we know that’s you!!)  Congrats.

Keep the comments coming (and we are LOVING all the comments by the way)… we still have this whole pile of presents to divvy up and we need 12 lucky quilters and blog-readers to send ‘em to!  So tell us…. lights on your house, or not?!!

SNOW SNOW SNOW!!!  Yes sirree!  It’s a marshmallow world in the winter here on the east coast, I can tell you that much.  We are getting snow and more snow.  It’s GORGEOUS clinging to the branches and piling up on the evergreens.  I’m just going to riddle my post with pics my lovely daughter took!

Here she is, isn’t she a cutie?  (and she just got her driver’s permit yesterday….oh dear!)

I don’t know how it is for you where you live or if you even GET snow, but we don’t usually get TOO much snow here in PA .  I think when I first moved here in the 80’s they only had 2 snow plows in the whole county!  They have a few more now, but I swear they don’t know what to do with them when snow like THIS hits.  So what happens is there’s a HUGE panic when a storm is looming on the horizon and everyone…..and I mean EVERYONE hits the shops the day before.  Yesterday the parking lots were full, full, full.  Not only at the grocery stores like usual getting stocked up on food, but I think Holiday shoppers were trying to get all their shopping done knowing they would by stuck at home today.  Thank goodness I had the foresight earlier in the week to go to Super Suppers and stock up on dinners for my family to last for the next couple of weeks.  What a relief that is!  To KNOW you have meals made up and all ready to go in your freezer.  It made this week SO much more manageable than last week when I could hardly remember my name let alone what was going to be for dinner!  When I saw my kids making peanut butter sandwiches on corn tortillas because that’s ALL we had, guilt kicked me into gear.  And when the snow started to fall, I didn’t have to panic and run to the store!

My hubby was flying back from Hong Kong last night and I was SO worried he wouldn’t make it before the storm hit since he was flying into JFK in New York.  Luckily, the storm was moving UP the coast and hadn’t hit NY before he arrived.  I was thrilled when I heard the garage door open at 9 am (after I got over my initial fright that someone was breaking in!) I heard his voice and all was right with the world.  Well, MY world at least!

I had the most productive morning….baking cookies I haven’t had time to bake and getting some projects cut out to stitch.  My machine was accumulating too much dust, it needed to be USED!  There are so many things I want to make this time of year and never seem to find the time to do it.  Please tell me I’m not the only one!  Like Beth, I’ve been referred to as the Energizer Bunny as well, but I gotta tell ya, lately I feel like someone’s taken my Energizers and replaced ‘em with a crappy no name brand that runs out of juice way too fast!  Either that or one bunny foot got caught on something and all I seem to do is spin around in circles.  Finally today, I feel like I accomplished something.

Believe it or not we actually DID venture out into the storm.  I mean, that’s why you HAVE  4-wheel drive Suburban right?  The roads were a right mess, but hey, we practically had the mall to ourselves!  We got caught up on some Christmas shopping, had some alone time together and got home in time to pop my ready-made meal into the oven.

(On the 6th day of Christmas…) PANIC sets in.  Really.  I can’t be alone in this, can I?!   Christmas is just ONE week from today, and the time to get it together is NOW. I keep up with my family and friends on Facebook, and SO many of them are dreamily talking of baking, wrapping, watching Christmas movies, peacefully quilting.  Really??  REALLY??

(This is no one I know, but see what I am sayin’?)

Not that I doubt my friends.  I am just wondering how THEY got there, while I am still here.  In a chaotic-looking house.  Piles of laundry and stacks of mail and those darn-cute Christmas cards (from those pesky on-the-ball people!) piled on the kitchen counter.

(This is not MY house…but it’s how it feels to me right now.)

So… still presents to wrap, the Santa list to check once/twice/add to, groceries to buy (holy cow!!  We gotta get some food in here!), Christmas cards to send (look for them in 2010…by December for sure!), and the list goes on.  OH, and add to that… even though the hubby is done workin’ til after the New Year, and the kids are outta school…I still gotta business to take care of and bills to pay and book-keeping to do before Dec. 31st.  Not to mention all the volunteer stuff that I do, that just gets bigger and more important at Christmas time. I know, I know—I’m WHININ’…

(Just like this kid.)

OK, now that I’m done whinin’…. let’s pick a winner from yesterday’s comments!  Raquel in Clovis… it’s YOU!  (And don’t even TELL me if you are totally completely ready for Christmas…)  But we do need your address. Send it to LizzieBgirls@gmail.com.

I just need to go to bed, wake up with a fresh outlook. Sometimes I work well under pressure, sometimes not.  And when THAT happens, I just go to bed.  It always looks better in the mornin’!

And… tomorrow, reinforcements arrive.  My mom and dad.  Who always make it better.

A friend commented today that I am like the Energizer bunny.  Yeah sometimes.  But sometimes, ya gotta just recharge.

It’s time. Jammies…check.  Alarm clock…off.  Lights off…yep.  Zzzzzzz…..

(YAWN…. don’t forget to comment to enter the drawing tomorrow.  Tell us if YOU are ready, a whole week early. It’s OK. I can take it….)

You know what else I love about this time of year???  All the CHRISTMAS CARDS that flood the mailbox!  We get to catch up with friends and family who live near and far.  Don’t you just LOVE getting a Christmas card from a friend you haven’t heard from in a long time?  Ok, so now we have facebook and all sorts of other resources online to keep up with friends year round, but still, there’s just something about receiving a card in the mail, don’t you think?  However, if I get a card with a 10 page missive about a year in the life, you can bet that thing hit the garbage can before the seal was even broken!  One year we got a long, long Christmas letter that described the husband’s finishing up of his 89th journal.  I kid you not!  We thought about sending one out the next year that went something like….”And we both THOUGHT about starting a journal for the 89th time….”  Yeesh! Here’s what our card looks like this year.  The letter was typed inside….written in the voice of our dog Pixie.  She’s not real bright, but she was able to string a few sentences together.

Years ago, I started a little tradition of hanging each card we received on the garland around the banister.  I didn’t know where else to put them all! Now I LOVE my card riddled banister.  I keep the cards even and re-hang them each year.  The cards hold so many memories.

I LOVE looking at this one…..wait until Beth sees it!

Look at those boys!  They’re all grown up now!  That’s why it’s fun to glance at this one every year.  Like I said, SO many memories!  I’m not even sure, but I THINK this is from when Beth still lived in Alabama even.  Wow, how time does fly!

Since I moved to France during my first year of marriage and we stayed there for 10 years, we had to start making our own family traditions.  We had to figure out which of our family traditions we absolutely HAD to continue (like the favorite Christmas cookies Beth spoke of!) and then we had to add some of our own along the way.  It was too expensive to go home every year, especially once we started having kids.  And we soon learned that we weren’t the only one’s missing our families at this time of year.  We decided to invite all our “misfit” friends to our house to celebrate the season.  However, the ticket to the party was to bring a homemade ornament for our tree!  Our tree was so scarce, since we were just starting to make memories.  We thought this was a brilliant idea and hoped it wouldn’t keep people from coming.  We were AMAZED at the thought and creativity that went into each ornament!

Here are a few!  One was hand-stitched with bead ornaments on the tree, I love that she added the date too!  The other is actually an empty whole egg shell (the egg was blown out, of course!) rolled in beads.

This one was made by my brother John who lived in Geneva with us for awhile.  I don’t think I would have survived without him there at that time, I had two little babies a year apart and a husband working on his master’s degree! John made his ornament out of chocolate wrappers and ribbon. I’m sure he’s shocked I still have it!  He made the star out of the name plate from his door with his and his flat mate’s last name.  Look at the detail, with that nice red glitter glue!

But these….THESE are my favorites!!!  One of my very dearest friends (whom I also would never have survived without!) made these one year by taking old Christmas cards and putting my kids faces on them.  I LOVE seeing these every year!  And believe it or not, the kids still INSIST on hanging their own!

Aren’t those the cutest things you’ve ever seen???  They just make me smile.  They really do!  So, back to my tradition….all our friends would come to our house bearing these awesome ornaments for our tree.  We’d sit around and tell favorite Christmas stories or share memories of Christmases past.  Of course, the tunes would be playing in the background, then everyone took turns showing their ornaments and hanging them on the tree.  I learned how to make a traditional Bouche de Noel (Yule Log), and since we couldn’t actually buy eggnog in stores there, I had to learn how to make that too!!!  I had lots of hits and misses, but finally worked THAT recipe to perfection!  After the ornament hanging, we’d all enjoy a slice of Yule Log and a cup of eggnog together.  What wonderful memories!

All those dear friends are scattered near and far now.  But we still exchange cards each year and try to see each other whenever we can.  My friend that made me those fabulous cards with my kids faces is also the one who gave me the plaque I posted a picture of at the top.

“Friends are the family one finds along the way”

I’m thankful for the many, many friends who have touched my life over the years and for the big huge family we’ve all become.

(sniff, sniff!)

AND NOW…..let’s  draw another name for our 5th Day of Christmas!  Are you feeling lucky???  Ok…closing my eyes, drawing a name…and the winner is…..

PATSI FOUNTAINE!!!  You know the drill, send us an email so we can send you a fabulous gift!

And remember everyone, keep those comments a comin’….you could be a lucky winner too!  I’d love to hear about YOUR favorite traditions.  Please share!