Christmas Presence

Christmas Presence


I wish for you, all around you,
People who love easily and forgive quickly,
Whose eyes are stars when you are night,
Whose voices are trumpets when you are silence.
I wish for you people all about you who are gifts in themselves
And whose presence in your life is an all year-round present.

-James H. Curtis (1931-1973)
Unitarian Minister

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Celebrations

On Sunday, December 8th, my wonderful sister, Suzanne, and her beloved husband, William took Ilse and me to a bell ringer's concert at a local church. Here is Ilse going into the church.

The music was lovely; all Christmas selections and played on 154 hand bells and 85 chimes.

They did the Carol Of The Bells, and also my favorite, Bring A Torch, Jeanette Isabella, an old French carol.

My dear friend, Ila, from Illinois, sent me this huge box of perfect pears. Thank you, Ila!

At the Senior Center, Meb was running a string block workshop for us and it was great fun to see all the scraps!

I brought in a couple of string quilts to show what the finished blocks can look like.

Whenever I'm making string quilts from various scraps, I like to use one color or one fabric on the center strip to unify the quilt. Can you tell that I love red?

At the Golden Gese Quilt Shop, Maureen was finishing up her matching placemats and table runner from a jelly roll. These look great!

Then, on Thursday, I took Ilse to the Senior Center for their lovely holiday meal of Chicken Cordon Blue.

Someone had made a Santa party favor for each guest from needlepoint. Aren't they cute?

The table was very festive,too.

As we dined on our feast, the Meals On Wheels Band played and sang Christmas carols.

It was a good meal and a fun day out and I'm glad that we enjoyed good weather for it.

My two sisters keep me consoled that Felix is not here and my many loving friends are a true gift.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Already December!

Thanks to my dear friends, Dick and Grace, I celebrated a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at their house with my neighbor, Ilse, and her two house guests, Rosie and Leon. They set the perfect table for us.

Here are our host and hostess, Dick and Grace.

We enjoyed each other's company and had a lively game of trying to name all the Democratic candidates.

Nobody could get all of them and a few have dropped out since then.

Their little Bichon Frise, "Ziggy," kept us laughing with his antics.

It was so good to be with friends on my first holiday without Felix.

Then, on Saturday, I took myself to Keepsake Quilting's retail store which is about 30 miles away, for their 40% off moving sale. They are going to close the New Hampshire store and consolidate to their North Carolina headquarters. I'm sorry to see them go!

I got there early in the day but it was already mobbed! I waited for half an hour in a line that snaked through the store just to get to the cutting tables.

There was another 20 minute wait to get to the checkout, too.

When, at last, I was able to leave with my treasures, I stopped off at The Canoe restaurant for lunch of my favorite, their lobster/mac/cheese dish.

Their portions are huge! After eating all I could, I still took home the other half of the dish for a meal at home.

I liked the sash that they tied up my bag with at Keepsake. It's a pretty French blue.

These are the fabrics that I bought and I got enough to make a raft of pretty pillowcases for my family at Christmas time.

My bill for fabrics was under $60 for ten yards worth, so I think that I did well and no shipping fees, either.

We had two days of snow, 6 inches on Monday, then another 6 inches on Tuesday. My wonderful local plow guy got me all plowed out nicely, so I'm good!

Hope you had a lovely holiday and are now quilting up a storm!