Merry Christmas Everyone, and Gifts!

Our family has had the most wonderful Christmas this year. We spent so much time with family. I stayed at my mom's house until 1 A.M. Christmas Eve with my brother and s-i-l, sister, niece, daughter, and mom. We put a puzzle together, which has become an annual tradition for us. I went home, put together a breakfast casserole for Christmas morning, and went to bed. Of course, Joy and John Owen were up at 6:30 A.M. to see what Santa brought. They received everything they asked for and were very happy. I received some nice punchneedle supplies!! I have started my very first punchneedle project, because I don't have enough quilting projects going on, I have to bring in something else.



The best part of gift opening for me was that I FINALLY got to open my gifts from my Secret Santa Christmas Swap partner, Jodie!! Jodie you have outdone yourself. I could not believe how many Caramel Koalas I got either. Each item was individually wrapped and contained a Caramel Koala from Cadbury's. Of course, they were immediately devoured and are simply delish!!! You can see that there is a beautiful tea towel, a bag with matching eyeglasses case (although it could be used for a rotary cutter), an Aussie pen to wear, and a Gold Coast calendar. I just love everything - I lucked up and got a really wonderful swap partner. Thank you so much Jodie!!
The next "I can't wait to open it" gift came from Karol-Ann in England. Karol-Ann sent me several different Liberty of London fabrics. I never thought I would own any of this fabric, which costs around $40 a yard here in the States. Karol-Ann has sent me several pieces and it is unbelievably beautiful and has such a soft hand to it. Thank you, thank you, thank you Karol-Ann. My sister was here when I opened it and was coveting the fabric - ha ha. Too bad!
The last, but certainly not least, "I can't wait to open it" gift was from Razzie in Tassie (Roseanne in Tasmania.) Roseanne is such a sweetheart. She sent me a photo album - and I think she made it herself - so cute! She also sent a Tasmanian Devil pen, an Australia magnet, and a tea towel with an appliqued angel. It is so pretty - I now have a beautiful tea towel collection. I have never seen a souvinir tea towel here in the States. If I ever do I will have to send it to my Australian friends for their collections.
I am going to add my photos now. I have been having trouble lately doing that and have yet to get up the nerve to try using Flickr for this. I hope Blogger cooperates, but if the photos are in no particular order and in funny locations, it is Blogger's fault and I hope you will excuse it!
Merry Christmas to everyone and here's to a brand new year of blogging. Oh wait! I just realized, today is my first anniversary - or Blogaversary!!! I started this one year ago on Christmas Day! I should have thought of having a giveaway but didn't. I am going to have one for my 100th post so if you have made it this far to the bottom of this lengthy (for me) post, this is your heads up!!
Julie

Let the Holidays Begin!

We are finally out of school for Christmas holidays. I feel like it is REALLY Christmas now. Here is a photo of our tree. We put it up right after Thanksgiving (at my children's insistence) and have been enjoying it since then.
Here is Cabalito, the trusted assistant. He makes sure we do everything right. He is such a good boy! Oh, I forgot, he was a bad boy last night. He found a giant Hershey's kiss (the really huge novelty size), that my daughter didn't know was in her room, last night. He ate some of it and was running around with it in his mouth. It was almost as big as his head. Since chocolate is poisonous to dogs we were a little concerned and had to catch him to take it away. But he is fine.
I made this small quilt several years ago. I could not resist because it says "Joy" and my daughter's name is Joy. I love that the letters are made from Christmas objects.
Isn't my Christmas cactus beautiful? I bought it this year and it has bloomed constantlIy for about two weeks now. I have four different colors now. Red, fuchsia, lavendar, and white.
I found out last night that my SSCS benefactor is Jodie B. from Australia. I cannot wait to open my gift but I am holding out until Christmas Day. Jodie, if you are reading this, I cannot tell you how excited I am!! I will post photos of the gift as soon as I open it.
Julie