Christmas Gifts to Indulge My Stitching Passion

This year, I had asked both my husband and my daughter to consult the wish list on my blog when purchasing Christmas gifts for me. And, those darling people did just that. Pictured to the left are Zucca from Allessandre Adelaide Needleworks, The Pumpkin Conspiracy from the Cricket Collection, The Goblin Market from Counted Illuminations and The Book of Spells from the Goode Huswife. Pictured to the right are The Library from LHN, The Tea Party from The Victoria Sampler, The Owl and the Wyvern from Arelate Studio and Celtic Beasties: Halloween or Knot from Ink Circles. These were all left under my tree by my darling husband along with a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble and another to Pamper Yourself, a local day spa. I haven't exchanged gifts with my daughter yet but she had me take Teresa Wentzler's Tracery Dragons off my wish list. I am looking forward to unwrapping that chart as well. I shall have plenty of Halloween and fantasy stitching to keep me busy in 2010. I am one very lucky lady.

And here are some Christmas Day photos of the grandchildren.

Liam is playing with the Brio train set that brought his Dad and his Uncle Dan so many hours of pleasure when they were little. I went to some considerable trouble and pain [... I may still think I am 19 but my knees know better] to set the tracks up in an elaborate double figure 8 with the suspension bridge and the locomotive turntable and the tunnel all in place. I should have remembered that I was dealing with a two year old who prefers his tracks mostly piled up high with just a bit of track laid for travel. He brought his Thomas, Victor and Percy locomotives which apparently run on the same gauge track and promptly christened the Brio locomotive as the "old" train since Daddy had played with it. After Christmas, I'll be packing the train and tracks up to send out to the West Coast for Liam to enjoy year-round ... I will enjoy imagining him pushing the trains around the tracks with his usual exuberance. He has quite the imagination. At one point, he grabbed the passenger terminal, whooshed it through the air and informed us that the rocketship was flying very fast.

At just six months, Piper doesn't do much more than smile and look adorable ... unless she is living up to my private nickname for her, Vesuvius ... the child spits up at least half the milk she takes in even though Christina [my DIL] always feeds her in a quiet spot away from all the noise and fuss and holds her still and gently afterwards. The relatives who thought it would be fun to bounce the baby up and down on their knees soon wished they had followed Christina's advice. There were a number of calls for wet towels and burping clothes. Here she is resting on her grandfather's chest. Bill has definitely fallen in love with his little grand-daughter ... I think he finds her a relaxing change from Liam who is very "high energy" like most every two year old I have known. Bill loves his children and grandchildren very much but cringes when I cheerfully agree to babysit ... he grew up in a very small family [just his sister and 1 first cousin, neither of whom married] whereas I was the oldest of 21 in my generation [siblings and 1st cousins] and I count 16 nieces and nephews as well as my 3 children in the next generation. I can't remember a time when I wasn't surrounded by chaos and he, poor soul, can't cope with anything but peace and quiet. And while peace and quiet don't exactly surround Liam, I have to say, my grandson is a remarkably well-behaved and intelligent and interesting little guy ... I am afraid Bill just isn't used to small people anymore.