Black Friday

Dateline: Friday, 5am. Mission: sale shopping at WalMart, Kohls, Joannes and ToyRUs. Diagnosis: CRAZY!!

Four hours of traffic, crowds, waiting in long lines, but happily, some really good sales and the items we were looking for. Em, Jill and I have survived Black Friday and lived to tell about it. Photo above was a particularly good score late in the AM by Jill. And as you can see below, by the immediate assembly, it was never wrapped and did not make it under the tree (which has not been put up yet).

At the end of the day, M and his folks came over to put another good housekeeping seal of approval on the kitchen and to donate some "food" items from M's birthday stash. I took a little time to make some progress on the quilt as you can see by the stack of triangles below. I hope to get the rest of the top assembled today.

Thanksgiving '08

On Wednesday evening the Lopez' joined us
for dinner, we had pizza and calzone.

Today, M had lots of fun playing with Soren......

..and A.

L loved seeing everyone.

Final prep just before eating.

Our buffet table. Bill and Tam did a great job,

everything was wonderful.

L liked the steam from the boiling potatoes,

just like Thomas' smoke stack.

Turkey Talk

Just finished loading the car with paraphernalia for the annual Turkey Day at work. This is the kick-off to lots of events and farewells(retirements) as well as the family holiday get togethers. It all seems to zip by in light speed from here to the first of the year.

Good news; bad news day. The good news: we picked up a new - used caravan for a song! Its a beaut and Gregg will be traveling a good deal more safely and comfortably to work. Bad news: PT is sickie, but not un-driveable. Hate to feel "taken" at the dealership. So will see what my buds at the Rosewood Garage can do for me over in Jenison.

We'll try to post photos soon, but these dark days of winter already are so short...its hard to find time to do this in daylight! Will wait for holiday when we all travel to Holland for Turkey Day together in the new van!

Safe travels to all who are heading out in search of family, food and fun for the Holiday!

This humble, but well-traveled box contained an exer-saucer that
MJ and I brought to Mexico with us 2 years ago at Christmas.
We had connection problems in Mexico City and we were told
that most of our luggage, and this box would meet us in Morelia,
sometime in the future. Gregg had to go back through Immigration,
up stream if you will, to claim some of our bags. While waiting for
the bags to come out of a door and swing around on a conveyor,
Gregg spotted this box. OMG, what a wonderful sight.
Gregg will never forget this box.

L this morning.

L eating a snack after going shopping with the
other ladies of the house/block.

M helping Grandpa cutting cabbage for dinner.

M prepping papas for dinner.


Checo making a new shelf for MJ. This build, when finished, will be my new sewing/craft closet. I hope to be able to close it off when not in use and keep my fabric stash in view and inspiring. Thanks for all your hard work, Checo! I'm sure I'll be "moved in" and using it by the holiday weekend, when I hope to finish piecing a quilt for work (to be raffled off), made from old uniforms. Stay tuned for the "after photo" of both projects - the closet and the quilt.

7 degrees of separation

Here's a post to all those stiched-inclined out there. I was looking for links to purchase a book by a gifted quilter, Siegerd Schoen Smith (above)and found this interesting link to a history of the famous Hummel figurines. If you read through (the story is really interesting), you'll see a reference to Smith as the original model for one of the Hummel figures when she was just a small child. http://www.americancatholic.org/messenger/Aug1997/feature2.asp

J and I drove home from Detroit through blustery snowflakes and arrived home to see the ground covered with a dusting of snow! What better weather to start a new quilt or knitting project?

I have tomorrow off work for Veterans Day and hope to spend some time working on a quilt for work using old uniforms. I'm inspired by the detail of this intricate quilt. And also think it would be interesting to see how often other quilts or needlework leads to a famous person or event.

M Helping With The Yard Work

L's Second First Birthday Party

L needed a bit of help blowing out her candle, but
really enjoyed her party today. M helped out again,
delivering and opening presents; as well as testing a few,
like this saw; it worked well on the little girl blocks.

She got lots of very nice presents, including these
little girl Lego type blocks.

She received some classics to read, or be read to.