Spending time with Santa
Christmas
A twist on ‘Sharing Sunday’
Our “twist” to our church’s event this year was all the gifts purchased were for babies about eight months old. Yep … we are getting in some practice on what it will be like being grandparents. Our first will be born in May … so by next Christmas we will have an eight-month-old bouncing on our knees.
I wrote a column this week about this very subject for my newspaper (www.ourtribune.com) with lots more words … no photographs … because that is what columns are … lots of words. You can also check it out on the “You Gotta Laugh” tab of this blog in case you are interested.
I love my Christmas LED lights!
“I have them all over my house. I love them,” Gwenn said.
Since I don’t frequent hardware establishments unless hubby gives me a very detailed list, I didn’t have a clue what they were. Bells went off in my head as I looked at our mantle … decorated … but certainly lacking in the “sparkle” arena. Note the “before” and “after” shots.
My only complaint with the LED lights I purchased is you have to have a very teeny tiny cross-point (Philips) screwdriver (not included in the box). I struggled with my tiny sewing machine (common) screwdriver for 45 minutes before my husband came home from work. Give me a sewing machine over a screwdriver any day. I did get two screws out, but it was a struggle. Also, each LED strand requires 4 AA batteries.
Bottom line … love the lights! Get some before they run out!
Poinsettias for a good cause
I’ve been in the Christmas spirit for nearly a week. So if you catch me humming a little Christmas tune in the grocery store … just pinch me and I promise to stop. Just finished putting the finishing touches on our home for Christmas. No presents under the tree yet. UPS and FedEx are busy assisting with that project.
The last decorating issue was the purchase of several lovely poinsettias. I bought them the other day at the Brookwood Store in Old Town Spring. The shop is open year-round, but really sparkles this time of year. They sell flowers, plants, garden statues and lots of interesting handcrafted gifts. Did I mention the poinsettias come in several different “flavors” with names like Red Glitter, Ice Crystal Pink, good old dependable red, pink, white and sometimes even exotic poinsettias called Monet and da Vinci? What I wouldn’t give to be a lady bug on the glass ceiling of their greenhouses!
Brookwood (www.brookwoodcommunity.org) also has lovely retail stores located in Brookshire, Houston, Spring, and Katy all benefitting adults with special needs. It’s an organization with a mission near and dear to my heart. They have a residential facility and vocational program located 40 miles west of Houston. I used to dream that it would be a place our Mimi would someday thrive when hubby and I were too old and crackled to care for her. That special place has yet to be revealed.
So for now … we joyfully wait … for the reason for the season!
Talented ladies sew for St. Martha Fall Festival
I can’t recall how many years I’ve been spending time with some amazing ladies at our church, but Wednesday is my favorite day of the week. Generally, we are all about creating lap-sized quilts that are blessed by one of our awesome priests for the ill in our parish. The ladies of St. Martha’s Prayer Quilt Ministry have also been sewing and stitching and creating for the past several months for this year’s St. Martha Fall Festival. It is being held this Saturday, October 26, from 3 to 8 p.m. at our new church campus. Come visit our booth where we will have such handcrafted items for sale as machine-pieced and tied lap quilts, wine gift bags and pillow cases made by Angela, tooth fairy pillows, receiving blankets and bibs, Christmas ornaments, seasonal table runners, religious bookmarks, lovely crocheted throws by Gina and Sid, Debbie’s delightful bun warmers, headbands, awesome knitted and crocheted items by Jacqueline, doll clothes made lovingly by our crafty Helaine out of St. Martha School uniform fabric, Sally’s adorable child’s tote bags, a couple of Cabbage Patch dolls decked out in St. Martha School uniforms, cute little St. Martha School purses and so much more. All monies benefit our prayer quilt ministry!
My happy place is a quilt shop
So this particular quilt was created with a disappearing nine patch pattern from my stash of Christmas fabrics. Easy and breezy! I promise to blog about the pattern in a future post. My friend Debbie demonstrated the pattern one day at Prayer Quilt Ministry. She is awesome! It’s my new favorite pattern if you need to create a quilt top quickly.
So last night I pulled out some of the larger fabric pieces from my personal stash that would be enough to bind the quilt. For you non-quilters, the “binding” is the edging that finishes off the quilt. One-half yard is about the right size but my options were limited. I didn’t like the all-over candy cane fabric for the quilt. And the batik with the red and white berries wasn’t speaking to me either.
It’s why today I traveled to The Quilt Room, http://www.thequiltroomhuffman.com, to purchase some binding fabric. The ladies are so nice at The Quilt Room and are always up for pulling down bolts of fabric for auditioning purposes. Adela helped me pull some Christmas fabrics over to the cutting table so we could figure out if any had potential. Laura, who also works at The Quilt Room chimed in with a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down. I came out of there one happy Girl Scout camper with a half-yard of dark green foliage and tiny red berry fabric. Let the binding begin!
Santa reflections
A couple of days before Christmas I saw him sitting on his throne at the mall. Nothing super unusual about that … except for the thousand very patient people in line waiting their turn. Perhaps the most unusual sighting for me was the grocery store. Actually, I never “saw” him with my own eyeballs but the announcement over the loud speaker spoke for itself. It was the same grocery store that a Facebook friend commented seeing an especially handsome Santa hangin’ out in our local Kroger.
“Would Mr. Claus please return to Customer Service for a message,” the voice boomed.
Oh, and did I mention Santa made a stop on Christmas Eve at our house. Mimi has an especially large lumpy spot in her heart for the bearded fellow. Always has. Most parents have that one special photograph of their little crying child sitting on Santa’s lap. Not so with Mimi.
Our son is a different story! Ricky was probably two when we hit the mall for our annual Santa photo. The two older girls went first as a reluctant Ricky watched. Katie sat on one of Santa’s knees and Mimi on the other. There were lots of smiles and laughter! We actually have much the same photograph of Ricky. Ricky is wailing on one of Santa’s knees and my husband is on the other knee. I offered to buy Santa a six-pack of ear plugs. He just shook his head and smiled.
“It comes with the job,” he whispered.
Since 2007 Santa has been parking his sleigh out in front of our house so he can get his annual “Mimi hug.” Mimi and Santa met at a Christmas party when I was working in the back office of a hotel several years back. He’s been coming to our house on Christmas Eve ever since. The photos don’t capture the lingering embrace and the way Mimi pats Santa on the back as they hug. But you get the gist.
Our “Sharing Sunday” tradition
The beauty of a blog is having the ability to tell the story with words and pictures. I’m not used to that luxury with writing a column for a newspaper. So let’s see what happens with this week’s post!
Every year for about the past 30 years, St. Martha Catholic Church in Kingwood, Texas has had a special weekend in mid-December called “Sharing Sunday.” The gist is parishioners bring mostly gifts, and some groceries, to church. We wrap and tag them with age and gender and bring them up during the offertory. I mean … a boy wouldn’t want to get a baby doll if you know what I mean.
This year the gifts were to benefit 14 local parishes in the Houston area, as well as the needy in our own parish. It is quite a sight to see hundreds of wrapped presents, stuffed animals, bikes and sacks of food stacked in front of the altar and around the church. Our special needs daughter used to point and say “mine,” but not this year. Mimi has her mind focused on “Ho-Ho.”
Our family starts saving for the next “Sharing Sunday” on December 26, by collecting loose change in the empty glass milk jugs that rest next to the microwave. By the time we feed the CoinStar machine the coins almost always total 100 bucks. This year hubby went along for the first time to see how the entire process of purchasing gifts works. I gave him camera duty so he could pay his way.
Next we were off to On the Park, a local Kingwood toy/candy store. I like to use local businesses, and the friendly owner, Fred, is always up for some fun small talk. This year we talked politics for about 30 minutes right next to the stuffed Frosty the Snowman. The other benefit of On the Park is they will wrap everything and I’m a certified terrible package wrapper. Just ask my kids.
“Mom wrapped this one, right?” Katie and Ricky have been known to say on many occasions.
Rick followed me around the store pointing out toys he thought kids would like. I turned down everything with a large price tag. My goal is to purchase as many fun toys as I can for a reasonable price. Did you know “Melissa and Doug” gifts are hot gifts for kids? Who knew? Not me … I’m still waiting for grandkids. We walked out with a dozen nice gifts and can’t wait for next year. Sharing … it’s another reason for the season.
Its Christmas ladies sew let’s party
I have belonged to a Prayer Quilt Ministry at our church for the past five years. We make prayer quilts for the sick of our parish and have quite an operation. Around 60 prayer quilts each year are blessed by one of our parish priests and given to ill parishioners. Most every Wednesday we laugh … sometimes we cry … we always pray … and sew.
There are a couple of tables on one side of the room with a nest of ladies hand sewing bindings down and prayer pockets on the back. On the other side there is a group of tables with two or three sewing machines humming along way over the legal speed limit. They are creating quilt tops and machine stitching bindings. There is another table where the three layers of a quilt are being tied. And we’ve got this awesome station where the ironing gets done. Our fabulous Helaine custom-made this huge heat-resistant cover for one of the tables. You can have dueling irons working at the same time.
Now I know my husband “follows” my blog and there is no way he understood what I just wrote. He thinks I knit quilts together. It is okay sweetie … you are not supposed to know about that kind of stuff.
So today we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the group and had a Christmas Party. Hey … we are ladies … we like to party. It’s in our DNA. Of course there was food involved complete with festive centerpieces and tablecloths. Can’t have a party without the proper décor. Betty came prepared with a couple of Christmas games she found on-line that was a crowd pleaser. No acts of sewing were accomplished but we connected and celebrated the reason for the season … the upcoming birth of our Lord.
Life's Loose Threads 