Friday, November 27, 2009

Tis the Season


Actually I mean quilting season!
I do very little sewing in the summer
and I'm happy to hear the old familiar hum
of my vintage bernina .
My turkey was a disaster & I'm glad
to have all that grease behind me! My dh &
ds were deserving of Oscars for their praise &
endless compliments, so I am thankful for them!!
This is a little flip & stitch project from holiday blog hop.
No sandwiching & even the binding was all machine.
I'm going to put my holiday lapel pins on it.
Now back to my Buggy Barn Stars using fabrics from
my stash.
My only Black Friday shopping was online. I got the DVD
UP on blu-ray for 19.00 plush free shipping . I created a
free 8X10 collage on Walgreens web site . Amazon has
some free MP3 downloads & 3 & 5 dollars full CD's.

I can't get the picture of Marion on the beach out of my head,
how wonderful!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

and 45minutes in the other direction....

You can see that I've got " time on my hands" at the moment !! All this playing around on the computer. Fact is , I have finished a Christmas wall hanging, started many years ago, and am reluctant to start anything else at this time of the year !

Anyway... Jane is quite right. NZ. is a beautiful country and small too. The Sth Island (where I live) is narrow and we have the sea 25minutes in one direction and the mountains 45 minutes in the other direction. I have lived here for 47yrs and just love it.. I came from the centre of England where we were lucky to visit the sea (for a day !)once a year and rarely got to see any mountains.. England has it's own beauty ofcourse, and I've been fortunate enough to return there on a fairly regular basis, but I do love my adopted land .... When I have had family visiting from overseas , I usually take them through the mountains, over to the West Coast , down to the glaciers and then through another Mountain Pass to the Southern Lakes and home again. All possible in the space of four or five days..

I hope that Thankgiving Day went well for our American friends and that everyone travelled safely.

Marion.

Holiday Dessert

The pumpkin mouse isn't too good. I think next year I will make a pumpkin mousse.

Jane

To my American Friends

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Jean

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

HEMISPHERES


View on my driveway about a month ago. Leaves are all gone or, to be more accurate, on my porch.
MARION, I think I'll live here in the southern Appalachians from March to December and move in with you for January and February. How does that sound? I've always wanted to see NZ and have come to long for the trip. You have the best of both worlds, mountains and beach. I love both. Just think, I almost married a guy from Nebraska in the middle of prairie. I think they'd have had to put me in the rubber room if I'd lived there. Your pictures just blow me away. When my ship comes in or someone leaves a box full of money on my doorstep I'll show up on your doorstep.

My Thanksgiving prep is limited to the purchase of a bottle of wine and today's chore of making a Weight Watcher pumpkin mouse. The hostess is a hugely obese woman who has been an invalid for five years but has now had the heretofore overlooked medical problems repaired and is walking with a cane and so pleased that she insists on preparing the dinner. She and her husband are among my favorite neighbors so I'll take my chances with the food heavily laden full of fat and sugar. She was a mere 250 lbs. when the medical problems started.

I considered driving the 850 miles to Rochester to be with DD and DGKs but that Prius slips and slides on my gravel driveway sometimes so I can't risk heading into possible snow. Flying is such a drag. Rail travel, unless you want to sit up in a coach on the over night leg of the trip, is prohibitively costly. I hurt enough in the morning after sleeping in my own bed.

Best get chores done so I can spend some time on DD#2's late wedding quilt. Hope I finish it before I die of old age.

Jane

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

News from Down Under..

Nice day here today so DH and I made a picnic lunch and took the dog down to the beach. (25minute drive from here..)
We had it to ourselves and enjoyed a good walk before coming home.
Thankgiving sounds to be a very busy time for all involved. Lots of travelling and lots of eating and little more than a month to go before you all do it again for Christmas ! Enjoy !
All is well here. Really good to be feeling fit again after the shingles. Busy getting the Christmas mail away to UK. There's talk of mail strikes over there so I'm wondering if it will get delivered.
The garden has been looking very colourful but is starting to dry off now that the warmer weather is here. Neighbours are growing Peonies for export and have been selling "rejects"at the gate. They are lovely and have given me so much pleasure as I've watched them opening and changing colour. Picked my first bunch of Sweet Peas this morning so you can see it's all happening down here !
Enjoy the day.
Marion.

Follow up on Thanksgiving

Whew! After cooking and cleaning for 2 days we had our early Thanksgiving dinner Sunday evening. Had 12 people total, and now am putting dishes, silverware, etc. away. The nice thing about inviting people to your house is that you can invite who you want. We had a widow lady from the neighborhood, 3 adults singles, a good GF who was recently divorced, and 2 couple we are close to.
The bad thing is all the cooking and cleaning. It is fun to get out the silverware that I inherited and use it. Same with china.
The second good part is that we are now going to Daytona for 4 and 1/2 days to chill and look at old cars and relax. Every year Datona has the "Turkey Rod Run" a convention of old cars, 57 Chevys, little duce cupes, etc. There are several car clubs that do this every year. We just watch.
I'm going to take long walks on the beach and relax.
SARAH PALIN--got to meet her and shake hands this morning. Stood in line for 4 hrs. yesterday for the wrist band, I was #410 of 500. She signed my 2 books. Met her 2 youngest kids and shook hands with her Mom and Dad. It's nice to meet someone who thinks like me, and isn't a snob.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Sandra of SC. My brother was born on Christmas eve, he only had 2 or 3 birthday parties. I gave him one when he turned 18.
He will be 64 this year.
Hope everyone has a restful, blessed Thanksgiving. Don't eat too much pie and stay healthy. Hope to have DH take his laptop to the beach so maybe I can check in from there.
Sara in Fla.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Thanksgiving Past

I apologize if this shows up twice. It said it was posted, but I never saw it so I've done it again.

Growing up we always met at my paternal grandmother’s home. After we got married we would trade off at my parents home and then his parents home each year. Eleven years after we were married we moved three hours away and still were expected to do all the traveling back and forth. We managed to do this until my husband took a church 13 hours away.

On Nov.17, 1995 my father-in-law died and we came home for his funeral and to stay over for Thanksgiving, which was seven days later.

My parents lived one hour from his and my father expected us for Thanksgiving dinner at noon. Mine you now, he and my whole family knew that my husband’s father had just died and was buried. We were grieving, especially my husband. Also, my birthday fell on Thanksgiving Day that year. My parents had always had birthday dinners for the other family members. Since nothing had been said about my birthday and with it being on a holiday, plus the fact that it had been a very long time since we had all been together; I
had begun to think and hope that they were planning a surprise birthday for me. I had only had two birthday cakes in my life up till then (38 years old).

Imagine my hurt and anger when as we walked through the back door at about 12:25 we see that everyone has either finished eating or are almost done. I asked my father, “You knew we were on our way, could you not wait a few minutes for us?” His reply was, “When I say noon, I mean noon.” We allowed the children to eat because we had a long drive before us. We didn’t though, neither did we speak to anyone either. When the children had finished we packed up and left for our long drive back to Ohio. No mention was made of the funeral, my birthday, etc. I cried for hours because of the hurt they inflicted on us. How can people be so unfeeling?

If life has taught me anything, it has taught me that I can hope for and to expect the best to a point, but also that the chances of it happening are next to zero.

We are all scattered now so hubby and I still celebrate the holidays, we just do it alone and quietly.

I wish for all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with your family and friends.

Sandra from SC

Growing up we always met at my paternal grandmother’s home. After we got married we would trade off at my parents home and then his parents home each year. Eleven years after we were married we moved three hours away and still were expected to do all the traveling back and forth. We managed to do this until my husband took a church 13hours away.

On Nov.17, 1995 my father-in-law died and we came home for his funeral and to stay over for Thanksgiving, which was seven days later.

My parents lived one hour from his and my father expected us for Thanksgiving dinner at noon. Mine you now, he and my whole family knew that my husband’s father had just died and was buried. We were grieving, especially my husband. Also, my birthday fell on Thanksgiving Day that year. My parents had always had birthday dinners for the other family members. Since nothing had been said about my birthday and with it being on a holiday, plus the fact that it had been a very long time since we had all been together; I had begun to think and hope that they were planning a surprise birthday for me. I had only had two birthday cakes in my life up till then (38 years old).

Imagine my hurt and anger when as we walked through the back door at about 12:25 we see that everyone has either finished eating or are almost done. I asked my father, “You knew we were on our way, could you not wait a few minutes for us?” His reply was, “When I say noon, I mean noon.” We allowed the children to eat because we had a long drive before us. We didn’t though, neither did we speak to anyone either. When the children had finished we packed up and left for our long drive back to Ohio. No mention was made of the funeral, my birthday, etc. I cried for hours because of the hurt they inflicted on us. How can people be so unfeeling?

If life has taught me anything, it has taught me that I can hope for and to expect the best to a point, but also that the chances of it happening are next to zero.

We are all scattered now so hubby and I still celebrate the holidays, we just do it alone and quietly.

I all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with your family and friends.

Sandra from SC

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Prep'ing for Thanksgiving

Joleen, your plans sounds absolutely wonderful. Wish we'd thought of starting something like that years ago. :-) Oh well, we make do with the usual - turkey, special family rice dressing, a family mustard recipe, cranberries, some sort of potatoes, etc. etc. Plus sugar free pumpkin pie as my DH is diabetic. He loves pumpkin pie and found he can follow the recipe on the can but use low-fat and sugar free (Splenda) ingredients to make it easier on him.

I feel lucky as my family isn't into sports so the TV issue has never been a problem at any of our family events. Thank goodness! I'm with the rest of you, if family is together then TV should be off. Unless that is what everyone wants. Just can't imagine trying to enjoy a huge gathering and meal while trying to talk over a TV. Gads.

T-day is here this year. I'm doing the usual cleaning before the day. Times like this I wish I had some sort of routine in place to keep the house tidy at all times. I've tried Flylady but it's a bit too much for me. In times of need, though, I use it as a guide for a bit to get myself through to a tidier home. :-)

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Hugz from Mary in Oregon

Sunday morning

Hi , I just read Jane's post and it reminds me of an incident on Thanksgiving many years back. We went to my mothers for T day and my step-father had the football game on and was going to watch it during dinner. I said I only come here once a year for a meal and if we are not going to visit with each other whats the point. I walked out and did not stay for dinner. My brother followed me. Neither of us are football fans. It never happend again. The TV was turned off when we went for dinner. Mom has sinced passed and I did T day here with our kids. All the usual stuff. Then three years ago my son and DDIL took over as there house is much bigger. With 25 people we make quite a group. And no TV is on. So turkey, pumpkin and apple pie, homemade cranberry relish, mashed potatoes, squash, homemade rolls, and lots of laughter etc. A great day. Marge